The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie (original title)

Director:

Luis Buñuel

Writers:

Luis Buñuel (written by)
Jean-Claude Carrière (written by)

Release Date:

22 October 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Fantasy

Plot:

A surreal, virtually plotless series of dreams centered around six middle-class people and their consistently interrupted attempts to have a meal together.

Plot Keywords:

Dream | Class | Dinner | Heroin | Flashback

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 9 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Fernando Rey	...	Don Rafael Acosta
Paul Frankeur	...	M. Thevenot
Delphine Seyrig	...	Simone Thévenot
Bulle Ogier	...	Florence
Stéphane Audran	...	Alice Sénéchal (as Stephane Audran)
Jean-Pierre Cassel	...	Henri Sénéchal
Julien Bertheau	...	Mgr Dufour
Milena Vukotic	...	Ines
Maria Gabriella Maione	...	Guerilla
Claude Piéplu	...	Colonel
Muni	...	Peasant
Pierre Maguelon	...	Sgt de police
François Maistre	...	Delecluze
Michel Piccoli	...	Ministre
Ellen Bahl
Christian Baltauss
Olivier Bauchet
Robert Benoît
Anne-Marie Deschodt
Jean-Michel Dhermay		(as Michel Dhermay)
Georges Douking	...	Jardinier
Jean Degrave
Sébastien Floche
François Guilloteau
Claude Jaeger
Jean-Claude Jarry
Pierre Lary
Robert Le Béal	...	Couturier (as Robert Le Beal)
Alix Mahieux
Bernard Musson	...	Serveur
Maxence Mailfort	...	Sergent qui raconte ses rêves
Robert Party
Jean Revel
Jacques Rispal	...	Un gendarme
Amparo Soler Leal		(as Amparo Soler-Leal)
Diane Vernon
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Madeleine Bouchez	...	Une cliente du salon de thé (uncredited)
Roger Caccia	...	Le pianiste du salon de thé (uncredited)

Directed by
Luis Buñuel		(as Luis Bunuel)

Writing credits
Luis Buñuel		(written by) (as Luis Bunuel) &
Jean-Claude Carrière		(written by)

Produced by
Serge Silberman	....	producer

Cinematography by
Edmond Richard

Film Editing by
Hélène Plemiannikov

Art Direction by
Pierre Guffroy

Costume Design by
Jacqueline Guyot

Makeup Department
Odette Berroyer	....	makeup artist
Fernande Hugi	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Ulrich Picard	....	production manager (as Ully Pickard)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Arnie Gelbart	....	assistant director
Pierre Lary	....	assistant director

Art Department
Albert Rajau	....	assistant decorator
François Sune	....	property master
René Ferracci	....	poster designer (uncredited)

Sound Department
Daniel Brisseau	....	sound assistant
Luis Buñuel	....	sound effects (as Luis Bunuel)
Jacques Carrère	....	sound mixer (as Jacques Carrere)
Jacqueline Porel	....	recording technician (as J. Porel)
Claude Villand	....	assistant sound mixer
Guy Villette	....	sound engineer

Camera and Electrical Department
André Clément	....	assistant camera
Alain Herpe	....	assistant camera
Yves Manciet	....	still photographer
Bernard Noisette	....	camera operator
Marcel Policard	....	chief electrician

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Jean Patou	....	gowns: Delphine Seyrig
Olympe Watelle	....	assistant costumer

Editorial Department
Gina Pignier	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Jacqueline Dudilleux	....	administrator
Suzanne Durrenberger	....	script girl
Jean Lara	....	general manager
Pierre Lefait	....	locations: exteriors
René Menuset	....	chief machinist
Jacqueline Oblin	....	accountant
Jean Revel	....	assistant locations: exterior
Marie-Jane Ruel	....	production secretary
Jean-Jacques Schpoliansky	....	assistant general manager
Henri Stern	....	furrier

Production Companies

• Dean Film (uncredited)
• Greenwich Film Productions
• Jet Films (uncredited)

Distributors

• Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (1972) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Xenon Entertainment Group (1992) (USA) (VHS)
• Cinematheque (1996) (USA) (VHS)
• Criterion Collection, The (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Home Vision Entertainment (HVE) (2000) (USA) (VHS)
• Home Vision Entertainment (HVE) (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Fox-MGM (1973) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• MGM-Fox Films (1973) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Rialto Pictures (2000) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Applause Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Corinth Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Criterion Collection, The (2008) (USA) (DVD)
• Gativideo (2008) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Homescreen (19??) (Netherlands) (VHS)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (1995) (Germany) (VHS)
• Lume Filmes (2008) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Media Home Entertainment (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Sagres Filmes (????) (Brazil) (VHS)

Also Known As:

"Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie" - France (original title)

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

France | Italy | Spain

Language:

French | Spanish

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:16 (original rating) | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:PG | Australia:PG | UK:AA (original rating) | Singapore:NC-16 (DVD rating) | Singapore:PG | West Germany:16 (f) | Australia:M (DVD rating) | Peru:14 | Argentina:Atp (DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Company:

Dean Film

Trivia:

Director Trademark: [Luis Buñuel] [insects]Cockroaches emerge out of the piano during the torture scene in prison

Goofs:

Continuity: After Rafael gives the terrorist champagne, his position in the chair changes between shots.

Quotes:

[Francois Thevenot has unknowingly interrupted an illicit rendezvous between his wife and Rafael Acosta.]
M. Thevenot:Coming home with me?
Mme. Thevenot:Yes.
Rafael Acosta:No, no, wait. Let her stay just two minutes more. I must show her the sursiks.
M. Thevenot:What?
Rafael Acosta:The sursiks.
M. Thevenot:Ah, yes. I'll wait in the car.
Mme. Thevenot:I'll come right away.
[Francois Thevenot leaves.]
Mme. Thevenot:What are sursiks?
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in An American Werewolf in London (1981)

The work of a genius

Bunuel is arguably the greatest of all filmmakers. With the possible exceptions of Hitchcock and Fassbinder, I can think of no other director who so completely understood the potential of the medium to transcend the traditional conventions of narrative, or exploited this potential with such élan. And he doesn't rely on special effects: we enter the surreal realm so seamlessly that it at times seems banal. This is especially the case in 'Le charme': banal people have banal sub-consciousnesses.

In order to begin to appreciate Bunuel I had to immerse myself in his milieu, so foreign was his sensibility to the usual expectations I had brought with me into a movie theater.

It took me several viewings to get the 'jokes' if 'Le charme'. The Ambassador from some obscure Latin American country ('Miranda', or 'wonder', a nod to Shakespeare), supports this little microcosm of comfortable Parisian bourgeois respectability with cocaine smuggled in diplomatic pouches. Guests arrive for a dinner party on the wrong evening, and interrupt the hosts having sex. A wake is being held in the back room of the restaurant they are planning to dine at. Ice cubes for martinis must be 'exactly zero degrees'. Elegant ladies sit down for a fashionable afternoon tea, only to be told by their waiter that the restaurant has run out of water (?!!). A soldier then comes to their table and relates his parricidal dream, while the polite ladies listen to him unfazed. One of the ladies discreetly slips away for an assignation with another one's husband. Only Bunuel!

Doubtless the inspiration for this film comes from the Latin Bunuel's lifetime of experience observing the French in situ. Much of its fun comes from simply watching the French be so . . . French. And there is no bourgeois like a French bourgeois!

Much of 'Le Charme' takes place in the nightmares of its characters: you are sitting down for a dinner being hosted by a general, only to realize that you are on stage (with a prompter giving a cue from Don Juan: 'Invite the commander's ghost for dinner!'); your elegant dinner party is broken up by a gang of thugs looking to kill you. However, you are so wedded to the ceremony of the dinner party that you get caught stealing a piece of meat from the table under which you are hiding (and end up dying like a dog!)

I could see this movie a hundred times and always find something new. I would never be bored by it.

Bunuel is very funny, but he is also dense and difficult. One doesn't realize the true complexity of his films because they all seem so effortless. Nothing great comes easily. He's like great Bordeaux: you can't quaff it -- it demands to be sipped.

Bunuel is famous for having the lowest shoot to take ratio of any filmmaker, less than 2:1. Second takes were rare (compare with the reams that end up on the cutting room floor for the typical Spielberg film.) He knew exactly what he wanted to see before he shot. Hitchcock, a director who resembles Bunuel in many ways, famously referred to actors as 'cattle'. For Bunuel, they were probably more like toy soldiers. This isn't to say that he didn't get brilliant performances out of them, especially from his screen alter-ego, the wonderful Fernando Rey.

Henry Miller dubbed his good friend Luis Bunuel "The Last Heretic". I can't think of a higher compliment. Bunuel's memoirs, 'My Last Sigh', are a must read for anyone who wants to have an appreciation of Paris in the 20s, the of art in the last century, and martinis, made as they should be, with gin.