MovieChat Forums > Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie (1972) Discussion > the overrated french film sydrome?

the overrated french film sydrome?

posted 17 years ago by Doctor-T-
9 replies | jump to latest

Ok don't go crazy on me, this is not a slam against the French, but rather how others, especially Americans, have a love/hate thing going, imagining the French to be the most sophisticated and therefore most annoying people on earth.

There have been so many French sex farces that somehow get played in American "art-houses" even though without the subtitles they resemble an R rated episode of "Three's Company" more than "Citizen Kane".

This film and "Rules of the Game" are said to be satires, but to me both are so tame as to be pointless. Is it possible that we're supposed to have such a high opinion of the French that anything that shows them as less than perfect qualifies as satire? Is wanting to have dinner with friends some kind of horrible condemnation of your humanity? Also if you're satirizing consumerism, shouldn't they be eating in every scene, never satisfied with what they get and arrogantly demanding more? Instead they never get served and respond very graciously even when a restaurant is out of everything. I didn't get the point of that at all. they treat their servants politely, and don't snipe at each other behind each other's backs which you might expect after so many failed dinner plans.

Since the structure of the film makes it possible everything we've seen is a dream, it's hard to know if the characters are really vapid or only in a boring dream. The obviously surreal scenes are pleasant to watch but even then they don't have the overwhelming deeply felt impact of Lynch or Fellini. The music is unmemorable, the cinematography is movie-of-the week-ish, for a surrealist film it is shameful there's not one memorable image in it (no wonder they used surrealist collages instead of images from the film to promote it). And worst of all, it's just not funny, a couple of 1/2 smiles at most. I recently watched "Fando y Lis" which was Jodorowsky's truly shocking response to how soft he thought the surrealist movement had become, this movie shows me the kind of thing he was responding to (although Fando y Lis, a truly more groundbreaking experimental film was made 3 years before this snoozer).

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] akoo 17 years ago

1st of all Bunel's from Spain, the film was only produced and shot in France Other of his films have been just as highly acclaimed before he worked in France so it has absolutely nothing to do with pretenses acclaimed to art just because it's French

Secondly Bunel's thesis isn't anti-consumerism(like Godard) as much as it's claiming how absurd life or the search for meaning in the humanely constructed world is. Bunuel is amused with the complete randomness of how soceity panned out and how different classes and cultures have different etiquette and established moral conventions.

I.e. why does it matter that the priest has on gardener's clothes rather than his robe? Why is it socially unnaceptable to have sex with your spouse if you're horny even if you have guests waiting? Just a few more differences in history and morality and soceity would be completely different, it's crazy to think about.

[–] Robanjo78 13 years ago

The rituals and traditions that holds the Bourgeoisie and much of the overall society together are pointless, superficial and without direction. The Bourgeoisie lacks passion, love, randomness and spontaneity. Take away all the rituals they spend all day maintaining and all you have is a bunch of people blindly walking down an empty never ending road.

There's nothing wrong with friends having dinner together, but if all evening is spend upholding the right etiquette and behaviour, pretending to be something that in the end doesn't matter, then what's the point of it all.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] williamspj 12 years ago

I've heard so often for most of my life about this one, so it was top of my list when I recently signed up to LOVEFILM.

I just didn't get it. Like Monty Python without the humour. I don't object to silliness buy this struck me as just plain SILLY. Pointless.

But then millions of film critics can't be wrong so I guess - I just didn't get it.

[–] jaynobody 10 years ago

recently watched "Fando y Lis" which was Jodorowsky's truly shocking response to how soft he thought the surrealist movement had become, this movie shows me the kind of thing he was responding to (although Fando y Lis, a truly more groundbreaking experimental film was made 3 years before this snoozer).
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Fando suffers from over rated Jodorowsky syndrome. If he had died before making el topo or holy mountain you wouldn't even hear about fando and lis today. Jordo's answer to surrealism, the panic movement, is kind of lame too, all those dwarfs and amputees fail to be shocking very quickly. And when it's one of his co panic movement buddies with no artistic sense like Fernado Arrabel it is a style that is intolerable to me.
This wasn't my favorite film, and he's not my favorite director either, but I liked this and Phantom of Liberty.

[–] dehumanized 10 years ago

You state opinions that are inane at best and uninformed at their worst and don't want people to go crazy on you?

Simply put-- you're a pretentious bore. But I'll give you points for appreciating Fando y Lis, though something tells me you don't understand that film either.

[–] todtomorow 9 years ago

Doctor T. please stop watching and commenting on Bunuel. I thank u in advance for complying

[–] kino66 9 years ago

Doctor T. please stop watching and commenting on Bunuel. I thank u in advance for complying

^ this.

People: If you are unfamiliar with Bunuel, please do some preliminary reading about Bunuel before (a) watching a Bunuel film, or (b) posting on this board.

Gracias et merci.