Luis Buñuel on "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" (1972) & the meaning of 'symbols' in his films: "In 'The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie' (1972), the initial idea was- some people want to take dinner together; they cannot; and why not? There is never logical thought. It is always rather irrational. Images appear. Some I refuse I'm a very bad writer. find it very difficult. I did not write a single line in the script. I give my ideas and we discuss them and then he writes for me. My collaborators oblige me to think. In Discreet Charm some things really happen, others are fantasized. Dreams provide the basic structure for the film, but all the dreams, [were] a posteriori. The scenes were originally realistic, but after they were written “I thought them absurd, so I made them dreams. If they were not dreams, It would be a bad picture. All the picture is a boutarde. Generally all my pictures have humor. Perhaps this is more comical—a posteriori. There are no symbols in my pictures, no conscious symbols — perhaps psychologically but never intellectually. Perhaps there are other meanings unknown by myself. The obsessions—they are myself. And I am as I am." ('No Symbols in His Films, Bunuel Says', Mel Gussow, The NY Times, 1972)