I confess I really screwed the pooch on this one. I went to Scarecrow with the intent to base my picks on Comedy on Manners. My initial research certainly said that my picks SAID they were comedies of manners. However, when I looked, these films up a second time I found little evidence that they were… Not to mention when I watched them I found little humor in them. So, in the end, I’m afraid I just have to call these a random choice of weird dramas.
In the first film on my list, Louis Bunuel Exterminating Angel a rich couple is throwing a very posh dinner party at their mansion. It goes mostly okay. The hostess was planning some entertainment involving a bear and some sheep but that was canceled. During the party, all of the mansion’s servants leave early. Soon after while evening drinks are served nobody has any desire to go home and once this is realized to be a problem the next day, it is soon realized that by a strange unexplained compulsion, nobody is able to leave the living room. As time goes on we discover that this compulsion goes both ways, and nobody is able to enter the mansion to rescue them.
The only other films by Bunuel I ever saw was The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie several times and while I enjoy that film, no matter how many times I’ve watched it, I’ve never been able to make heads or tails of it. This film is very similar intros way. I can understand it makes for a nice satire of how quickly the facade of gentility collapses and how quickly civilization collapses, but these are all just guesses. It’s still an interesting watch.
Next, I watched so and so’s My Night at Maud’s. This tells a story about so and so a practicing Catholic who after Christmas Mass gets stuck in the snow. He goes to a friend’s apartment where he meets Maud, an atheist,
I’m not sure what to say about this film. I Frequently find French New Wave, even the films I like, kind of dry. This one is no exception. Still, most of the acting was good and I found myself treating it as an interesting debate of two people debating their personal philosophies. It’s another film I can easily see done as a small play.
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