The Discreet Charm of Luis Bunuel

TDCOTB is basically an airy breeze through the stately, unobtrusive ambitions of a bunch of well-to-do sorts (such as those who might work on or watch one of his movies), and how they are undercut at every turn by chance, flaw, error, being in a bad dream, or pure spite. They retain their dignity as best they can. They are shown at their most undignified, and yet they walk tall. The comedy is profound. You gotta trust me on this one. It's fucken profound. And it's made with such chutzpah...Bunuel's mastery of the deadpan situational twist is absolute by this point.

BDJ is a little more forced IMO, a little more contrived, although it has some fantastic ideas and images. TDCOTB does the whole 'fantasy/reality' dichotomy much more sublimely - they're not just one and the same but you're really not sure there's much of a dichotomy any more. This all culminates in the heatstroke of filmic gnosticism that is his final, absolute work - as feather-light and knowing a portrait of man as I've seen. :)

I need to see L'Age D'Or again! I saw it once and was a bit 'buhhhhh ok that's quite pointed' - it's still great but I felt it was very much based upon its iconoclasm - it was hitting rather than delicately imbibing. Nonetheless some images and segues are amazing - the violing getting kicked down the street is one of my favourite things

And yes, The Milky Way is very much on the agenda

as I've said before 'the very finest surrealism is perfectly logical to someone' and Bunuel understands this more and more as he goes on

i'm sketchy with bunuel & am gonna rent that obscure object on your sayso LJ. i will webmail you for a reimbursement if it's terrible.

Un Chien Andalou has some arresting images but so what

ha ha, really? i mean it's not like you invest hours and get minimal return.

do so schlump! i will merely turn up at your house with a bucket of water

'reimbursement'/spongebath

Get Simon of the Desert.

I still stand what I wrote upthread:

More than anything by Sam Fuller, those Mexican Bunuel films make an airtight case for the virtues of the B-movie ethos as practised by an artist. Take Mexican Bus Ride, Susana, or Wuthering Heights. The acting is at best listless, the production values a little better than fifth graders using construction paper and papier mache, but man! He was never more authentically subversive and hence surrealist.

Also: last year's DVD release of The Exterminating Angel, which I never much liked after college, was revelatory for me.

Yeah, I need to check those films out xpost

My best friend and I saw that TEA DVD together a few months ago, in absolute awe. The group's descent into despair is so convincing! Parts seem almost improvised in their unfolding horror. And the last five minutes is the pulling of the most almighty rug - yeah, pretty Do You See but also completely awesome

I think Las Hurdes is STILL ahead of its time.

Las Hurdes was once available in a twofer edition with Un Chien Andalou. When I saw it in high school with some buddies, we all screamed when the sheep or the goat toppled off the hill.

Get a hold of as many of the Mexican Buñuels as you can. They're all pretty much great viewing and personal favorites because of the restrained use of Surrealist touches in many of them (the Meat Dream in Los Olvidados being prob his most unrestrained ).

I think Las Hurdes is STILL ahead of its time.

Actually, that's bull. Raul Ruiz certainly picked up where Las Hurdes left off. And then some. In fact, Ruiz's entire career has been rather Las Hurdes-esque.

Ruiz is an underrated master but the last couple of films I've seen have been disconcertingly hacky. Still - he seems to be the only person fit to have carried on in Buñuel's shoes. "Combat D'amour En Songe" is tremendous - like "The Milky Way" run through Borges, medieval Romances and Robert Louis Stevenson..

Get a hold of as many of the Mexican Buñuels as you can.

my favorite one of this period & the most obsessive = El (This Strange Passion) -- do not miss

breaking an egg on the lense of the camera.

I kinda regret my one-sentence summary of L'Age D'Or now, and really do want to see it again ASAP in order to banish such sentiments

on The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, which I'm rewatching:

Bunuel's mastery of the deadpan situational twist is absolute by this point

OTM.

I actually went hunting upthread to see who that was! VINDICATION

The Phantom Of Liberty is absolutely nothing BUT deadpan situational twists - it's dazzling, but I would agree with anyone who said that Bunuel was at his best when operating within a (loose) plot.

Is there any other filmmaker who has this ability to present the ludicrous as logical?

http://cinefilevideo.com/shop/shirts/bunuel-t-shirt/

http://cinefilevideo.com/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/product_images/FINALbunuel-2.jpg

Didn't know Death in the Garden got a DVD release a couple of years ago! Found it at the library today. Good interview with Michel Piccoli included with the extras.

Has anyone seen that documentary,A proposito de Buñuel aka Regarding Luis Buñuel?

Did you like Death in the Garden, Alfred? I remember being kind of bored by it.

"A proposito de Buñuel " is basically his son Juan-Luis and Jean Claude Carriere travelling around to various sites that were formative to Buñuel (Spain, Paris, LA, Mexico...). Many cool anecdotes along the way, especially a sort of sad one about LB and Dali late in their lives. Worth watching.

Did you like Death in the Garden, Alfred? I remember being kind of bored by it.

yep -- a bore.

Seem to dimly remember him blaming its floppitude on the cameraman in that interview with the Mexicans book.

should've voted Tristana

That film was damn near impossible to find even in the nineties. I saw it once on VHS in '97.

Tristana? I've got it on the DVD box set.

Hoberman reviews a new book on Don Luis' opportunistic, card-carrying Communist years:

http://www.thenation.com/article/167559/charismatic-chameleon-luis-bunuel

adventures of robinson crusoe is on tcm this wkend, sunday late i believe

Wrote a blurb about the Criterion release of The Milky Way.

I forgot that BDJ released earlier this year.

watched Exterminating Angel for the first time in an age last week. age hasn't diminished it tho its claustrophobia was more intense than i remembered.

have been very fond of The Milky Way since i first saw it, something about the cinematography and the locations and the look and feel of it i find hugely soothing, more so than any other Buñuel i think

when I first saw the milky way I was like "oh great this is the jesus movie" and for whatever reason, probably what noodle said, but I found it deeply moving

the movie is like a really great new song on a greatest hits comp

Tristana is showing at Linc Ctr tnite, and I don't see any evidence of a Region 1 DVD in print.

another plug for Objects of Desire. Good xmas gift.

watched El Bruto on a decent DVD transfer. One of his Mexican potboilers. Entertaining but not as rich as Wuthering Heights or El. Best scene is a lovemaking that takes place while some pork is being roasted on a fire.

also: goddamn it when are we getting Criterion release for Los olvidados?

Cohen Film Collection put out Tristana stateside on dvd/blu last month.

we're in midst of a retro -- may see Susana tnite

http://www.bam.org/film/2014/bunuel

Fernando Rey is magnificent in Tristana, which I confirm is close to the summit of LB's work

Él is really somethin'... I mean, look at the first 5 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wy2rL6e_Ao

El is top drawer Don Luis. Susana is fun.

No one's top drawer is more full than his.

El is the best film I know about machismo because it's smart enough to show its attractions and utility.

which are...? aside from raw naked power, when combined with money?

My fave comic moment is when the wife's innocent, pudgy friend responds to Francisco's nutty accusations and slap by decking him.

I dunno if I want to see Galvan naked.

a top drawer full of footwear

actor remembrances after his death in '83

JEANNE MOREAU: He was a fantastic person. He was the only director I know who never threw away a shot. He had the film in his mind. When he said “action” and “cut,” you knew that what was in between the two would be printed.

He worked with me mostly on physical movement. We didn’t speak too much about the character. But, as in life, sometimes you express yourself better and end up saying more by talking about something else.

MICHEL PICCOLI: I used to taunt him that it was Catherine Deneuve and I who made him. I said, “For years, nobody saw your films , except intellectuals, until we did Belle de Jour.” And he’d become very animated and agree and say, “You’re right, thank you.” We laughed and joked all the time. His laughter came out of a terrible anguish, but was non-stop.

He was once interviewed in Spain by French TV, which sent a crew with two trucks. He told them, “I could make a film with what it cost you to bring all this here.” He told them he preferred to do the interview in Toledo. They asked him if he liked that town especially and he answered, “No. I detest it. It’s full of flies.” Then they asked him if in El, he was influenced by Sade. He said no. The interviewer insisted: “In the movie, the man sews up the woman’s vagina.” Buñuel responded, “When your wife betrays you, you get drunk. I simply sew her up. There’s nothing sadistic about it.”

http://www.filmcomment.com/article/luis-bunuel-remembered

I love that OTM Orson Welles quote I posted a few years ago.

it's conceivable that the directors of The Greatest Story Ever Told and Ben-Hur loved Viridiana and The Milky Way.

cheap shot, much?