Luis Bunuel

by Raymond Durgnat

1st Paper Edition. Critical study of the great director & surrealist. Covers his films from his early collaboration with Salvador Dali up to Belle De Jour. Illustrated throughout with memorable stills. Includes filmography and bibliography.

Genres: Film

171 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah, Luis Bunuel! I was first exposed to his work thanks to Chicago's public television station and my dad who sat with me through a showing of his Los Olvidados (1950), a portrayal of the poor of Mexico City. My next exposure was seeing his Belle de jour (1967) at the theatre in downtown Grinnell, Iowa during freshman year. The first was very depressing. The second was very funny. Finally, as part of the college film series, his surrealist collaboration with Salvador Dali, Un chien andalou (1929), was shown in the Alumni Recitation Hall. All were quite impressive in very different ways, capturing my attention.

During freshman and sophomore years the most popular professor at Grinnell was one Alan Nassar. A junior faculty member, Alan was at all our demonstrations, usually speaking, usually pushing us for more: more analysis, more action. When he announced he was going to teach "Principles of Aesthetics" I signed up.

What a strange course. I had purchased the assigned text, a Modern Library Giant representing the history of the philosophy of aesthetic theory and had started reading it before classes began, but Alan pretty much ignored it, instead devoting the class to a study of Luis Bunuel.

We must have watched a couple of dozen of his films accompanied by printed critiques and commentaries, everything from his high art films to his Mexican soaps. My favorite of the lot was his Simon del desierto (1965). This one deserves description: Saint Simon was a stylite of the fifth century, known for having stood on a column in the desert for thirty-six years. Bunuel sets the scene, then proceeds to show the temptations, most of which involve a jolly, buxom girl clothed in anything from a sailor suit to very little at all. Simon increases his privations, changing his position from standing to balancing on one leg. Nothing seems to help. It just gets worse. My identification with him has become complete by the time a distant roar grows louder, closer, overwhelmingly louder...and we see a jet in take off or landing and then a man who immediately reminded me of the young Leonard Cohen sitting smoking, bored, at a discotheque. So it goes...
That one I had to see again! I did.

Bunuel must have been Alan's personal favorite and the semester of his aesthetics class must have been the one he knew would be his last. His contract was not renewed. Bad boy!

Part of me was offended by not really studying the history of the philosophy of aesthetics. With some help from a scholarship, I was paying my own way through college and this business of watching films seemed not worth the money. Yet, the experience of having a teacher that was to my left, and to the left of most all his students, was unique and memorable and challenging. And, I have to admit, the cost of admission may have been worth it in the case of Luis Bunuel.

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 4 out of 5]

For people who know Bunuel's work, & hopefully there are many in this category, there's no reason to recommend this bk. Everything Bunuel ever did interests me - even the films that I'm not that enthusiastic about - like "Wuthering Heights". & there are still so many that I haven't seen! If I needed any excuse to stay alive longer, one of them might be so that I can eventually check out everything by Bunuel - like "Robinson Crusoe" & "La Fièvre monte à El Pao". The latter film being a political one set in a Fascist regime in South America. I wonder if it's ever been subtitled in English & distributed in the US? Maybe it's TOO POLITICAL FOR THIS COUNTRY, eh?!

To answer my own question, I looked it up online. Apparently, a shortened version was distributed in the US - although I didn't find an English title. The review I read of it wasn't very enthusiastic.

ANYWAY, bks like this one about Bunuel help people like me know what I'm missing. There're 13 listed & discussed here that I'd never heard of or encountered in theaters or on VHS &/or DVD. The cover image that I just added if from the hardback 1st American edition.

[Zachary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not quite an introduction to Bunuel’s work, in that it doesn’t provide a nice, easy explanation or summary of all his films and background, but neither does this book assume a total familiarity with him so as to be alienating. There are parts of its film profiles that are more interesting than others, and some that certainly do end up feeling somewhat alienating in their level of detail and analysis, but these are few and far between. What you mostly get out of this is a loving, detailed, and ultimately engaging profile of one of cinema’s most intriguing artists and his development as an artist and commentator. With some filmmakers like Bunuel it’s sometimes best to go into his films and an exploration of his career with a bit of background and analysis to go off of, and in that this book serves as a fitting, useful work with which to approach his life and work.