| Established 1986 | Return to Editor's Cell | December 2001 |
| THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE Curzon Cinema Luis Brunuel, as always, up-to-date. The Special Branch must be present at the Curzon these evenings to watch the young flock to see a ‘joint’ smoked on the screen. Bunuel betrays the drug traffickers in more ways than one, though the reference to authorised religion seems irrelevant but as mad as usual. His sets are intriguing and beautiful models of good taste and the people are beautiful animals, only taking their less composed or ‘cool’ form when walking on that endless road. All the violence is in bullet wounds, of blows, to the head and the seemingly irrelevant murder of a peasant in his barn serves, on second thoughts, to present the history of the action in hand, which we all know is not a dream. T. H. Houligan |
 "I'll go on working with subjects that I have always enjoyed: religion and eroticism." |
| "When I think back today, The
Milky Way, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, and The
Phantom of Liberty form a kind of triptych. All three
have the same themes, sometimes even the same grammer;
and all evoke the search for truth, as well as the
necessity of abandoning it as soon as you've found it.
All show the implacable nature of social rituals; and all
argue for the importance of coincidence, of a personal
morality, and of the essential mystery of all things,
which must be maintained and respected." |
| "I have managed to live my life
amoung multiple contradictions without ever trying to
rationalise or resolve them; they are part of me, and
part of the fundamental ambiguity of all things which I
cherish..." "One day, when Silberman were talking about uncanny repetitions, he told me a story about the time he had invited some people for dinner but had forgotton to tell his wife. In fact, he forgot he had been invited out to dinner himself.When the guests arrived he wasn't there, she was in her bathrobe, she had already eaten and was about to go to bed. This incident became the opening scene in the Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoise; we repeated the pattern, inventing all sorts of situations where a group keep trying to have dinner together but can't seem to manage it." Lous Bunuel, "My last Breath" |