The Discreet Charm of Luis Bunuel

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/

That's a fantastic ranking. El (which is my current fave) told me that I really need to see the Mexican years.

A lot of the French stuff is dull (ofc watch it but).

Really wish I was on a good torrents site rn. That's what I'd be downloading.

Excellent!

Diary of a Chambermaid, The Phantom of Liberty, and The Milky Way don't do much for me either.

I'll have to give Subida another shot, since I haven't seen it since college and it was easily the one that impressed me the least

The Mexican films are really good. Still a couple I haven't seen.

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

I loved that one particularly.

I gave The Milky Way my first viewing in years. Amusing for about 20 minutes in a Catholic boy having a laff sort of way. Those French films were as uneven as the Mexican ones.

Right. And so the Mexican films are more of a gift in that we might not have expected as much, lower budgets, less star power etc.

My French 2 class seems to have ended up doing a film unit that I didn't really plan on. We have a 100-minute block on Monday. Should I show them The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie?

Sure, why not?

yes

Happy birthday, cabron!

Was somewhat surprised how enjoyable Susana was, after catching a screening at MoMA. Buñuel himself seemed to underrate it, going by stray comments of his.

I dont think he was capable of making a non good film. There's only 5 I haven't seen.

lol i was gonna say more or less that, tho maybe i'd say non-enjoyable rather than non-good

I don't think he was capable of mixing a bad martini.

Thanks to that MoMA retrospective, I've now seen most of his films, and I'm inclined to agree, it's likely he's never made a bad film. Certainly some are better than others - as mentioned in the retrospective's notes, several of those films were very much commercial films with little room to do anything more - but they all have something to like and most have some measure of greatness to them. It's a testament to Bunuel that he made the best of where life took him to an extraordinary degree, going to Mexico to work as a "commercial" filmmaker when MoMA rescinded their job offer, then over the course of a decade building that into a launching pad for a third act as a European arthouse giant.

FWIW, among the Mexican films including Viridiana, which had its state of origin reclassified as Mexico, I'd say he made at least ten genuine masterpieces. Pretty remarkable considering how much his reputation probably rests on his earlier and later films simply because the availability of his Mexican films hasn't been reliable, especially in decent print quality. Hopefully that changes soon - many of those titles had great-looking and very recent restorations.

At worst Don Luis' lesser films suffer from a malnourished idea or a poor execution of a promising idea, neither of which fatal flaws for a director.

I really need to see Subida al cielo again. My memory is not that of a masterpiece, but I've seen so many suggest otherwise

LOL, not surprised I said basically the same itt already

I really liked this one. Wish I could get a physical version of it to watch.
https://letterboxd.com/film/illusion-travels-by-streetcar/

Was the MoMA Mexican series mentioned yet?

Yes, I see that it was, more than once

Just finished. I had some vague intention to get over there but somehow something suddenly came up.