The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Burjuvazinin Gizli Çekiciliği)

Directed by Luis Buñuel from a screenplay he wrote with Jean-Claude Carrière, Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie) is a 1972 French-Italian-Spanish surrealist satire about a circle of bourgeois friends who can never quite manage to sit down and eat together. Among them is Rafael Acosta, ambassador to France of the fictional South American Republic of Miranda; every attempt at a dinner is derailed by mistaken dates, uninvited guests and increasingly absurd incidents, while a Maoist terrorist from Miranda repeatedly tries to assassinate the ambassador. The film's early scenes revolve around these failed gatherings, while its later stretches drift into the dreams of several characters, the two strands interweaving freely. The impossible events are accepted without surprise by the characters themselves, a deadpan logic that sharpens Buñuel's mockery of upper-class hypocrisy. Starring Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Stéphane Audran, Bulle Ogier and Paul Frankeur, the film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1973.