The Discreet Charm of Luis Bunuel

Re Lang, B-pictures like The Blue Gardenia are really pretty well done- by far the best of these is The Big Heat - but still not a patch on the pants of Spies, Mabuse, The Weary Death, etc.

No doubt it helped to have Mr. Nicholas Musuraca behind the camera.

Oh darnit. If I'd seen this I'd have voted Tristana, for the simple fact that he redeemed the elements of the Galdos novel that made me itchy. Novel is quite cool and proto-feminist but then virtually makes Tristana disappear in the end.

At long last: Simon of the Desert on DVD. I can throw away my secondhand VHS copy.

The Discreet Charm is one of my 5 favourite films ever fwiw, but I only saw it long after this poll closed

Have you seen "The Phantom of Liberty" yet?

I've only seen Discreet Charm and Viridiana which are both awesome, the former more so.

Go watch the Criterion prints of The Exterminating Angel and Simon of the Desert. Suffice to say, they've never looked better.

I gotta say: SOTD, one of my favorites, now looks minor: a very amusing one-joke movie (I can't see how it could have been any longer); but TEA is much better than I remembered (I remembered it as a slacker, poorly acted prototype for The Discreet Charm).

just got the exterminating angel disc. one of my favourite movies of all time.

i have both but i think i prefer it to discreet charm... more focused, tighter. not sure if it's funnier tho.

btw my last sigh is really one of the great memoirs. must must read.

Yup. It's the sort of book I want to buy for every friend.

If Simon is one-joke then the shorter running time doesn't exhaust it, but I disagree. The ending still dives off at this profound tangent that's probably the most moving sequence Bunuel ever made, for me. Anyway I need to get the official DVD, all I've got is an AVI at the moment.

Yeah, I disagree with Kael's dismissal of the ending -- it's a great party, and not at all the snarky gesture that Bunuel intended.

Simon has a kind of "My God it's full of stars" look on his face at this point.

Then he's just uninterested and a bit sad. I don't think he's a figure of fun by then.

"I remembered it as a slacker, poorly acted prototype for The Discreet Charm."

Hmmmm, this is what I still think. May have to give it another go.

Cheers Alfred! I'll track 'em down. :)

I remember an interview with Dave "not A." Stewart, in which he was rating an early Bunuel film.

Although, the article had him praising the film "Large Door".

(Actually that *was* "A", not "not A" after all, oh)

That Obscure Object Of Desire has gone instantly into my all-time top 10, maybe 5. It is monumental.

I mean, in its grand, assured, completely controlled efflorescence it feels like some sort of definitive work; every single last detail is so astonishingly observed. I chuckled to myself at its wry exquisiteness pretty much throughout. And that ending...oh, that ending.

I saw Belle De Jour last night as well and didn't think it was quite as good, despite some excellent fantasy-blurs-with-reality mindfucking.

i've only seen Los Olvidados and Un Chien Andalou. Adored the former, was bored by the latter, and feel like I should see more since I gather neither is particularly representative of the oeuvre and obv. lots of praise for the man here and elsewhere.

I'm not as fond -- the pace slackens in places -- my love for Bunuel's French films waxes and wanes. The Discreet Charm is unfuckwithable, though.

*BUT my love for

Agreed on Discreet Charm, but I'd place Obscure Object right alongside it. They're equivalents in epic frustration.

After seeing this poll when it was revived a month ago, I got The Discreet Charm out of the library but when I watched it I was kinda sleepy and I was just dazed and confused trying to stay awake pay attention to what was going on. I think I liked it, maybe I should just watch it again.

Missed the poll, would have added a third vote to Belle de jour.

The Pixies review Un chien andalou:

Got me a movie, I want you to know.
Slicing up eyeballs, I want you to know.
Girlie so groovy, I want you to know.
Don't know about you, but I am un chien andalusia...

Wanna grow up to be a debaser...

Got me a movie, ha-ha-ha-ho...
Slicing up eyeballs, ha-ha-ha-ho...
Girlie so groovie, ha-ha-ha-ho...
Don't know about you, but I am un chien andalusia...

Debaser...

And it would have made a better video than anything the Pixies ever made. Wonder if anyone has ever synched them...?

Given the talk about Bunuel dbl bills above there are a couple of them at the Riverside Studios that look good: tomorrow its Discreet Charm... with Diary of a Chambermaid

Weird, saw Obscure Object again tonight. Still my favourite film of all time. My friend thought it was interminably boring.

The Phantom Of Liberty >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Monty Python's Meaning Of Life

(they're kinda pretty similar IMO)

ok I'm gonna rank the Bunuel I've seen - please dispute, suggest (ban) etc

That Obscure Object Of Desire (favourite film ever)
The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoise (in personal top 5)
The Exterminating Angel (in personal top 20)
The Phantom Of Liberty (possibly in personal top 30 - it's really fucking arresting and GODDAMN funny)
Viridiana (first one I saw! awesome)
Belle De Jour (not as good as the other late-periods...he hadn't quite nailed his colour mastery or subject-matter...but still a marvellous film)
Tristana (nice, mysterious, a bit forgettable, kinda haunting)
L'Age D'Or (DO YOU SEE?!?!?!)
Un Chien Andalou (DO YOU SEE?!?!?! except really short and kinda more a piece of video art than a film - an important one tho, and nice piano-dragging image)

basically he had a genius for injecting surrealism into film, but only slowly did he learn (starting really with The Exterminating Angel which is the best disaster movie ever) to inject that surrealism into a tangible depiction of reality, and only slowly did he grow to fully understand the human brain - his later works are as savage, light-footed and wry as anything committed to film - he is the greatest director to have lived IMO -

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

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.

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).

diary of a chambermaid
viridiana
los olvidados
tristana
the exterminating angel

of those i've seen

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

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.

Un Chien Andalou has some arresting images but so what

ha ha, really? i mean it's not like you invest hours and get minimal return.

do so schlump! i will merely turn up at your house with a bucket of water

'reimbursement'/spongebath

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.

Also: last year's DVD release of The Exterminating Angel, which I never much liked after college, was revelatory for me.

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

I think Las Hurdes is STILL ahead of its time.

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.

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 ).

I think Las Hurdes is STILL ahead of its time.

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.

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..