The Infinite Stroll
- nmojtahed
- May 5
- 4 min read
Considerations on the recurring walk in The Discreet Charm of Bourgeoisie
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) is a comic remake of The Exterminating Angel (1962). In the latter, the bourgeoisie has a dinner that never ends; in the former, they cannot even begin their meal. There is a recurring scene in The discreet Charm in which the group is seen walking along a country road. Critics have proposed a range of interpretations, from a futile search for class identity to a Sisyphean entrapment that dislocates them from their urban familiar surroundings and propels them toward ruin. Yet I tend to resist overly esoteric readings of Luis Buñuel. His cinema, while elusive, often rests on deceptively simple considerations in our daily lives. In this case, the repetition of the scene at measured intervals functions less as a complex puzzle than as an ironic suggestion: life goes on. The world continues its indifferent movements, even as the characters remain trapped within their own self-imposed paralysis.
In this case, the repetition of the scene at measured intervals functions less as a complex puzzle than as an ironic suggestion: life goes on.
In 1999, film critic Marsha Kinder edited Luis Buñuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. The collection features diverse perspectives on the film, including a contribution by John Rechy. Rechy opens by clarifying that while Marilyn Monroe did visit Mexico City and tour Churubusco Studios during the filming of The Exterminating Angel, the story he shares can be a product of his imagination.
On that particular day, Buñuel was filming the scene in which a bear climbs a chandelier chain. Monroe praised the scene as "superb" and jokingly asked, "When you whispered in the bear's ear, did you tell him what his motivation was? What is the meaning of his growl?"
Having studied at the Actors Studio under Lee Strasberg, Monroe was well-versed in the "Method" and its emphasis on character motivation.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie as a homage to an unappreciated American star
Buñuel realized that despite Hollywood’s attempt to brand her as a "dumb blonde,” she was intelligent. Wishing his actors were equally bright, he asked what the scene meant to her. She responded, "It means that the growls of a bear hanging from a chandelier make more sense than the noise of the tiresome, uncaring people trapped in that room."
"Exactly what I intended," Buñuel replied.
“Now tell me,” Buñuel asked Marilyn Monroe with unusual earnestness, “How do you see life?”
It was the question she had long hoped someone would ask. Instead, she was habitually reduced to trivialities, with questions like 'What perfume did she wear to bed?' Her answer, when it finally came, carried a different weight: “I see life as a long, meaningless… talking, everybody just talking obliviously.”
Buñuel realized that despite Hollywood’s attempt to brand her as a "dumb blonde,” she was intelligent.
The first time she had used the word "obliviously," she had been with Arthur Miller, they were not yet married, and he had raised his eyebrows. Intimidated, she quickly withdrew the word and replaced it with "obviously," allowing him to correct her.
On the set of The Exterminating Angel, as Monroe pronounced the word “talking,” the noise of an airplane cut through the air. Buñuel, already struggling with hearing loss that would progress with age, misheard it as “walking.” It was just as the magical movie star had said, life reduced itself to "tiresome, uncaring people," suggesting the bourgeoisie is just walking obliviously.
Instead, she was habitually reduced to trivialities, with questions like 'What perfume did she wear to bed?'
A decade later, in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Buñuel pays homage to the movie star's astute observation. To depict the bourgeoisie's "discreet charm," he interrupts the action and cuts to the group of "bourgeois" walking through a barren landscape.
When he told his assistant the origin of that scene, she, who was in Mexico City, informed him that she had said "talking," not "walking." Remembering the noisy airplane that had smudged her words, Bunuel finds a way to incorporate the new information into his film at key points; narrative information is drowned out by the roar of an airplane, throwing ambiguous events into even greater uncertainty. Bunuel celebrates the grand star who Hollywood tried to present as a sex object, and ignores her values. John Rechy, further exploring the extent of his imagination, adds, when Marilyn Monroe saw the film, in a New York theater with Arthur Miller, by then her husband, she turned to him and said, "The bourgeoisie! always walking, just walking ..." She had paused before she added the last word, which she pronounced precisely: "obliviously."
Miller arched his eyebrows at the word and waited for her to convert it into a wrong one so he could explain it all over to her.
She did not.
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