Elliot’s Watching - Week of 7/4/2: Lupin and Bunuel

 Elliot’s Watching - Week of 7/4/21

Luis Bunuel’s 1972 film, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, is far from this best work, but it has its moments of weirdness, maybe too much weirdness and not enough charm. Posing as a social satire - in which the wealthy lead corrupt lives of selfishness and dissolution while maintaining throughout a strangely courteous and acquiescent demeanor, the social commentary is mild rather than biting and obvious rather than subtle (or discreet, for that matter). The film begins as two well-to-do couples arrive at the country house of another couple for an expected dinner party - but the hosts are nowhere to be found. When they turn up, it seems there’s been a confusion about the date - so the 3 couples go out for dinner. At the restaurant nearby, it seems that they’re open, but no food is available. Profuse apologies, but their founder has just died and he is lying in state in just off the dining room. And thus begin a series of missed connections - and the 6 never really get a chance to eat anything (some repulsive appetizers aside). This apparent reality mixes with many scenes that seem and feel realistic and vivid, at least within the established terms of this film, but turn out to be dreams - usually involving shootings and death (one of the sextet, played by the great Fernando Rey, is an ambassador from Latin America and involved in Rx-running). The film ends with the six, still hungry I guess, walking down a long, flat stretch of (Normandy?) highway, aimless and confused. I’m not really sure what any of this amounts to, though it’s worth watching once for the dark humor and for the depiction of a group of the privileged who get what they deserve. 

The George Kay Netflix series Lupin Season 2, based on the detective stories about the eponymous Lupin from early 20th century and set in present-day Paris, is a great star vehicle for Omar Sy and is entertaining but also totally preposterous, so much so that the unlikelihood of any of Sy’s escapades and schemes working out becomes part of the humor. Just to imagine Sy himself - a distinct and massive star - going unrecognized on the streets of Paris when his face is on every screen as the most wanted man in France - well, it’s all part of the joke. His schemes are so outlandish, elaborate and dependent on every step along the way going right as to be comically absurd. The episodes are well-paced, even frantic, with a dominating score (I enjoyed watching some of the chase and fight sequences while imaging no background track - and without the music they were for the most part mundane and boring. Bring it on!) So, OK, yeah, quite binge-able, but in the end you’ve feasted on froth and air.