Although not Luis Bunuel at his very best (it lacks the bite of earlier eviscerations of polite society like The Exterminating Angel ) this 1972 Oscar winner still finds the Spanish surrealist wielding a mean scalpel as six dinner-party guests are constantly frustrated in their search for the promised meal.
The third of his six team-ups with scripter Jean-Claude Carrière, it weaves games of dream and reality as the sextet wander through increasingly absurd set-ups. patriarchal authority and polite social rituals are slyly undermined, and the cast play it impeccably.
