Film analysis: key concepts and methodologies

¶ … Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie embody the aims of Surrealism as stipulated in Andre Breton's Surrealist Manifesto?

Breton's Surrealist Manifesto, was written in homage to one Guillaume Apollinaire, who had died recently, and who, on quite a number of occasions, seemed to have followed a field of this kind, but without ever having sacrificed it to any kind of mediocre literary forms. Soupault and I, referred to this new form of pure expression, that was at our disposal, and which we fervently wished to share with our friends, by the term SURREALISM. I do believe that, in today's world there is no need of pondering any further on meaning of this word, since the meaning that we had given it initially, has prevailed against its Apollinarian meaning (Breton).

To be fair, we could have deployed the word SUPERNATURALISM that was first used in this context by Gerard de Nerval in his homage to the Filles de feu. It seems however, that Nerval had the spirit that we do claim to have a tie to, however, on the other hand, Apollinaire possessed nothing other than the letter of Surrealism, having portrayed himself as not being able to offer any valid theoretical explanation for it. The critics who might be against our right to use the word SURREALISM in the special context that we do understand it to mean are being very dishonest, for there is no doubt that this particular term had no history and emphasis before we started using it (Breton). Therefore, I am hereby defining it finally:

SURREALISM, n. This is Psychic automatism in its very pure state, the state by which one suggests to verbally express, or even using written word or any other form of media, the real functioning of thought. It is determined entirely by thought and lacks any control brought about by reason; it is also not restricted by moral or aesthetic concerns (Breton).

Robert Desnos, who is regarded perhaps as having gotten nearest to the Surrealist truth in the course of many experiments (that he was party to), and in his numerous unpublished works, through which he justified the hope many people, including myself, had placed in surrealism, and led me to have the belief that there was still a lot more that could come of Surrealism. Desnos articulates Surrealism, utilizing his extraordinary agility. His thought is however of as much worth to as any number of amazing speeches that are lost, since Desnos seemingly has better things to occupy his time with, than record his speeches. Desnos reads himself almost like an open book, and does not do anything to retain pages (Breton).

Bunuel's 1972 criticism on the privileged classes does not in any way seem surrealistic as was his first film. In this film, Bunuel breaks the world into the "reality" of 6 friends as they try to have dinner together, and the tales of dreams and more dreams within dreams which interrupt and lie underneath their external social niceties. Even though we are not quite able to determine whether there is a line between the reality and the dream in the Discreet Charm, this barriers line is crossed every instance that a character starts a narrative of a dream he has had, or is all of a sudden awakened revealing that a preceding sequence was indeed a dream (Ahrens).

Bunuel incorporates the externally placid, yet internally violent, bourgeois objectives with pictures or shots of a group on a road. Initially there seems to be clear divisions between reality and fantasy, however it finally becomes obvious that it is not possible to separate the two. Immediately after the release to cinemas in 1972 of "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie," Bunuel stated that when he was young the French surrealist movement was one of the most violent artistic movements in the whole world. However, now the society itself has turned so violent that is difficult to utilize violence to make any form of artistic statement. Therefore, Bunuel did it with humor and the dreamy surrealism of his film blended into the reality of situations. It only did blend at moments of transition, the likes of, his hiding beneath the table, the diplomat's sudden awakening and walk to the kitchen after a scene of a terrorist attack, does the viewer transit form the dream to reality (Ahrens).

The main story is depicted as a flashback, which Mathieu describes, for his fellow train passengers benefit, his attempts to get a beautiful Spanish dancer, while on a journey back to Paris from the city of Seville. Mathieu narrates from his first class compartment, his tale of endless frustration. One of his fellow passengers- a funny dwarf who later turns out to be a psychiatrist, gives a running analysis of Mathieu's tale as they journey on a track to self-awareness (Ahrens). Each inserted tale bears some sort of death allusion, a fact that the six friends seem to ignore (Acker). The sergeant's celebratory torture and the dinner party massacre are inherently flights of fantasy that are wrapped up in bourgeois existence social niceties. Bunuel incorporates the realm of Surrealism via the blurring of dreams using reality.