The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie (The Criterion Collection)
by Javier Rioyo, José Luis López-Linares, Luis Buñuel
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Delphine Seyrig, Ernesto Alonso, Fernando Rey, Jacqueline Andere, Pedro Armendáriz Jr.Director: Javier Rioyo, José Luis López-Linares, Luis Buñuel
Brand: Image Entertainment
Writer: Luis Buñuel
Producer: Frida Torresblanco
Producer: Jorge Sánchez
Writer: Agustín Sánchez Vidal
Writer: Jean-Claude Carrière
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 101 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-02-12
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie (The Criterion Collection)
Movie Review: An excellent DVD transfer of Buñuel's classic film
Summary: 5 Stars
At long last, one of the surrealist maestro Luis Buñuel's films has finally made it on to the DVD format and it is an excellent production. The film begins with a group of four guests arriving at the home of a couple to have dinner, but the lady of the house says they've arrived a day early. One of the guests suggests going to eat at a local inn he knows. They arrive there to find the inn's owner has died, and his body is in a room. And so begins the constantly frustrating quest to eat, for this group of six bourgeois friends. They are distracted and prevented by the army, the police, poor restaurants, and surreal occurrences. Like one where a red curtain unveils an audience watching them eat on a stage. The most prominent character is Raphael, played superbly by Fernando Rey. He is the ambassador of the Republic of Miranda. He is also a drug smuggler, and is stalked by a terrorist woman. Buñuel also throws in his customary dream-like diversions, like a soldier who tells three ladies in a restaurant an odd story from his childhood.There is also a priest who enters the house of one of the group, and gets the job of being their gardener. He later visits an old dying gardener to give him absolution, and it transpires the dying man requests forgiveness for killing the priest's parents. The priest tells God to forgive him, then promptly shoots him with a shotgun. The ambassador Raphael continually has his country insulted. A soldier keeps insulting Miranda, so Raphael shoots him.
Just when you think the group will never get to dine, they begin, and are interrupted by a gun toting group of villains. There is then a memorable shot of Raphael cowering under the table finally eating a piece of meat. But is it all a dream? And is the end sequence (which is shown several times throughout the film) a dream? One will never know. It is a majestic and brilliantly acted masterpiece. The film won an Oscar for best foreign film.
The two DVDs are superb. On disc one we get the film, and the image is a beautiful new widescreen high-definition transfer. The film has never looked better. The sound is in mono. The menus have the famous scene of the group of people walking down the country road, and music from the film playing. Also on disc one is a documentary entitled El Naufrago de la Calle de Providencia from 1970, which visits Buñuel's house, where the maestro shows us his love of making cocktails. There is also the trailer.
On disc two there is another documentary, A Proposito de Buñuel, from 2000. This runs for 98 minutes and is excellent. It covers Buñuel's life from the early days of Un Chien Andalou and the surrealist movement, right through to his last film. There are many interviews with Buñuel's friends, who speak fondly of him. It really is a fascinating documentary about the life and career of Luis Buñuel. The two documentaries are worth the price on their own. There is also Buñuel's filmography on disc two. This is an impressive package from Criterion. Hopefully Buñuel's other films will receive the same treatment soon.
Summary of The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie (The Criterion Collection)
In Luis Buñuel's deliciously satiric masterpiece, an upper-class sextet sits down to dinner but never eats, their attempts continually thwarted by a vaudevillian mixture of events both actual and imagined. Fernando Rey, Stéphane Audran, Delphine Seyring, and Jean-Pierre Cassel head the extraordinary cast of this 1972 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film. Criterion is proud to present The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie in an exclusive Special Edition Double-Disc Set.What can be more enjoyable then a meal among friends and family? In Luis Buñuel's surrealistic comedy The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie it is this common ritual a sextet of upper-class friends repeatedly attempt, only to be obstructed by one obscure event after another. Masterfully balancing the dichotomy of class vs. debauchery Buñuel delivers a ripping critique of the upper class. It is clear from the beginning that the lives Buñuel?s Bourgeoisie are living are not what they seem. Eventually, their true colors begin to shine; not in actual actions but in haunting dreams. What is real and what lies in the subconscious becoming exceedingly blurry and in order to deliver his message, surrealism must take over. It is hard to pigeonhole Buñuel?s classic that won him the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film 1972: An absurd odyssey? A discreet satire? Not necessarily, but definitely charming. --Rob Bracco
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