The Discreet Charm in México
10/10
Author: Edgar Soberón Torchia (estorchia@gmail.com) from Panama
25 June 2006

I discovered surrealist cinema as an adult. Of course, there are such scenes and images in many films, but I saw the first complete surrealist movie as a grown up. It was "Belle de jour", a film by Luis Buñuel, whose work I knew since watching his "Robinson Crusoe" in my childhood. Buñuel had gone a long way since 1928's "Un chien andalou", made in France. He had gone into exile during the Spanish Civil War, first to the United States and finally to México, where he spent the rest of his life. But he made films in Europe now and then, and had regained his status as one of the masters of world cinema.

Although he did not think much of his Mexican motion pictures, his masterpiece "El ángel exterminador" is my favorite of all his films. He once complained that Mexican actors were not able to convey the spirit of the "haute bourgeoisie", but what he did not take into consideration was that, if he made a film in México about the rich, he was dealing with something else, called "creole oligarchies." And in this sense, this farce of the 1960s'

Latin American "filthy rich" is most accurate. Moreover, with his usual affectionate treatment of the bourgeois (something he rarely did with clergy, female characters, or street urchins), he created a most believable funny portrait of the Latino rich people, who do not know what is their origin, who they should "pay tribute to", or where they are headed, unlike their European ancestors. Here, a group of those characters, born in México, gather for dinner after an opera performance, but when the time comes to leave the house of the Nobiles they cannot leave the room where they reunited for gossiping after meal.

There is no apparent reason they cannot leave, but there they stay for days, going back to a primitive state in which their dearest "discreet charm (euphemism, the rule of the game, as in Renoir's 1939 film) vanishes. And when they are set free, and go to a church to thank the Lord... well, Buñuel sure knew how to make fun of them, with situations verging on the fantastic and funny lines of incoherent, silly or ridiculous dialogue. A wonderful movie, which is always fun to watch again, especially in a double bill with another gem, the last one Buñuel made in México: "Simón del desierto."

A Masterpiece

10/10
Author: Andy S, (anstamatopoulos@yahoo.gr) from Thessaloniki, Greece
1 May 2007

This film, constitutes the absolute surrealist masterpiece of all seasons. With unique virtuosity, Bunuel shows how easily a person makes his bonds and limits his freedom.

Who are however these persons? They are those that made fortune without have worked never in their life or those, that with illegal ways acquired power and money. Naturally the one that puts unreal bonds in all the persons, with a view to check and dominate them, is the Church. The director accuse the high society and the Church and puts them to live as simple persons and they make things that they would never make. In this masterpiece Bunuel points out also the corruptness that exists in the society, which emanates from the Church and has expanded everywhere. It is not simply a film, it is a sociological approach of corrupted modern person.

A Weird Surrealist and Metaphoric Movie, Criticizing the Behavior of the Bourgeois Class

9/10
Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
27 October 2003

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

A group of bourgeois friends are trapped in a house after a dinner party. Some type of mysterious force does not allow them to leave a room. There, a few days later, their social behavior masks fall down, revealing persons very selfish, rottenness, confessions about their friendship and a 'bad smell': most of them stinks. They survive, through the sacrifice of some lambs, and in the end, everything and everybody returns to the same initial position and they leave the place.

The first time I watched this intriguing movie was in 1973, when I was a teenager. Since then, I have watched at least four more times. Now I had the chance to buy a DVD recently released in Brazil (again from the great Brazilian distributor Versátil). This time, I had the chance to see a spectacular restored photography in black & white, with wonderful shadows. There are many points in this metaphoric tale that I still do not understand, but this movie exerts some type of spell on me that makes me love it.

For example, I have not understood the title yet: why the exterminator angel? However, the essence of the story, with the hypocrite bourgeois class trapped in their world, changing positions without leaving their social class, sacrificing lambs to survive and in the end coming back to the same initial position in the world, is very clear to me. An unforgettable movie, but not recommended for all the audiences. My vote is nine.