THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE

Directed by Luis Buñuel
Starring Delphine Seyrig and Fernando Ray

(1972) It’s mealus interruptus for suave ambassador Fernando Rey (The French Connection), dry martini aficionado Paul Frankeur, his perpetually smiling wife Delphine Seyrig (Last Year at Marienbad), her queasy-stomached sister Bulle Ogier, gracious hostess Stéphane Audran, and her sharply dressed husband Jean-Pierre Cassel (Army of Shadows): they’re always arriving at elegant dinner to find they’ve got the day wrong; the proprietor’s lying dead in the next room; the tea room’s out of tea and coffee; the army’s dropping in for maneuvers; the roast’s a prop and they’re in a play for which they know no lines; or the cops decide to make a major bust. But there’s coitus interruptus too – even coitus un-interruptus – and intervals where a complete stranger joins the group to tell of his ghost-ridden and murderous childhood, and a soldier, just after giving them the alarm of the enemy’s attack, is cordially asked to retell the story of his curious dream. But then these characters are constantly dreaming, although they only awake after they’ve found themselves in the most preposterous of tight spots – mayhem ensues at a sophisticated cocktail party where polite chitchat consists of pointing out every embarrassing fact about the Latin American republic of Miranda to its ambassador Rey – then Frankeur awakes to announce that he’s dreamt that Cassel was dreaming. But these bourgeois always maintain their elegant couture, gracious politesse, and the quintessence of style, whether consummating a drug deal or sauntering down a country road. 35mm. Approx 101 mins.
12:30, 4:35, 8:45

Legendary composer Stephen Sondheim is currently working on a musical theater adaptation. Read more here. 

“Boasts one of the best titles in movie history and a cast to match… Blithely discontinuous, Discreet Charm has echoes of Buñuel’s early surrealist films, although its episodic, interlocking stories suggest the influence of The Saragossa Manuscript and Godard’s Weekend. In populating his movie with blatant bourgeois piggies and bedeviling them with third-world terrorists, Buñuel was—more than usual—responding to the moment. It’s mildly amazing that this movie won an Oscar—but that was back in the heyday of the New Hollywood. Typically, the filmmaker told a credulous Mexican journalist that his producers had bribed the Academy.”
– J. Hoberman, Village Voice

“The film’s playful prodding of middle-class values and slippery grip on the difference between dreams and reality continues to influence directors today, from Roman Polanski’s ‘Carnage’ to Charlie Kaufman’s ‘Synecdoche, New York’…It still has a compelling and mischievous energy to it.”
– Dave Calhoun, Time Out New York

“Frightening, funny, profound, and mysterious.”
– Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

“Clearly the film of the year – an astonishing achievement.”
– Andrew Sarris, Village Voice

“One of the greatest films in cinema history.”
– Stuart Byron, Rolling Stone

“I consider it absolutely worthless.”
– John Simon

THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE

Directed by Luis Buñuel

(1977) As he laments in flashback from a bomb-studded train journey, ever-suave Fernando Rey’s maid – played without comment and interchangeably by cool French Carole Bouquet and sultry Spaniard Ángelina Molina – continually frustrates him by resisting consummation while always declaring love.  Bunuel’s multi-awarded last film in his 77th year. 35mm. Approx. 103 mins.
2:30, 6:35

“Buñuel, of course, is exercising his own dry and totally original wit. His film is filled with small, droll touches, with tiny peculiarities of behavior, with moral anarchy, with a cynicism about human nature that somehow seems, in his hands, almost cheerful.”
– Roger Ebert

“That Obscure Object of Desire is very much about those irrational and mysterious acts that bring us together. It toys with our curiosity but seemingly shuns our inquisitiveness.”
– Slant