The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie [re-release]

François and Simone Thévenot are invited to a dinner hosted by Alice Sénéchal, but upon arrival, they discover that Alice was expecting them the following evening. With no meal prepared, the group makes a spontaneous decision to invite Alice to dine with them at a nearby inn.

Upon arriving at the inn, the group faces locked doors and waits for a waitress to let them in. The atmosphere inside is unsettling, with a lack of diners and unusually low menu prices making them uneasy.

As they settle into the inn, wails from a nearby room reveal they have stumbled into a vigil for the deceased manager. The group quickly decides to leave when they learn that the coroner is on his way, heightening the sense of dread.

The next day, Acosta and François meet at the Mirandan embassy with Alice's husband, Henri, to discuss the benefits of a large cocaine deal. In a spur-of-the-moment act, Acosta shoots a clockwork toy, inadvertently alarming a nearby vendor who belongs to a hostile Maoist group.

Attempting to enjoy lunch at the Sénéchals’, tension rises when Henri and Simone slip away to the garden for a secret meeting. Their absence hints at the Sénéchals evading a police investigation tied to drugs, propelling the group to make a hurried exit.

Upon returning from their garden rendezvous, the Sénéchals are faced with a surprise visitor—a bishop dressed as their gardener. The bishop's tale about his parents' tragic demise from poisoning leads to a deeper, eerie communion among the characters.

In a nearby teahouse, the women encounter a soldier who shares a bittersweet memory of his childhood. His reflections include the harsh discipline of his father after his mother's death, escalating the conversation into darker territories involving accusations of murder.

In secret, Simone meets Acosta for an affair at his apartment but is interrupted by François. The tension escalates when a vengeful terrorist intrudes, leading to a dangerous confrontation and Simone’s firm rejection of his advances.

The Sénéchal residence transforms into the backdrop of chaos when an army regiment arrives for an emergency drill, disrupting dinner. The ensuing turmoil leads Henri to dream about a botched stage performance, while François imagines a violent conflict at dinner.

In a twist of fate, the bishop leaves his gardening to provide absolution to a dying man. Shockingly, he discovers that the man confessed to murdering his own parents, leading to a crushing realization that drives him to shoot the man in cold blood.

As events spiral, François, Simone, Acosta, and the Sénéchals find themselves arrested on charges of drug trafficking. The atmosphere is surreal, filled with confusion and uncertainty as layers of distrust unravel among them.

Amid these tumultuous events, a ghostly figure of a former inspector seems to orchestrate the justice process, leading to the ordered release of the characters from custody. The chaotic whirs of jet engines symbolically distort the clear reasons behind their liberation.

The film culminates with a haunting visual of the six main characters walking silently along a desolate country road. This scene encapsulates the entangled complexity of their lives and shadows cast by their past decisions.