The Films of Luis Bunuel in VHS and Print
Filmmaker Luis Bunuel was born in Calanda, Spain, in 1900. His education at a repressive Jesuit school fostered a spirit of irreverent rebellion which lasted throughout his career. While studying filmmaking in Paris, Luis collaborated with Salvador Dali on the surrealistic masterwork, Un Chien Andalou, following it with the equally shocking L'Age d'Or. After an unproductive stay in Hollywood and twenty years of aborted projects, Bunuel produced a string of brilliant movies in Mexico, Spain and France. Throughout his career, he used biting satire to criticize middle-class mores, religious hypocrisy and Fascism. Bunuel completed his last work, That Obscure Object of Desire, in 1977, and died in 1983.
The following films are listed in chronological order. Unless otherwise noted, all films are in French or Spanish with English subtitles.
Un Chien Andalou ; Land Without Bread (Las Hurdes). Bunuel and Salvador Dali's delirious evocation of thwarted lust includes the famous image of Luis himself slashing a woman's eye with a razor. Silent with musical score. Also, a documentary about indigent Spanish peasants. France/Spain. 1929/1932. 43 min. VH2/UNCH-0001.
L'Age d'Or (The Golden Age). Bunuel scandalized Paris with his surreal images of scorpions fighting, bishops decaying and lovers rolling in the mud. France. 1930. 63 min. VH1/LAGE-0001.
The Beast with Five Fingers. Bunuel acted as consultant on Robert Florey's crawling hand thriller (this motif returns in The Exterminating Angel). In English. USA. 1947. 89 min. VH1/BEAS-0001.
The Great Madcap (El Gran Calavera). A wealthy businessman (Fernando Soler) pretends to be broke to teach his spoiled family a lesson. Mexico. 1949. 90 min. VH1/GREA-0018.
Los Olvidados (The Young and the Damned). Released from a reform school, a delinquent (Roberto Cobo) torments a boy (Alfonso Mejia) who saw him kill another youth. Mexico. 1950. 88 min. VH1/LOSO-0001.
Susana (Demono y Carne). Reformatory escapee Rosita Quintana hides out on a plantation, where she seduces the master, his son and a ranch hand. Mexico. 1951. 87 min. VH1/SUSA-0002.
Mexican Bus Ride. On a bus ride to the city to finalize his mother's will, a newlywed (Esteban Marquez) succumbs to the charms of a fellow passenger (Lilia Prado). 1951. 85 min. VH1/MEXI-0002.
A Woman Without Love (Una Mujer Sin Amor). An unhappily married woman (Rosario Granados) has a brief affair with an engineer. Twenty years later, her younger son receives a surprise inheritance. Mexico. 1951. 91 min. VH1/WOMA-0013.
El (This Strange Passion). A wealthy, middle-aged man (Arturo de Cordova) becomes obsessively jealous of his young bride (Delia Garces). Mexico. 1952. 88 min. VH1/EL**-0001.
The Brute (El Bruto). A scheming landlord hires a butcher (Pedro Armendariz) to harass his tenants; the brute falls for his boss' mistress (Katy Jurado), and then for a girl (Rosita Arenas) whose father he has killed. Mexico. 1952. 83 min. VH1/BRUT-0001.
Wuthering Heights (Abismos de Pasion). Bunuel's version of the Emily Bronte romance stars Irasema Dilian, Jorge Mistral, Ernesto Alonso, and Lilia Prado. Mexico. 1953. 90 min. VH1/WUTH-0003.
Illusion Travels by Streetcar. When their trolley is condemned to scrap, transit workers Carlos Novarro and Fernando Soto take it for a last drunken spree. Mexico. 1953. 90 min. VH1/ILLU-0001.
The Criminal Life of Archibalde de la Cruz. Ernesto Alonso plays a gentleman who, as a child, witnessed his governess' accidental death, and grew up believing himself a killer. Mexico. 1955. 91 min. VH1/CRIM-0005.
Death in the Garden (La Mort en Ce Jardin). Simone Signoret, Charles Vanel, Georges Marchal, and Michel Piccoli venture into the Amazon jungle. 1956. 104 min. VH1/DEAT-0008.
Nazarin. A saintly priest (Francisco Rabal) surrounds himself with cynical peasants, a murderous prostitute, a failed suicide, and a lascivious dwarf. Mexico. 1958. 92 min. VH1/NAZA-0001.
Fever Mounts in El Pao. In a South American dictatorship, an idealistic prison official (Gerard Philipe) tries to bring about reform. With Maria Felix and Jean Servais. Also known as Los Ambiciosos or Republic of Sin. Dubbed. 1959. 100 min. VH1/FEVE-0001.
The Young One. A black jazz musician (Bernie Hamilton) escapes a lynch mob and hides out on a coastal island, where he befriends a 13-year-old white girl and raises the suspicions of the local sheriff (Zachary Scott). In English. Mexico. 1960. 95 min. VH1/YOUN-0006.
Viridiana. When a young novice (Silvia Pinal) is forced to visit her perverted uncle (Fernando Rey), she welcomes a rowdy band of beggars onto his estate. Spain. 1961. 90 min. VH1/VIRI-0001.
The Exterminating Angel. Guests at an elegant dinner party cannot bring themselves to leave and begin to starve. With Enrique Rabal, Lucy Gallardo, Silvia Pinal, and Claudio Brook. Mexico. 1962. 95 min. VH1/EXTE-0001.
The Diary of a Chambermaid. Ambitious maid Jeanne Moreau goes to work for Michel Piccoli's decadent family in Bunuel's remake of a Jean Renoir film. France. 1963. 97 min. VH1/DIAR-0001.
Simon of the Desert. A bearded ascetic (Claudio Brook) lives atop a pillar in the desert, where Satan (Silvia Pinal) tempts him in the guise of a schoolgirl and a bearded shepherdess. Mexico. 1965. 45 min. VH2/SIMO-0003.
Belle de Jour. Catherine Deneuve plays a frigid housewife who indulges her masochistic fantasies by working part-time in a Paris brothel. France. 1967. 100 min. VH1/BELL-0007.
The Milky Way (Le Voie Lactee). Hitchhikers Paul Frankeur and Laurent Terzieff encounter hypocrites and miracles on their pilgramage across France to Spain. Michel Piccoli, Delphine Seyrig and Pierre Clementi co-star. 1969. 105 min. VH1/MILK-0001.
Tristana. Catherine Deneuve falls in love with young Franco Nero, but cannot break off a twisted relationship with her lecherous guardian, Fernando Rey. Spain. 1970. 97 min. VH1/TRIS-0001.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Bulle Ogier, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and Michel Piccoli appear in a series of failed dinner parties. France. 1972. 100 min. VH1/DISC-0001.
The Phantom of Liberty (Le Fantome de la Liberte). This collection of absurd anecdotes features Jean-Claude Brialy, Adolfo Celi, Monica Vitti, Michel Piccoli, Bernard Verley, and a cameo by the director. France. 1974. 104 min. VH1/PHAN-0002.
That Obscure Object of Desire. As terrorists bomb the city, a wealthy gentleman (Fernando Rey, dubbed into French by Michel Piccoli) falls in love with an elusive virgin, played alternately by Carole Bouquet and Angela Molina. This masterpiece of black comedy was Bunuel's final film. France. 1977. 103 min. VH1/THAT-0003 or -0006.
To learn more about this cinematic master, borrow these books:
Francisco Aranda's Luis Bunuel: A Critical Biography (791.4302 Bunuel A)
John Baxter's Bunuel (791.4302 Bunuel B)
Andre Bazin's The Cinema of Cruelty: From Bunuel to Hitchcock (791.4375 B)
Bunuel's screenplays for Belle de Jour, The Exterminating Angel, Simon of the Desert, Tristana, and Viridiana (all 791.437 B)
Bunuel's autobiography, My Last Sigh (791.4302 Bunuel B)
An Unspeakable Betrayal: Selected Writings of Luis Bunuel (791.4302 Bunuel)
Bunuel, Jose de la Colina and Tomas Perez Turrent's Objects of Desire: Conversations with Luis Bunuel (791.4302 Bunuel)
Bunuel: 100 Years (791.4302 Bunuel)
Gwynne Edwards' The Discreet Art of Luis Bunuel (791.4302 Bunuel E)
Peter William Evans' The Films of Luis Bunuel: Subjectivity and Desire (791.4302 Bunuel E)
Peter Hammond's L'Age d'Or (791.3372 H)
Jenaro Talins' The Branded Eye: Bunuel's Un Chien Andalou (791.4372 T)
John Russell Taylor's Cinema Eye, Cinema Ear: Some Key Film-Makers of the Sixties (791.43 T).
List compiled by Jonathan Guildroy, October 2002
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