The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)

Where do I even begin with the Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie? Buñuel’s film is transgressive in its subversion of religious and social hierarchies: the priest who gives a poor farmer absolution then proceeds to murder him, the monotonous scenes of parties and group dinners, the military men who lose themselves in sequences involving death. We see an escalating banality to the film, a pervasive repetition of alcohol consumption and casual conversation. We serve as spectators to this performative hodgepodge, like the audience in the theater, who jeer and mock the hollowness of the ruling class’ performance. The monotony is given respite through surreal dreams of unimaginative paranoia, to the point in which such paranoia blurs the line between reality and dreams. Such paranoia only contributes to the emptiness of their lives, detaching them from the plights of the lower classes. The viewer only gains a passing glance at a landscape that supplants their sanitized bubble: the farm of the poor farmer. Yet, this scene still rebukes the faux religiosity of the powerful. The bishop’s hypocrisy is reflected in his performance of religious duty, then immediate revenge killing where he succumbs to his own primal instincts. Religion often offers a moral code for which to follow; the juxtaposition of forgiveness and murder is Buñuel directly challenging Christian dogma through depicting that righteous anger.