The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

I was pretty excited to watch this movie today, because I really liked the other films I've seen that Luis Bunuel directed. It's actually a little hard to write about, because it's sort of similar to one of his other films, The Exterminating Angel. In Angel, a group of people become trapped in a house for no explainable reason after a meal. In Charm, a group of wealthy people go from place to place attempting to eat dinner but are unable to. Of course, they're also not the same at all, but the plots are similar, and have the same strange sense of humor.

I really liked this movie - I've pretty much been in love with all the other Bunuel films that I've seen, and this one is no exception. It's really odd, but it works really well. It has a sort of prodding humor in it. It's not your normal laugh-out-loud kind of comedy, but it's more sly, and a bit absurd. I like that about it. Plus, I like his style, the odd surrealism and how everything is a little off-kilter.

Un Chien Andalou

Today's movie fit my mood perfectly. My body, apparently sick of running on little to no sleep, decided to just...sleep. I would get up and walk around and become so tired that when I'd sit back down on the couch to read I'd fall asleep again. I didn't really mind - I had really strange and vivid dreams, and I love that, as stupid as that sounds. It was far more entertaining to me than anything else I could have been doing. I apparently share this obsession with one of the directors of today's movie, Luis Bunuel. Ebert quotes him in the beginning of his essay, writing, "Luis Bunuel said that if he were told he had 20 years to live and was asked how he wanted to live them, his reply would be: "Give me two hours a day of activity, and I'll take the other 22 in dreams -- provided I can remember them"' (The Great Movies, 466). I couldn't agree more.

The Exterminating Angel

Luis Bunel is a fantastic surrealist director. He directed, if you recall, Belle du Jour. The first movie I ever saw by him was one of his first movies, Un Chein Andalou, which he directed with Salvador Dali. Just mentioning that he worked with Dali should explain something to you. As Ebert says, "Those seeking reason or explanations are in the wrong theater" (The Great Movies, web, below). Bunel directed The Exterminating Angel in 1962. It's a bizarre movie. If the mention Dali, surrealism, and lack of meaning or explanations are off putting to you, you will hate this movie. I like all of these things, so of course I found myself enjoying it.

Belle du Jour

I spent the whole day shopping for picture frames and Blu-rays, which is about as exciting as it sounds. It was nice to come home and watch a surprisingly good movie - although I could see it's "good-ness" being very debatable. Luis Buñuel's film Belle du Jour (1967) is the story of a 23-year-old woman (named Severine, but who goes by Belle du Jour when she works) who grows bored of her husband and works at a brothel during the day. She is a masochist, and often has fantasies relating to this. It's billed as a very infamous erotic film, and although it doesn't feel dated, I was surprised at how...not graphic it was. Not that it would bother me if it was, I was just surprised to find how much of the film ended up taking place in my own imagination. I think that's what makes this film so sensual, in a way - you are left to create your own scenarios and ideas, since most of it takes place behind closed doors.