what did u love so much about The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoise? i never got too much out of his movies cept for Belle De Jour tbh. Un Chien Andalou has some arresting images but so what
― Michael B, Sunday, 4 April 2010 00:43 (fourteen years ago) link
I don't find L'Age d'Or DO YOU SEE?!?!?!?! at all. It'd be in my top 2 or 3, there are so many beautiful images and awesome gags in it. The opening 10-15 minutes is probably my favourite Buñuel, alongside the close of Simon del Desierto. The later movies are great but to my mind they're far more engaged in DYS-satire than L'Age d'Or, which just feels more thoroughly its own thing, a purer surrealism and blast of black humour.
Think you'd like The Milky Way a good deal, LJ, and everybody should see Simon given a chance - no region 2 DVD yet, bastards.
― Top Geir (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 4 April 2010 00:48 (fourteen years ago) link
Un Chien Andalou has some arresting images but so what
Think this hinges on "Are you down with Surrealists y/n?" tbh, and your tolerance for unorthodox narrative (not necessarily the absence of narrative).
― Top Geir (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 4 April 2010 00:51 (fourteen years ago) link
diary of a chambermaidviridianalos olvidadostristanathe exterminating angel
of those i've seen
― nakhchivan, Sunday, 4 April 2010 00:53 (fourteen years ago) link
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
― acoleuthic, Sunday, 4 April 2010 00:55 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
ha ha, really? i mean it's not like you invest hours and get minimal return.
― Earning your Masters in Library and Information Science is beautiful (schlump), Sunday, 4 April 2010 00:57 (fourteen years ago) link
do so schlump! i will merely turn up at your house with a bucket of water
― acoleuthic, Sunday, 4 April 2010 01:05 (fourteen years ago) link
'reimbursement'/spongebath
― Earning your Masters in Library and Information Science is beautiful (schlump), Sunday, 4 April 2010 01:08 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― filling the medicare donut hole with the semen of liberal (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 4 April 2010 01:26 (fourteen years ago) link
Also: last year's DVD release of The Exterminating Angel, which I never much liked after college, was revelatory for me.
― filling the medicare donut hole with the semen of liberal (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 4 April 2010 01:27 (fourteen years ago) link
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
― acoleuthic, Sunday, 4 April 2010 01:30 (fourteen years ago) link
I think Las Hurdes is STILL ahead of its time.
― Kevin John Bozelka, Sunday, 4 April 2010 01:39 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― filling the medicare donut hole with the semen of liberal (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 4 April 2010 01:53 (fourteen years ago) link
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 ).
― Bow Before Zeezrom!!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Sunday, 4 April 2010 02:12 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― Kevin John Bozelka, Sunday, 4 April 2010 02:14 (fourteen years ago) link
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..
― Bow Before Zeezrom!!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Sunday, 4 April 2010 23:07 (fourteen years ago) link
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
― Milton Parker, Monday, 5 April 2010 02:04 (fourteen years ago) link
breaking an egg on the lense of the camera.
― 404s & Heartbreak (jim in glasgow), Monday, 5 April 2010 02:05 (fourteen years ago) link
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
― william mcgonadal's tay ridge disaster (acoleuthic), Monday, 5 April 2010 02:08 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 6 July 2010 23:17 (thirteen years ago) link
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?
― so you want Mark Ronson to cry into your ass (acoleuthic), Tuesday, 6 July 2010 23:24 (thirteen years ago) link
http://cinefilevideo.com/shop/shirts/bunuel-t-shirt/
http://cinefilevideo.com/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/product_images/FINALbunuel-2.jpg
― thomas l. sassy (donna rouge), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 00:00 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 31 January 2011 00:15 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― BIG TOONCES aka the steendriving cat (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 23 June 2011 20:06 (twelve years ago) link
"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.
― Vendo Caramelos A Veces Sin Dinero (Capitaine Jay Vee), Thursday, 23 June 2011 21:45 (twelve years ago) link
yep -- a bore.
― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 23 June 2011 21:50 (twelve years ago) link
Seem to dimly remember him blaming its floppitude on the cameraman in that interview with the Mexicans book.
― BIG TOONCES aka the steendriving cat (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 23 June 2011 22:18 (twelve years ago) link
should've voted Tristana
― already president FYI (Dr Morbius), Friday, 24 June 2011 02:22 (twelve years ago) link
That film was damn near impossible to find even in the nineties. I saw it once on VHS in '97.
― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 24 June 2011 02:33 (twelve years ago) link
Tristana? I've got it on the DVD box set.
― SB OK (Noodle Vague), Friday, 24 June 2011 06:43 (twelve years ago) link
Hoberman reviews a new book on Don Luis' opportunistic, card-carrying Communist years:
http://www.thenation.com/article/167559/charismatic-chameleon-luis-bunuel
― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Friday, 27 April 2012 15:51 (twelve years ago) link
adventures of robinson crusoe is on tcm this wkend, sunday late i believe
― johnny crunch, Friday, 27 April 2012 15:53 (twelve years ago) link
Wrote a blurb about the Criterion release of The Milky Way.
I forgot that BDJ released earlier this year.
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 13 June 2012 23:32 (eleven years ago) link
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
― Mexès Coleslaw Massacre (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 14 June 2012 00:33 (eleven years ago) link
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
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Thursday, 14 June 2012 00:45 (eleven years ago) link
the movie is like a really great new song on a greatest hits comp
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 14 June 2012 00:49 (eleven years ago) link
Tristana is showing at Linc Ctr tnite, and I don't see any evidence of a Region 1 DVD in print.
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 15 December 2012 17:12 (eleven years ago) link
another plug for Objects of Desire. Good xmas gift.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 15 December 2012 17:15 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 28 April 2013 23:37 (eleven years ago) link
also: goddamn it when are we getting Criterion release for Los olvidados?
Cohen Film Collection put out Tristana stateside on dvd/blu last month.
― Sheela-Tubb-Mann, You Real Know-It-All (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 29 April 2013 00:15 (eleven years ago) link
we're in midst of a retro -- may see Susana tnite
http://www.bam.org/film/2014/bunuel
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 17 July 2014 19:29 (nine years ago) link
Fernando Rey is magnificent in Tristana, which I confirm is close to the summit of LB's work
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Monday, 21 July 2014 03:10 (nine years ago) link
Él is really somethin'... I mean, look at the first 5 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wy2rL6e_Ao
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 29 July 2014 03:17 (nine years ago) link
El is top drawer Don Luis. Susana is fun.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 29 July 2014 12:09 (nine years ago) link
No one's top drawer is more full than his.
― You are exactly why people root for the apes (Eric H.), Tuesday, 29 July 2014 12:58 (nine years ago) link
El is the best film I know about machismo because it's smart enough to show its attractions and utility.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 29 July 2014 13:00 (nine years ago) link
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.
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 29 July 2014 13:30 (nine years ago) link
I dunno if I want to see Galvan naked.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 29 July 2014 13:31 (nine years ago) link