The Discreet — Buñuel and Surrealism

On Buñuel's comedy of a dinner that never quite happens.

Buñuel and surrealism had a long love affair.

I love The Discreet, because, basically speaking, is a full scale comedy, for a change, a real comedy, because nothing really happens, and again, mostly of all, because this all idea at work is so absurd. B. just disissects but another aspect of our everyday's life: setting down for dinner.

The reality of everyday's life, became in The Discreet, the impossible, the absurd thing to achieve, assume cosmic proportions... and never the rich bourgeoisie has been looking more useless, corrupt (they are drug dealers) and wasted away in a ritual pattern of suppers and dinners and flambés à l'orange...

In The Discreet, this is the purpose of their lives: the dinner, the supper. And they are all dressed up for it, all the time, and off they go, all together.

It is their common goal, as others will build a bridge or a cathedral, here, they must have their dinner... By the end of the movie, they never did, they never had a single dinner, their very purpose of existence has been stalled and denied, and it is turning into an existentialism problem...

But it is a comedy, and off they go, on the road, looking for another invitation...

The age group, here, is more than appropriate, they are middle aged, old age creeps by, the pleasures of a good dinner stand apart, loom over the all day. They are, basically speaking, the only left....

What will it be today... let's see — some fresh asparagus with hollandaise sauce, and there must be a roast, of course...

Sex, of course, is to be considered... but you eat first, then you think about it...

Sex in the afternoon, as suggested by the ever present, and rejected by the even more present in French films Delphine Seyberg, can be a real chore — where one gets all that energy, especially as one still did not get his dinner served yet...

Because this is where the fun really starts, in The Discreet... for all their preparations, their being "on time," their sticking to each other in this mission, well, there's no dinner.

The simple thing, setting down for supper, is stalled (wrong date), or interrupted (by the police), or canceled... whatever...