Aug 19, LE CHARME DISCRET DE LA BOURGEOISIE

This week, we move on to Surreal films.

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early-1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members.

Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non-sequitur; however many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being an artifact. Leader Andre Breton was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was above all a revolutionary movement.

Surrealism developed out of the Dada activities of World War I the most important center of the movement was Paris. From the 1920s on, the movement spread around the globe, eventually affecting the visual arts, literature, film, and music, of many countries and languages, as well as political thought and practice, and philosophy and social theory

{ For the Surrealist Manifesto }

Filmref.com defines Surrealism as " Subjective depiction of emotive themes through unnatural, incongruous and fantastic imagery".

"The real purpose of Surrealism", as Luis Bunuel said, was "to explode the social order, to transform life itself."

LE CHARME DISCRET DE LA BOURGEOISIE
{THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISE}
Luis Bunuel
1972





"The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie" was (and still is often considered) the most popular work of filmmaker Luis Bunuel.

Minor social embarrassment—people start showing up for a dinner party its hosts are unaware they are throwing—turns into a genial exercise in surrealism. Six middle-class friends keep trying to have a nice meal together, but something—love-making, military exercises, criminal activities, even a sequence where they find themselves on stage in a play, playing themselves—keeps preventing them from breaking bread.

Luis Buñuel creates an absurdly comic and wickedly incisive portrait of the meaningless social rituals and polite hypocrisy of the upper middle class in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. By interweaving exaggerated reality with lucid dream sequences, Buñuel blurs the distinction between civilized behavior and social indictment. He was 72 when he made this film.