Film

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

Six impeccably dressed friends try, over and over, to sit down to a meal together, and the universe keeps refusing them — soldiers, bandits, dreams within dreams, even death itself keep interrupting. Buñuel's late masterpiece is droll rather than cruel, a string of exquisitely staged social humiliations that never tips into nightmare. Funny, elegant, and endlessly rewatchable for anyone who enjoys watching good manners survive absolutely anything.

TMDb rating7.5

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The Exterminating Angel1962

Buñuel again, ten years earlier: this time the wealthy guests can leave anytime they want, except they simply can't. Same nightmare logic, same target, arguably sharper and stranger.

But More claustrophobic and openly grim than Discreet Charm's playful tone — less sly humour, more genuine dread.

The Exterminating Angel poster

Belle de Jour1967

Buñuel and Deneuve again, this time inside one woman's double life, where fantasy keeps intruding on bourgeois propriety with the same deadpan surreal wit.

But Quieter and more erotic than comic, with ambiguities about desire and control that feel very much of their moment.

Belle de Jour poster

The Rules of the Game1939

Renoir's country-house ensemble is the blueprint for this whole genre of class satire — hypocrisy exposed through farce that curdles, almost accidentally, into tragedy.

But Prewar pacing and a sprawling cast ask for patience; it's melancholy where Buñuel is mischievous.

The Rules of the Game poster

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Grey Gardens1976

Buñuel invents bourgeois collapse as farce; this documentary shows the actual thing happening — ritual and self-performance still intact long after the money and dignity are gone.

Real aristocrats, a real crumbling mansion, two women hosting rituals for nobody but themselves and the raccoons. This is what's left after the champagne runs out.

But Nothing here is staged for laughs; the comedy is helpless and the sadness is real, which can feel uncomfortable rather than delicious.

Grey Gardens poster
More like this (8)

Parasite2019

The modern heir to this kind of class satire, with a plot as cunning as its politics and tonal swings from comedy to horror that land like a trapdoor.

But Far more plot-driven and eventually violent than Buñuel's loose dream-logic; mechanism over mystery.

Parasite poster

Triangle of Sadness2022

Östlund turns the ultra-rich into a grotesque comic subject, building to one of the great disaster set-pieces in recent cinema — status humiliation as spectacle.

But Broader, grosser, and far less mannered than Buñuel; subtlety is not remotely the point.

Triangle of Sadness poster

The Square2017

Another Östlund satire, this time skewering the art world and liberal bourgeois self-regard through excruciating, brilliantly staged social set pieces.

But Long, episodic, and tonally uneven, wobbling between cringe comedy and something more sincere.

The Square poster

Gosford Park2001

Altman's overlapping ensemble delivers upstairs-downstairs class comedy with real bite, manners doing their best to paper over rot underneath.

But More conventional whodunit plotting, with none of Buñuel's dream ruptures or philosophical strangeness.

Gosford Park poster

In the Loop2009

Rapid-fire political farce about self-important elites blundering toward catastrophe, proving bureaucratic absurdity is its own kind of dinner party disaster.

But Verbal, contemporary, and specifically British political satire — a very different flavour of absurd.

In the Loop poster

Knives Out2019

An accessible, crowd-pleasing skewering of a wealthy family's hypocrisies, wrapped inside a twisty, hugely enjoyable whodunit.

But Much more plot-mechanical and warm-hearted, with little of Buñuel's dreamlike ambiguity or menace.

Knives Out poster

Ready or Not2019

Same premise, blood instead of hunger: a household ritual traps its guests and exposes violence dressed up as tradition, played for screams instead of unease.

A new bride is hunted through a mansion by her monstrous in-laws when a family ritual goes wrong — pure genre trash with real teeth about old money protecting itself.

But Loud, gory, and completely unsubtle where Buñuel is dry and elliptical; this is satire delivered with a chainsaw.

Ready or Not poster

The Palm Beach Story1942

The same engine — wealthy characters endlessly thwarted en route to something simple — running forty years earlier in a completely different register: American, romantic, and generous rather than damning.

Decades before Buñuel, Hollywood was already laughing at idle rich people whose simple plans keep collapsing under their own absurd impulses, at breathless screwball speed.

But Warm and forgiving where Buñuel is cold and clinical; it wants you to adore these people, not indict them.

The Palm Beach Story poster

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