Smoreni Zmaj A film that's so boring that I barely made it through the end, and yet so hypnotizingly well made that I could not make myself shut it off before the end. Very difficult to watch, and even more difficult to evaluate.5/10

talisencrw This came in the outstanding 10-DVD boxed set 'Rialto Pictures: 10 Years', one of the finest things I've bought from The Criterion Collection (and a great deal too, one I'd heartily endorse).I had to wait an entire day, after watching the dreadful 'Disaster Movie', to get the acrid taste out of my mouth to watch this one, by my fourth favourite director ever ('Viridiana' is still probably my favourite of his, though). Luckily it had three of my favourite French actors from the period, in Bulle Ogier (just check out 'Maitresse' if you don't understand why), Delphine Seyrig and Fernando Rey (for the two 'French Connection' films alone)--even though for a director of Bunuel's strength, any actors could have sufficed. It's the ideas that stand out most triumphantly.It's most known for being Bunuel's Oscar-winner for Best Foreign Language Film, but its OTHER nomination is what's almost neglected when people talk about him. Yes, they talk about Bunuel the director, or (from David Thomson) Bunuel the photographer, but people never realize his two nominations for the Calanda, Spain-native were never for director, but for writing (with another nod for his swan song, 'The Obscure Object of Desire').

Armand or just cruel. but this is not a real surprise ! because it is a Bunuel portrait of a fake world and manner for survive. about desires, search, rules all in a dark satire in which dreams and fears, games and food are mixed. a picture. interesting for the art of a great cast. nice for meeting with a remarkable director themes. charming for the strange humor. a film about need to escape from yourself. about a way without end. and, sure, about masks. nothing else. only fog of a social group and a game with surrealistic nuances. it is good occasion to understand not only art of Bunuel but spirit of a time. and to understand the essence of society of each period.

Lee Eisenberg Years after directing the surrealist movie "Un chien andalou", Luis Buñuel made "Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie" about a group of upper-class people whose attempts to have a nice dinner get repeatedly interrupted. The movie is simultaneously a bizarre comedy and a mockery of the bourgeoisie's materialistic attitude towards life, and a really good one at that. To crown everything, the characters accept the events, no matter how weird things get! Fernando Rey, hot off playing one of the villains in "The French Connection", plays a diplomat from the fictional Latin American country of Miranda*. People address him about the gap between rich and poor, and about his government's use of excessive force against protesters, and meanwhile a terrorist (revolutionary?) follows him everywhere. He comes across as a slimy guy, but you can't help but admire him.The scene where everyone walks towards an unspecified location seems to reflect the lives that this bunch of people leads in general. Their wealth deprives them of any purpose in life, and so they are left wandering, metaphorically speaking.All in all, I definitely recommend this one. Also starring Paul Frankeur, Delphine Seyrig, Bulle Ogier, Stéphane Audran and Jean-Pierre Cassel.*While there is no country called Miranda, there is a Mirandese language spoken in northeast Portugal. Just a side note.