Released in 1972, The discreet charm of the bourgeoisie celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The opportunity for the French publisher Studiocanal to create the event with a 4K Ultra HD release scheduled for June 22.
Very few details have yet leaked out, but we are hoping for a return to the immense and major work of the director of Un Chien Andalou (his first film at the age of 29), both modern, imprinted of uncompromising social satire and psychoanalysis (the weight of education haunts almost all of his films).
Change look
Buñuel's project can actually be summed up as follows: abandon the vision that we had until then of images to change our gaze. His obsession with the clergy (he was a choirboy and received a Catholic education), institutions - whether military or political - his taste for strange, daring and offbeat situations (in L'ange exterminateur, a group of bourgeois is prisoner of the frame) or the recurrence of the animal metaphor to comment on the small world of men, are among his favorite motifs.
Class struggle
Beneath the veneer of appearances, most often bourgeois, hide unmentionable and profane impulses (the religious institution was one of its prime targets, from the Golden Age to Viridiana). In Buñuel, the oppressors, whether priests, soldiers or teachers, act in concert. Opposite them, the olvidados (literally "the forgotten ones"), of which he made a film in 1950. These olvidados are all those whom birth has left by the side of the road, like those tramps who, in Viridiana, storm a bourgeois residence and indulge in a hilarious comedy about appearances.
In the 1970s, Luis Buñuel made some superb films, focusing his attention on the class struggle and the quest for the impossible. Among them: The discreet charm of the bourgeoisie and Belle de jour with Catherine Deneuve. More info as soon as possible. In the meantime, pre-order is open here.
