Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The

Six friends try to get together for dinner, but something always foils their plans—they get the date wrong, or they are interrupted by army maneuvers, or they are (apparently) murdered by terrorists. Director Luis Buñuel’s 1972 Oscar-winner for best foreign film (co-written by Buñuel and the redoubtable Jean-Claude Carriere) retains all its discreet charm and playful surrealism. Buñuel’s deadpan wit at the vain foibles of his characters has aged like fine wine, and the film is as tantalizing and vexing as it was when it was new. Buñuel and Carriere give us dreams within dreams, fantasies within fantasies and stories within stories, all punctuated by scenes of the six striding purposefully along a deserted country road, resolutely headed nowhere, their eyes fixed on the empty horizon.