The charm of the film is that the old magician can show off his skills and make fun of them at the same time... There is nothing else in the movie -- just the surprises, and the pleasures of [Buñuel] dexterity as he springs them.

| Sep 28, 2023

Surrealist satire attacking the upper classes for their sexual morals, attraction to social status, and detachment from reality...

| Mar 2, 2023

Discreet Charm is a deadpan farce forever flirting with anarchy.

| Sep 12, 2022

... Simultaneously darkly satirical, bleak, witty and lightly amusing.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 9, 2022

Absurdity is piled onto absurdity and reality and surreality blend until it is impossible to tell which is which.

| Jul 27, 2022

Bunuel’s art is as insolent as ever. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is a deeply funny movie, as a viewing experience it’s like walking across a perilous, sway little bridge whose guide rails periodically snatched away.

| Jun 21, 2022

The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie is full of surreal sequences revealing its characters’ unconsciouses – but it also offers up a far more cynical, all too recognisable reality.

| Jun 20, 2022

A fascinating and thought-provoking work of cinema.

| Jun 16, 2022

Bunuel fearlessly tears into class hypocrisy.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 24, 2021

Luis Bunuel's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is a deliciously pungent concoction by the 72-year-old filmmaker and his young co-scenarist, Jean-Claude Carriere, that will set your spirits soaring and your mind aglow.

| Jun 11, 2020

If you've never been a Bunuel film, this is a fine one to start with; Luis Bunuel is one of life's great originals and he's in top form here.

| Oct 9, 2019

Triggered by minor annoyances, the dreams and memories of civil servants invade the lives of Buñuel's upper-class characters whenever they sit down to eat.

| Nov 29, 2018

I must assure you that, such is Buuel's wizard command of cinematic juxtapositions, the proceedings are delightfully clear, as well as light and witty.

| Jan 30, 2018

I had forgotten just how spooky the dream scenes are; Bunuel could have been a master of horror, or a great farceur. As it was, he was simply Bunuel, which is cause enough for celebration.

| Jan 4, 2018

There is one clear target for Buuel that crosses all ideological lines: hypocrisy

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 20, 2016

Dreams nest within other dreams like so many Chinese puzzle boxes, while no dream belongs exclusively to a single dreamer, as though Buuel were toying with the Jungian notion of the collective unconscious.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Nov 21, 2012

A wonderful cast, which includes Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig and Jean-Pierre Cassel, help Buuel go about his anarchic mischief...

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 29, 2012

An exotic and brilliant hothouse flower of a film.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 28, 2012

Fate conspires to prevent six French eminences from eating dinner in this remastered print of Buuel's gigglesome, troubling Surrealist tract.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 28, 2012

It weaves games of dream and reality as the sextet wander through increasingly absurd set-ups. patriarchal authority and polite social rituals are slyly undermined, and the cast play it impeccably.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 28, 2012