This has to be one of the most completely realized comedies ever made, and, in its odd way, one of the most civilized.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie(Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie)
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
France · 1972
Rated PG · 1h 41m
Director Luis Buñuel
Starring Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Paul Frankeur, Bulle Ogier
Genre Comedy
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
A group of bourgeoisie friends continuously attempt to dine together but are never able to. They are repeatedly prevented from being able to dine together and become more and more frustrated as their vices and fears become exposed.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
Movies don't come more original, inventive, or outlandishly entertaining.
Philadelphia Inquirer by Desmond Ryan
A classic of subversive surrealism.
In the nearly 30 years since the movie was released (it won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1972), one forgets how falling-about-funny is this mad caper.
TV Guide Magazine by Frank Lovece
A brilliant surrealistic joke about a group of friends whose attempts to dine are continually thwarted.
One of the best titles in movie history and a cast to match.
Slly, sublime, buoyant mischief that is virtually without parallel in 20th-century art, much less 20th-century film.
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
Far from seeming dated, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie seems timelier than ever, downright prophetic, for that matter.
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
It seems pompous and scattershot now -- a tweaking of privileged European smugness that unfolds with a playful daisy-chain logic but has the tone of a quaint, doddering lecture.
San Francisco Examiner by Wesley Morris
If there's a granddaddy of breezy situationalism, it's probably Buñuel.
Users who liked this film also liked
The 400 Blows
(Les Quatre Cents Coups)
The story of a misunderstood adolescent boy growing up in Paris.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1959
- Director François Truffaut
- Cast Jean-Pierre Léaud, Claire Maurier, Albert Rémy, Georges Flamant, Patrick Auffay, Robert Beauvais
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, Vudu, Kanopy, YouTube, Apple TV, Max, Max Amazon Channel
Stolen Kisses
(Baisers volés)
Antoine knows what he wants to do ... his problem is doing it.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1968
- Director François Truffaut
- Cast Jean-Pierre Léaud, Claude Jade, Delphine Seyrig, Michael Lonsdale, Daniel Ceccaldi, Claire Duhamel
- Genre Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel
8½
A film director suffers creative block as he prepares his next movie and navigates the relationships of his life.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy, France • 1963
- Director Federico Fellini
- Cast Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimée, Sandra Milo, Rossella Falk, Barbara Steele
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, Vudu, Kanopy, YouTube, Apple TV, Max, Max Amazon Channel
Wild Strawberries
(Smultronstället)
A retired doctor reflects on his life during a long road trip to receive an honorary degree.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Sweden • 1957
- Director Ingmar Bergman
- Cast Victor Sjöström, Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Björnstrand, Jullan Kindahl, Gunnar Sjöberg
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Amazon Video, Kanopy
Un Chien Andalou
(Un chien andalou)
A classic avant-garde surrealist film from the cooperation of director Luis Buñuel and artist Salvador Dali.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1929
- Director Luis Buñuel
- Cast Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí, Pierre Batcheff, Simone Mareuil, Robert Hommet, Marval
- Genre Fantasy, Horror
- Available on Fandor, Alamo on Demand, Tubi TV, FlixFling, IndieFlix, Fandor Amazon Channel
Belle de Jour
(Belle de jour)
Luis Bunuel's erotic masterpiece.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Italy • 1967
- Director Luis Buñuel
- Cast Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, Michel Piccoli, Geneviève Page, Pierre Clémenti, Françoise Fabian
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on TCM, Criterion Channel, Amazon Video, Apple TV, Max, Max Amazon Channel
The Young and the Damned
(Los olvidados)
A young boy is gradually corrupted by life in the slums of Mexico City.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Mexico • 1950
- Director Luis Buñuel
- Cast Alfonso Mejía, Estela Inda, Efraín Arauz, Miguel Inclán, Roberto Cobo, Javier Amézcua
- Genre Crime, Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Shoot the Piano Player
(Tirez sur le pianiste)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1960
- Director François Truffaut
- Cast Charles Aznavour, Marie Dubois, Nicole Berger, Michèle Mercier, Serge Davri, Claude Mansard
- Genre Drama, Thriller, Crime
- Available on Criterion Channel, Amazon Video, Classix, Apple TV, Max, Max Amazon Channel
Pierrot le Fou
(Pierrot le fou)
How is life going to look like if one is always on the run?
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Italy • 1965
- Director Jean-Luc Godard
- Cast Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina, Graziella Galvani, Dirk Sanders, Jimmy Karoubi, Roger Dutoit
- Genre Drama, Thriller
- Available on Microsoft Store, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, Vudu, YouTube, Apple TV
Last Year at Marienbad
(L'Année dernière à Marienbad)
The mysterious story of a man and woman who may or may not have met last year at Marienbad.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Italy • 1961
- Director Alain Resnais
- Cast Delphine Seyrig, Giorgio Albertazzi, Sacha Pitoëff, Françoise Bertin, Luce Garcia-Ville
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Hoopla, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Kino Now, Kanopy
Viridiana
We've got nothing to hide...
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Spain, Mexico • 1961
- Director Luis Buñuel
- Cast Silvia Pinal, Francisco Rabal, Fernando Rey, José Calvo, Margarita Lozano, Victoria Zinny
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Amazon Video, Kanopy, Apple TV
L'Avventura
(L'avventura)
A new adventure in filmmaking...
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy, France • 1960
- Director Michelangelo Antonioni
- Cast Gabriele Ferzetti, Monica Vitti, Lea Massari, Dominique Blanchar, Renzo Ricci, James Addams
- Genre Drama, Mystery
- Available on Criterion Channel, Amazon Video, Vudu, Kanopy, Apple TV, Max, Max Amazon Channel
The Phantom of Liberty
(Le Fantôme de la liberté)
Luis Bunuel's kinkiest comedy.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Italy • 1974
- Director Luis Buñuel
- Cast Adriana Asti, Milena Vukotić, Jean-Claude Brialy, Monica Vitti, Jean Rochefort, Michel Piccoli
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel
That Obscure Object of Desire
(Cet obscur objet du désir)
In flashback, an aging man recounts his sexual frustrations when falling for his 19 year-old former chambermaid Conchita.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Spain • 1977
- Director Luis Buñuel
- Cast Carole Bouquet, Ángela Molina, Fernando Rey, Milena Vukotić, Julien Bertheau, André Weber
- Genre Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Available on DIRECTV, Microsoft Store, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, Vudu, YouTube, Apple TV
Alphaville
(Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution)
A spy journeys to a tyrannical space city to complete three secret missions.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Italy • 1965
- Director Jean-Luc Godard
- Cast Eddie Constantine, Anna Karina, Akim Tamiroff, Howard Vernon, Christa Lang, Valérie Boisgel
- Genre Drama, Science Fiction, Mystery
- Available on Microsoft Store, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, Hoopla, Vudu, Kino Now, Kanopy, YouTube, Apple TV
The Silence
(Tystnaden)
Two estranged sisters stop to stay in a nearly deserted hotel while not able to speak the town's language.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Sweden • 1963
- Director Ingmar Bergman
- Cast Ingrid Thulin, Gunnel Lindblom, Birger Malmsten, Håkan Jahnberg, Jörgen Lindström, Kotti Chave
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel, Google Play Movies, Vudu, YouTube, Apple TV
A Man Escaped
(Un condamné à mort s'est échappé)
During World War II, a French Resistance fighter tries to escape a Nazi prison before his execution.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1956
- Director Robert Bresson
- Cast François Leterrier, Charles Le Clainche, Maurice Beerblock, Roland Monod, Jacques Ertaud, Jean Paul Delhumeau
- Genre Drama, Thriller, War
- Available on Criterion Channel, Amazon Video, Apple TV
The Exterminating Angel
(El ángel exterminador)
A high society party devolves into chaos when the guests are mysteriously unable to leave the room.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Mexico • 1962
- Director Luis Buñuel
- Cast Silvia Pinal, Jacqueline Andere, José Baviera, Augusto Benedico, Luis Beristáin, Antonio Bravo
- Genre Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
- Available on TCM, Criterion Channel, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, YouTube, Apple TV
The Milky Way
(La Voie lactée)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Italy, West Germany • 1969
- Director Luis Buñuel
- Cast Paul Frankeur, Laurent Terzieff, Alain Cuny, Edith Scob, Bernard Verley, François Maistre
- Genre Drama, Comedy
- Available on Kino Now, Tubi TV, Filmzie, Freevee, Kanopy, Shout! Factory TV, Plex
Tristana
A young woman must choose between safety and freedom.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Spain, Italy, France • 1970
- Director Luis Buñuel
- Cast Catherine Deneuve, Fernando Rey, Franco Nero, Lola Gaos, Antonio Casas, Jesús Fernández
- Genre Drama
- Available on MUBI, MUBI Amazon Channel, Cohen Media Amazon Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube, Kino Now, Kanopy
Diary of a Chambermaid
(Le journal d'une femme de chambre)
A young chambermaid believes her colleague committed a horrible crime and uses her sexuality to try to coax a confession out of him.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Italy • 1964
- Director Luis Buñuel
- Cast Jeanne Moreau, Georges Géret, Michel Piccoli, Françoise Lugagne, Jean Ozenne, Daniel Ivernel
- Genre Crime, Drama
- Available on Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, Vudu, Plex, Tubi TV, YouTube, Apple TV