The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie)

Luis Buñuel wrote the surrealist dark comedy The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie) with Jean-Claude Carrière and directed it in 1972. A French-Italian-Spanish co-production, it won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at the 1973 ceremony and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay. Audran won the BAFTA for best actress, Buñuel and Carrière the one for best original screenplay, and French critics gave it the Méliès Prize.

The premise is simple: upper-class friends try to meet for dinner and trade fashion, politics and gossip, but something always goes wrong. Among them is Rafael Acosta (Fernando Rey), ambassador to France of the imaginary South American country of Miranda. Paul Frankeur and Delphine Seyrig play Mr. and Mrs. Thevenot and Bulle Ogier plays Florence, with Stéphane Audran and Milena Vukotic also in the cast. The film consists of five gatherings and four dreams; the gatherings dominate early and the dreams later, but the two intertwine. The characters accept even the strangest events without surprise.

Buñuel wanted to shoot in Spain but was blocked by Franco-era censorship. He later called the film the second part of a trilogy, with The Milky Way and The Phantom of Liberty, about the search for truth.