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The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

The only film of Luis Bunuel's to win an Oscar – much to Bunuel's displeasure. Not, of course, that this was the only one to win, but rather that he had any that won at all. This film is sort of an inversion of his Mexican film The Exterminating Angel; in that film people couldn't leave a dinner party; in this one, people keep going to dinner parties, but can never eat. An episodic film, with linking segments featuring the actors all walking on an endless road, it's possibly Bunuel's most popular film (a lot of people have heard of Un Chien andalou, but I think more people have seen this one). It's also the title of Bunuel's that's the hardest to spell, thanks to the last word of the English title. I had to keep copy/pasting it in from IMDB so I didn't fuck up the tags.

Anyway – lots of Bunuel's common themes in this; making fun of class separations, anti-clerical sentiments, alcohol, bugs, dreams and hatred of stringed instruments. (The latter is more common in his films than you'd think – it stems back from when he was a child and was forced to take violin lessons, despite hating the violin. I suppose that's a warning to all parents out there – make sure your kid likes the instrument you're forcing them to learn, otherwise, they'll make a bunch of films in which they destroy said instruments over and over again.)

Really pretty easy to come across on DVD. The Criterion Collection put this out a few years ago, along with a feature-length documentary on Bunuel. Check it out!