The Discreet Charm of Luis Bunuel

As for the film itself, which I had never actually seen its entirety before, I liked it, but it in leading with its most powerful image its kinda anticlimactic. That said, the drooling pervert, the bits of slapstick, the censuring of the cross-dresser, the faux Hollywood ending (and the concluding reveal)--all great.

"God and country are an unbeatable team" -- his best.

nice write-up; really, really need to see more of those mid-period films

did I mention that a couple of years ago I saw a showing of TOOOD w/ a Carriere Q&A? and asked him a question? about the sack Rey carries about with him (it contains a lot of multitudes for a one-joke film)

I'm glad you learnt the perfect martini from him, Alf. I took some drinking advice from him as well, when he said in his My Last Breath autobiography that a bottle of red wine a day does you no harm.

Two glasses for me, perhaps a Bunueloni.

👌

RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDKGmW-5nbw

Fantastic write-up Alfred. Will have to try his recipe for a dry one too.

Thank you!

The dash of bitters does make a difference.

“Lately, my own sexual desire has waned and finally disappeared, even in dreams. And I’m delighted; it’s as if I’ve finally been relieved of a tyrannical burden.”

Shaw said something similar

I can't wait to be in the grips of a major passion.

what you and Major Passion do isn't even the Army's business

abismos de pasion

im usu in the grips of two thighs

happy Luis Day

https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/expecting-the-unexpected-four-by-luis-bunuel

happy bday bunny!

my favorite is Belle de Jour

as a tribute, I'll open an extra bottle of red wine tonight.

Republicans looking for a restaurant that will serve them in 2018 pic.twitter.com/e8ILcp4jP9

— Eric Allen Hatch (@ericallenhatch) June 25, 2018

looooool real tweets

NYC MoMA doing a J-C Carriere retro... I'd forgotten he'd written a couple big Volker Schlondorff movies, let alone Birth.

https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/5066?locale=en

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6767-luis-bu-uel-eternal-surrealist

rare '55 film It's Called the Dawn streaming for free here; some call it "atypical," it was a favorite of his

https://kinoslang.blogspot.com/2020/04/kino-slang-quarantine-presents-cela.html

I'm thinking of making my housemates watch The Exterminating Angel with me, seems appropriate.

yes, that is a film for this moment

it seems resonant with our world now

Yes, do it.

Death in the Garden (1956)

This is on the bfi player. Anyone seen it?

S'okay.

Yeah, no great shakes

Thanks won't bother, for now. Couple more things I want to check first.

watched 'It's Called the Dawn'. it's slow but I liked it! power to the people. Buñuel giving longtime fans a shoutout with the Jesus streetlamp oriface portrait & the baby turtle. cool to see Julien Bertheau playing the exact same chief of police he plays 20 years later in 'Phantom' and 'Discreet Charm', and cool to see Lucia Bosè (I am a huge fan of her 1981 record with Gregorio Paniagua 'lo Pomodoro' - Atrium Musicae de Madrid / Gregorio Paniagua )

probably best saved after you've worked through the 60s-70s films. safe introduction into the 50's films is still 'El'. but this was a treat if you've already enjoyed 'Strange Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz' & 'Mexican Bus Ride'.

that Jesus photo was real btw, not his creation

I just knew!

thanks for posting

Death in the Garden has so many bizarrely ordinary colonial/jungle trek passages. Was he trying to get a hit? A few weirdnesses here and there, sure, like the snake / ants shot, and the brutal dispatch of most of the cast at the end.

it definitely tops his other films for use of guns and ammo

Pierre Clémenti's is the greatest metal-toothed character in cinema, sorry Richard Kiel and James Franco.

Morbz otm.

Madame Anais one of the better acted and written supporting characters in the Bunuel universe.

Alfred otm.

Like when she doesn't allow Severine to kiss her.

Yes, it's a great performance, very subtle.

in Belle du Jour I could relate to Séverine’s difficulty connecting sex with love - sex could only be about fantasy for her, and her love for her husband was something she could only really understand through fantasy

DIG THAT WES ANDERSON FONT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gENBxJl5bDs

I watched a few of the films he made in Mexico last year. Quite enjoyed Illusion Travels By Streetcar though it seems more like a low key Ealing Comedy or Disney thing than what he's best known for.

That's a good one. Fair enough, but I like that side of his work too.

I watched Discreet Charm way earlier in life than would be advisable and it made perfect sense to me alongside the Monty Python movies.

ITBS and most of his Mexican productions were all chock full o’ that Surrealist spirit, IMHO. Isn’t there a scene where meat’s being sold on a tramcar? That comes to mind.

Like I said upthread, the $13 budgets of those Mexican films make many of them scarier and more effective.

Yes, exactly.

I can't wait to be in the grips of a major passion.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 7 December 2017 16:15 (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

what you and Major Passion do isn't even the Army's business

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 7 December 2017 16:17 (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

On tonight:

https://princecharlescinema.com/PrinceCharlesCinema.dll/WhatsOn?f=25443525

One of the more idiosyncratic Bunuel rankings I've seen. Mexican Bus Ride at #1!

https://letterboxd.com/diogoserafim/list/luis-bunuel/