The Discreet Charm of Luis Bunuel

"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?

tonight is Wuthering Heights, which I saw about 20 years ago... anything to say about The Great Madcap or The River and Death?

http://www.bam.org/film/2014/the-great-madcap

http://www.bam.org/film/2014/the-river-and-death

Wuthering Heights good, those other two did nothing for me.

when did you see em?

Nineties. Can't even remember where. Either Anthology or Walter Reade.

Wuthering Heights is better than the Wyler version, horrible acting and production values and all.

but I love most of Don Luis' Mexican movies.

If they're showing his "Robinson Crusoe" then go see! Yes, his "Wuthering Heights" is fantastic. I'll take Mexican Buñuel over his 60s/70s Spanish/French films any day - great as those European films are.

His Mexican period is his most satisfying overall.

well I had forgotten almost everything about WH, incl Liebestod on the soundtrack, all the horrific animal/insect imagery and the crypt finale. Also Catherine/Catalina's loutish brother had to be Rod Steiger's Mexican cousin.

my library has Crusoe.

Crusoe boats eerie-quiet moment of Crusoe and animals or Crusoe and his tools that evoke Bresson. Dan O'Herlihy's Oscar nod one of the great WTF moments, not because he didn't deserve it.

*boats

There's a crappy tv channel over here which shows Crusoe quite often, I'd never seen it before

*BOASTS dammit

Slant did this LB baedeker 12+ (!) years ago

http://www.slantmagazine.com/features/article/the-savage-poetry-of-luis-bunuel

Fever Rises in El Pao? Daughter of Deceit?

by all means watch El Pao but you'll forget about it in a day. I haven't seen DOD.

well it's $9 to get in and i'm poor so that doesn't sound like a good deal.

to be honest it's been many years and you may like it. Those Mexican films are surprising.

it would be easier if BAM was doing them as double features

this fucking movie

http://michaelgloversmith.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/olvidados.jpg

a romantic comedy