Bulle Ogier

Buñuel's cheerful blasphemy was, as you can imagine, shocking, but his commitment to relaying narrative through free-associative, non-linear images - his commitment, that is, to the Surrealist creed that raged among Parisian artists - was seen by many to be as grave an affront. Audiences grew hostile, it seems, when, in Buñuel's films, livestock lounged about in the beds of debutantes or miffed gamekeepers shot and killed children to blow off steam. Buñuel, who was a Spaniard, suffered a more concrete hardship when Fascists took power in Madrid in 1938; he eventually settled in Mexico in 1946, returning to Spain in 1961 where General Franco banned his first new film, Viridiana, just as hurriedly as the jury at Cannes awarded it the Palme d'or. And so Buñuel relocated to France, now in his 60s, and at an age when most directors have retired or have long since begun recycling their own material, he entered one of the most fertile periods enjoyed by any filmmaker anywhere. There are masterpieces scattered among Buñuel's French films like confetti, but in his 1972 comedy The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, one of cinema's most brilliant directors made the most brilliant film of his career.

Continue reading: The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie Review

For the uninitiated, and I expect that's most of you, Maîtresse tells us the story of a thief named Olivier who robs the apartment of a mild-mannered woman (Bulle Ogier) he's encountered earlier in the day. Much to his surprise, he discovers a dungeon on her bottom story. Ogier's Ariane is secretly a dominatrix, stomping genitals, stretching guys on the rack, and otherwise abusing her clients into oblivion. This discovery leads to all manner of unexpected hijinks, as Olivier and Ariane begin a torrid affair while he tags along on her jobs, Olivier becomes obsessed with one of Ariane's clients, and a horse is slaughtered on camera; a horsemeat filet is consumed in the following scene. The lattermost among those is only one reason why this film is X-rated.

Continue reading: Maîtresse Review