Political Films Meet-Up: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

Political Films Meet-Up: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)

Let’s talk about movies! Join movie club members Clay Vaughn and Seth Wolf for the next film in our Political Films series with Luis Buñuel's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972), a French surrealist satire of the beliefs, lifestyles, and social mores of the European upper class.

Here’s how The Portland Movie Club meet-ups work:

• Just like a book club, we watch the movie on our own time before we meet.
• We'll meet at Lucky Lab on SE Hawthorne at 4pm on the scheduled date.
• We'll typically have a sign at our table(s) but at least we'll try to be obvious and identifiable.
• Grab some food and drinks to support our generous hosts and spend some time socializing and discussing this movie with us.

A Few Notes about the film:
A French production, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie was a critical and box office success in Europe and the United States, and received a number of awards including the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Some film scholars regard it as Buñuel's masterpiece.

Viewing Options for the film:
The film is available to stream for free on Tubi, and can also be rented on YouTube and elsewhere. And, as always, physical copies of the film are available to rent at Movie Madness.

About Political Films:
This series started out focusing on the New Republic article "The 100 Most Significant Political Films of All Time" published in June 2023, but we've since expanded well beyond the list. Both the documentaries and narrative fiction films we discuss tend to include difficult imagery and subject matter, we suggest the website "Does the Dog Die?" for content warnings.

Tips:
Once again, we do not watch the movie at the meet-up. All members watch the movie on their own time before we meet to discuss it. You don't have to watch the movie to join us, but it'll make more sense if you do. Feel free to bring along any notes, books, or articles you'd like to share with the group.

At the end of the discussion we'll pass around a ballot where we can vote on a slate of options for the next discussion. Lately we've been alternating documentaries and fiction films. So if you come to a meet-up to discuss a documentary, you'll vote on a ballot of fiction films for next time, and vice versa.

Films previously discussed in the political group:
I Am Not Your Negro, It's a Wonderful Life, Reds, Soundtrack to a Coup D'État, The Conformist, The Fog of War, The Zone of Interest, Harlan County USA, Judas And The Black Messiah, Medium Cool, The President’s Analyst, Marat/Sade, On The Waterfront, The Great McGinty, Seven Days In May, The Candidate, The Act of Killing, The Battle Of Algiers, All The President’s Men, How To Blow Up A Pipeline, Do The Right Thing, Malcolm X, A Face In The Crowd, and Dr. Strangelove.

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