IMDb RATING
8.0/10
33K
YOUR RATING
The guests at an upper-class dinner party find themselves unable to leave.The guests at an upper-class dinner party find themselves unable to leave.The guests at an upper-class dinner party find themselves unable to leave.
IMDb RATING
8.0/10
33K
YOUR RATING
- Director
- Writers
- Luis Buñuel(screenplay by)
- Luis Alcoriza(story: Los Náufragos de la Calle de la Providencia)
- Stars
Top credits
- Director
- Writers
- Luis Buñuel(screenplay by)
- Luis Alcoriza(story: Los Náufragos de la Calle de la Providencia)
- Stars
- Awards
- 4 wins & 3 nominations
Videos1
Luis Beristáin
- Cristián Ugaldeas Cristián Ugalde
- (as Luis Beristain)
César del Campo
- Alvaroas Alvaro
- (as Cesar Del Campo)
Enrique García Álvarez
- Alberto Rocas Alberto Roc
- (as Enrique Garcia Alvarez)
Ofelia Guilmáin
- Juana Avilaas Juana Avila
- (as Ofelia Guilmain)
Xavier Loyá
- Francisco Avilaas Francisco Avila
- (as Xavier Loya)
Xavier Massé
- Eduardoas Eduardo
- (as Xavier Masse)
- Director
- Writers
- Luis Buñuel(screenplay by) (story: Los Náufragos de la Calle de la Providencia)
- Luis Alcoriza(story: Los Náufragos de la Calle de la Providencia)
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
- All cast & crew
Storyline
After a lavish dinner party, the guests find themselves mysteriously unable to leave the room... and over the next few days all the elaborate pretenses and facades that they've built up by virtue of their position in society collapse completely as they become reduced to living like animals... —Michael Brooke <michael@everyman.demon.co.uk>
- Taglines
- The degeneration of high society!
- Genres
- Certificate
- Not Rated
- Parents guide
Did you know
- TriviaWas banned in Russia because the idea of people not being allowed to "leave a party" was considered offensive and anti-government.
- GoofsAfter the butler trips in the dining room, the lady of the house follows him into the kitchen. While they speak the boom mic can clearly be seen at the bottom of the screen, extending out from under a table.
- Quotes
Rita Ugalde: I believe the common people, the lower class people, are less sensitive to pain. Haven't you ever seen a wounded bull? Not a trace of pain.
[Creo que la gente del pueblo, la gente baja, es menos sensible al dolor. ¿Usted ha visto un toro herido alguna vez? Impasible]
- Alternate versionsIn the uncut print (featured on the Criterion DVD) the guests enter the mansion and go upstairs twice. Some versions omit the surrealistic second arrival.
- ConnectionsEdited into Histoire(s) du cinéma: Le contrôle de l'univers (1999)
Top review
The Discreet Charm in México
I discovered surrealist cinema as an adult. Of course, there are such scenes and images in many films, but I saw the first complete surrealist movie as a grown up. It was "Belle de jour", a film by Luis Buñuel, whose work I knew since watching his "Robinson Crusoe" in my childhood. Buñuel had gone a long way since 1928's "Un chien andalou", made in France. He had gone into exile during the Spanish Civil War, first to the United States and finally to México, where he spent the rest of his life. But he made films in Europe now and then, and had regained his status as one of the masters of world cinema. Although he did not think much of his Mexican motion pictures, his masterpiece "El ángel exterminador" is my favorite of all his films. He once complained that Mexican actors were not able to convey the spirit of the "haute bourgeoisie", but what he did not take into consideration was that, if he made a film in México about the rich, he was dealing with something else, called "creole oligarchies." And in this sense, this farce of the 1960s' Latin American "filthy rich" is most accurate. Moreover, with his usual affectionate treatment of the bourgeois (something he rarely did with clergy, female characters, or street urchins), he created a most believable funny portrait of the Latino rich people, who do not know what is their origin, who they should "pay tribute to", or where they are headed, unlike their European ancestors. Here, a group of those characters, born in México, gather for dinner after an opera performance, but when the time comes to leave the house of the Nobiles they cannot leave the room where they reunited for gossiping after meal. There is no apparent reason they cannot leave, but there they stay for days, going back to a primitive state in which their dearest "discreet charm" (euphemism, the rule of the game, as in Renoir's 1939 film) vanishes. And when they are set free, and go to a church to thank the Lord... well, Buñuel sure knew how to make fun of them, with situations verging on the fantastic and funny lines of incoherent, silly or ridiculous dialogue. A wonderful movie, which is always fun to watch again, especially in a double bill with another gem, the last one Buñuel made in México: "Simón del desierto."
helpful•3519
- EdgarST
- Jun 25, 2006
Details
Box office
- Gross worldwide
- $1,843
- Runtime1 hour 35 minutes
- Color
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