I was lucky that my university videotape library had most of the Mexican films in awful prints. All the major ones are available (not to sure about El though).
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 00:29 (sixteen years ago) link
his autobiography >>>> most of his films
― ☪, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 00:29 (sixteen years ago) link
Longer Answer: Viridiana, and that run from Belle onwards.
(x-post)
― C. Grisso/McCain, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 00:30 (sixteen years ago) link
Simon
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 00:31 (sixteen years ago) link
My vote's for Los Olvidados, followed by ...Bourgeoisie and Belle De Jour, but will agree that, these exceptions aside, even his good films have dead patches.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 00:37 (sixteen years ago) link
― Eric H., Wednesday, 14 November 2007 00:41 (sixteen years ago) link
I almost voted for El but went for Phantom
any of these four are good to start with, and the less you know about them going in, the better.
The Exterminating Angel (1962) The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) The Phantom of Liberty (1974) That Obscure Object of Desire (1977)
after that... everything else, Los Olvidados & El are my two favorites from the Mexico City years 1947-1960. and the autobiography is for anyone.
xpost I don't find his best films to have any dead patches, you just need to rescreen them
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 00:43 (sixteen years ago) link
I have! I watched Viridiana and ...Chambermaid this weekend. The latter's actually a lot better than I remember it, but the first half of Viridiana -- the Fernando Rey section -- drags. Pauline Kael OTM: Bunuel doesn't even dignify her inclination to do good (Nazarin a much better film on this same theme, actually), so Viridiana's primness makes the pace rather leaden.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 00:52 (sixteen years ago) link
his Mexican soapers Susana and Wuthering Heights are great fun.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 00:53 (sixteen years ago) link
Yup.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 01:06 (sixteen years ago) link
Dug up Orson Welles' remarks on Bunuel preserved in the Bogdanovich book. He's totally OTM:
He's a rich feeding ground for that sort of critic, because it's all true about him. You can take off and say he likes feet and all that. Jesus, it's all true. He's that kind of intellectual, and that kind of Catholic. He is a deeply Christian man who hates God as only a Christian can, and, of course, he's very Spanish. I see him as the most supremely religious director in the history of the movies. A superb kind of person he must be. Everyone loves him.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 01:18 (sixteen years ago) link
unlike many of his others, Viridiana improves if you read up on the back story before actually seeing the film. the insults are very deeply encoded, the film isn't worried about its pacing it's just content to exist as a prolonged blasphemy, and the final supper is an outrage. and it worked, there's a reason almost every copy of the film in the world was confiscated and destroyed
http://www.kevinkee.com/2007/09/27/viridiana-bunuels-masterpiece-nearly-destroyed/
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 01:26 (sixteen years ago) link
(xpost) The funny thing is, if you read that book of interviews with the two Mexican critics, Objects of Desire, he denies everything! Which used to make me not like the book, but now I realize that, of course, that is what he would say.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 01:31 (sixteen years ago) link
But the back stories of most of his films is fascinating. Read Objects of Desire, his booklength conversations with two sympathetic Mexican critics, which is almost as great as My Last Sigh. Out of print, alas, but available in most libraries.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 01:31 (sixteen years ago) link
ha! xpost
The Exterminating Angel for me.
― Joe, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 01:34 (sixteen years ago) link
Chunks of the Objects... book have been reprinted in Criterion's booklets for most of his films they've put out. Discreet Charm is an exception.
― C. Grisso/McCain, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 01:39 (sixteen years ago) link
I need to see more of his stuff. Loved Discreet Charm but the others I've seen, Chambermaid and the two after Discreet, were disappointing in comparison.
― da croupier, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 01:53 (sixteen years ago) link
I don't like the post-Discreet films much either; That Obscure Object of Desire reeeeally drags.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 02:00 (sixteen years ago) link
I subscribe to the new reasonably well-populated school of thought that the Mexican films are pretty much the best ones. One time I had a brief discussion with the guy who runs Cinema Tropical and he said something like "Those films really feel like they are from the gut."
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 02:04 (sixteen years ago) link
I am not as up on the Mexican films as I should be, but I just don't think anything can touch The Discreet Charm, it's got everything.
― Dimension 5ive, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 02:05 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 02:10 (sixteen years ago) link
OTM. Now I'm thinking I should have voted for Illusion Travels By Streetcar, if only for the little Genesis play-within-the-movie featuring an Eve dressed in a Stone Age leopard-skin fur bikini and a sombrero-wearing Adam with a pistol in one hand and a bottle of beer in the other.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 02:27 (sixteen years ago) link
I don't really buy that, but it's nice to consider anyway.
― Eric H., Wednesday, 14 November 2007 03:24 (sixteen years ago) link
In other words, Mexican Bus Ride is OK and all, but it's no L'Age d'Or.
gotta go with exterminating angel. what a movie.
― s1ocki, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 03:38 (sixteen years ago) link
I just voted for Las Hurdes, or what is called in English Land Without Bread. Watched it earlier last week for a class and it stuck with me and I figure it will be under-represented. It's actually available on google video for those who haven't seen it.
― robotsinlove, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 07:36 (sixteen years ago) link
Simon is a personal favourite but L’Âge d'or has a fantastic sense of rhythm, Max Fucking Ernst and Jesus as the Duc de Blangis so what the hell I gotta give it the vote.
― Noodle Vague, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 07:57 (sixteen years ago) link
Simon isn't even out on DVD, right?
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 14:52 (sixteen years ago) link
Doesn't look like it. I don't know if this is because it's a (semi-) short or what. Most of the Region 2 Bunuels are cheapy compilations tho.
― Noodle Vague, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 20:17 (sixteen years ago) link
Haven't seen many of the Mexican films.
Don't like "That Obscure Object of Desire" much.
Watched "Diary of a Chambermaid" recently - it's an odd film, something quite creepy and unsettling about it.
Also saw "The Milky Way" recently... totally incomprehensible!
I'm going for "Exterminating Angel".
― Tom D., Thursday, 15 November 2007 16:50 (sixteen years ago) link
So you've seen at least one Mexican film, then.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 15 November 2007 16:59 (sixteen years ago) link
ian, start with L’Âge d'or and Los Olvidados, then whatever. My other favorites are The Exterminating Angel, Diary of a Chambermaid, Tristana and Discreet Charm.
― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 15 November 2007 17:02 (sixteen years ago) link
Only the famous ones! (xp)
― Tom D., Thursday, 15 November 2007 17:02 (sixteen years ago) link
I think Tristana was Hitchcock's favorite. There is a story in My Last Sigh about Hitch sitting next to Buñuel at some Directors Guild function and saying "I loved that bit about the leg" then getter drunker and drunker as the evening progressed and repeating "That leg! That leg!"
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 15 November 2007 17:07 (sixteen years ago) link
That picture of every Old Hollywood director meeting at Cukor's house in Buñuel's honor is really, really odd – who'd have thought that Rouben Mamoulian and George Stevens were fans?
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 15 November 2007 17:19 (sixteen years ago) link
Certainly John Ford was to be expected, but some of those others...
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 15 November 2007 17:22 (sixteen years ago) link
Was Lewis Milestone there?
Was Ford even there? I seem to remember seeing his eyepatch
He and Fritz Lang couldn't make it. Apparently Don Luis was quite nervous about meeting Lang, even asking for an autograph.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 15 November 2007 17:26 (sixteen years ago) link
That thing he wrote about Metropolis that's in An Unspeakable Betrayal is pretty great.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 15 November 2007 17:32 (sixteen years ago) link
I always thought those old directors were kind of celebrating themselves and using Don Luis as a pretext. Well, not a pretext exactly, but..
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 15 November 2007 17:34 (sixteen years ago) link
Any excuse for a booze up
― Tom D., Thursday, 15 November 2007 17:35 (sixteen years ago) link
Exactly
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 15 November 2007 17:44 (sixteen years ago) link
Ford came to luncheon at George Cukor's house that Bunuel wrote about in MLS. He mentioned that the event was notable because it was the last time any of them saw Ford alive.
― C. Grisso/McCain, Thursday, 15 November 2007 23:48 (sixteen years ago) link
He passed away shortly afterward, his last moments spent cradled in Peter Bogdanovich's arms.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 15 November 2007 23:54 (sixteen years ago) link
Then again, it's conceivable that the directors of The Greatest Story Ever Told and Ben-Hur loved Viridiana and The Milky Way.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 15 November 2007 23:56 (sixteen years ago) link
What about the producer of The Robe, Frank Ross?
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Friday, 16 November 2007 00:05 (sixteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― ILX System, Saturday, 17 November 2007 00:01 (sixteen years ago) link
l'age d'or.
should have been left to make films of whatever length rather than spin them out to the industry standard.
the welles comment is, typically, cant. "A superb kind of person he must be. Everyone loves him." false on both counts.
what would be the point if everyone loved him?
why is john ford "to be expected" a fan, and "certainly" at that? everyone likes to schmooze a critical favourite, but is there some hidden affinity connecting ford and bunuel?
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Saturday, 17 November 2007 00:12 (sixteen years ago) link
S'okay.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 25 April 2020 11:21 (four years ago) link
Yeah, no great shakes
― Together Again Or (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 25 April 2020 11:43 (four years ago) link
Thanks won't bother, for now. Couple more things I want to check first.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 25 April 2020 12:00 (four years ago) link
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'.
― Milton Parker, Monday, 27 April 2020 18:24 (four years ago) link
that Jesus photo was real btw, not his creation
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 April 2020 18:35 (four years ago) link
I just knew!
thanks for posting
― Milton Parker, Monday, 27 April 2020 18:49 (four years ago) link
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.
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 6 June 2020 18:49 (four years ago) link
it definitely tops his other films for use of guns and ammo
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 6 June 2020 22:18 (four years ago) link
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.
― Eggbreak Hotel (Tom D.), Monday, 28 December 2020 20:18 (three years ago) link
Like when she doesn't allow Severine to kiss her.
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 28 December 2020 20:25 (three years ago) link
Yes, it's a great performance, very subtle.
― Eggbreak Hotel (Tom D.), Monday, 28 December 2020 20:58 (three years ago) link
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
― Dan S, Wednesday, 16 February 2022 02:48 (two years ago) link
DIG THAT WES ANDERSON FONT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gENBxJl5bDs
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 10 June 2022 00:49 (two years ago) link
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.
― Stevolende, Friday, 10 June 2022 09:46 (two years ago) link
That's a good one. Fair enough, but I like that side of his work too.
― The Crazy World of Encyclopedia Brown (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 10 June 2022 12:39 (two years ago) link
I watched Discreet Charm way earlier in life than would be advisable and it made perfect sense to me alongside the Monty Python movies.
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 10 June 2022 12:46 (two years ago) link
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.
― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Friday, 10 June 2022 13:57 (two years ago) link
Like I said upthread, the $13 budgets of those Mexican films make many of them scarier and more effective.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 10 June 2022 13:59 (two years ago) link
Yes, exactly.
― The Crazy World of Encyclopedia Brown (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 10 June 2022 14:01 (two years ago) link
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
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 10 June 2022 15:46 (two years ago) link
On tonight:
https://princecharlescinema.com/PrinceCharlesCinema.dll/WhatsOn?f=25443525
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 8 February 2023 12:04 (one year ago) link
One of the more idiosyncratic Bunuel rankings I've seen. Mexican Bus Ride at #1!
https://letterboxd.com/diogoserafim/list/luis-bunuel/
― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.), Wednesday, 8 February 2023 13:37 (one year ago) link
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.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 8 February 2023 13:56 (one year ago) link
Excellent!
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 8 February 2023 15:41 (one year ago) link
Diary of a Chambermaid, The Phantom of Liberty, and The Milky Way don't do much for me either.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 8 February 2023 15:42 (one year ago) link
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
― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.), Wednesday, 8 February 2023 15:45 (one year ago) link
The Mexican films are really good. Still a couple I haven't seen.
― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Wednesday, 8 February 2023 18:38 (one year ago) link
I loved that one particularly.
― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Wednesday, 8 February 2023 18:39 (one year ago) link
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.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 21 February 2023 20:13 (one year ago) link
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.
― Huey “Piano” Smithers-Jones (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 21 February 2023 20:18 (one year ago) link
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?
― Lily Dale, Sunday, 28 January 2024 02:26 (four months ago) link
Sure, why not?
― Pictish in the Woods (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 28 January 2024 02:39 (four months ago) link
yes
― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Sunday, 28 January 2024 13:59 (four months ago) link
Happy birthday, cabron!
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 22 February 2024 15:21 (three months ago) link
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.
― Josefa, Thursday, 22 February 2024 15:49 (three months ago) link
I dont think he was capable of making a non good film. There's only 5 I haven't seen.
― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Thursday, 22 February 2024 17:19 (three months ago) link
lol i was gonna say more or less that, tho maybe i'd say non-enjoyable rather than non-good
― wang mang band (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 22 February 2024 17:24 (three months ago) link
I don't think he was capable of mixing a bad martini.
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 22 February 2024 17:26 (three months ago) link
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.
― birdistheword, Thursday, 22 February 2024 20:13 (three months ago) link
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.
― birdistheword, Thursday, 22 February 2024 20:19 (three months ago) link
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.
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 22 February 2024 20:22 (three months ago) link
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
― Rich E. (Eric H.), Thursday, 22 February 2024 20:26 (three months ago) link
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/
― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Thursday, 22 February 2024 21:17 (three months ago) link
Was the MoMA Mexican series mentioned yet?
― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 22 February 2024 21:52 (three months ago) link
Yes, I see that it was, more than once
― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 22 February 2024 21:53 (three months ago) link
Just finished. I had some vague intention to get over there but somehow something suddenly came up.
― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 22 February 2024 21:56 (three months ago) link