Luis Bunuel's L'Age d'Or
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Movie Reviews of Luis Bunuel's L'Age d'Or
Movie Review: Ha ha. Sure it's disturbing, but it's also hilarious
Summary: 4 Stars
I was scared to death to watch this movie. I had no idea what was going to be in it. I heard about Bunuel using dead donkeys and things like that in his other films, so I didn't know if I'd be able to take it. But after watching L'Age D'Or, I have to say that it's absolutely absurd. Sure, it's quite offensive, but sometimes the offense is so silly that it's funny, and probably not unintentionally. It scared me, it amused me, it offended me, and at times it even bored me. Also it's only about an hour long, so it's not painfully drawn out like some other art films might be.
This movie kind of reminded me of Borat. If you couldn't stomach that movie, you probably can't take this one either.
Movie Review: FORGOTTEN BUNUEL
Summary: 3 Stars
In 1930, after the triumph of their shocking short film "Un Chien Andalou," Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali created an hour long avant-garde attack on a society that elevates pious morality over sexual freedom. Required viewing for Luis Buñuel aficionados -- and first time on DVD -- L'AGE D'OR (Kino) opens with close-up views of scorpions battling. Partisans stumble and the guardians of middle class righteousness repeatedly interrupt two neurotic lovers.
Within the first weeks of its release, this gleeful fever dream of Freudian discomfort, startling sexual fetishism, bizarre visual puns and intentionally mocking images aimed at the Catholic church was denounced by Mussolini's ambassador, provoked riots, was banned by the French Police and earned it's backer a threat of excommunication. This film has influenced six decades of filmmakers including Hitchcock, Fellini, David Lynch and Monty Python.
If quotes like "...a surrealistic attack on Dadaism" actually means anything to you in this post modern era, then this film is tailor made.
Movie Review: Buñuel, with characteristic perversity, intensified his attack on bourgeois sensibilities...
Summary: 3 Stars
Buñuel was one of the greatest of all filmmakers... He expressed a uniquely personal vision of the world through a remarkably self-effacing cinematic style, producing a body of work unparalleled in its wealth of meaning and its ability to provoke and disturb...
The film concerns a couple constantly frustrated by Church and Establishment niceties, as well as their own sexual guilt...
Such plot is structured according to the irrational dream-logic of fear and desire, starting with a 'documentary' on scorpions and working through a series of darkly comic, loosely connected scenes... The film climaxes in outrageous blasphemy, equating the meek figure of Christ with a participant in a murderous orgy in De Sade's 120 Days of Sodom... Unsurprisingly, the work was widely banned...
Movie Review: Three stars for shoddy DVD
Summary: 3 Stars
The film itself is beautiful...the transfer of it to DVD is not. The film is a critique on the struggle between man's carnal desires and his spiritual obligation to the Catholic Church--a theme Bunuel constantly explores in his films. Either you like surrealism or you don't. A man shoots himself in the head--his shoes and gun are lying on the floor while his body is splayed across the ceiling--very odd. A cow is used as a household pet, taking the place of a dog--very odd indeed. A couple is engaged in a cannibalistic romance, the female apparently chews off her lover's caressing fingers--very Bayonne, NJ to say the least. And at the end of the film, Jesus Christ is associated with depraved sex fiends--highly offensive--I did not care for that, but again, it sticks to the theme. Veiwer discretion is advised.Movie Review: For arty types only
Summary: 2 Stars
This is the second collaboration between Dali and Bunuel. In truth, Dali did little work on this film. Dali believed in imagery for its own value while Bunuel wanted to use startling images to critique. What we have here is a deliberately disjointed film full of set pieces that have no relation to each other. The overall message here is: desire and passion are good; social norms and morals are bad. This is the philosophy of the "noble savage," i.e., that if people could just follow their instincts that the world would be a wonderful place for all. This is difficult to support post 9/11, AIDS, and in a world where any nut might follow his instincts and destroy the rest of us(now that I think of it, this film was made before we saw what atrocities men following their own instincts were capable of in Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia). I saw this film out of curiousity but could have skipped it.
The film is not as enraging as it must have been when first released but there is still plenty to provoke. Be forewarned that there are parts that are blasphemous and sacriligious (but these seem the product of an adolescent mind that shouldn't be taken seriously; it is so contrived that it seems like something an annoying teenager would come up with just to get a rise out of his parents). It can also be VERY tedious - and it is only an hour or so long. There are long sections of the film that you can nap right through. Here is what I remember of the film:
The film starts out with a documentary on scorpions (yes, you read it right). Don't try to make sense of anything, just realize that this is supposed to be a surrealist film. We watch scorpions killing each other for several minutes. The film then cuts to a number of exhausted revolutionaries who are tired and hungry. They mumble non-sequiters. This goes on for several minutes. This is followed by: a pointless dialogue between two women, the reading of a letter, a man kicking a small dog, a couple trying to make love and being interrupted everywhere that they go, a taxicab transporting the Blessed Sacrament, a woman making love to a statue, a music lover having a fit, some more characters speaking dialogue that has nothing to do with with what preceded or followed their scenes, a hunt for a man in the streets, and then, a reading from a sado-masochistic novel while a Christ-like figure appears. The final image is of scalped hair waving in the breeze. That is it. This is one of those films whose fame has nothing to do with artistry and everything to do with pushing the envelope - as if provocation was a value in itself, which it isn't. I saw this as an historical curiousity and nothing more. If you are thinking of purchasing this, keep in mind that it is not a long film, only about an hour long. It is one of those "midnight movies" that seem better late at night than the following morning. I have seen any number of offbeat films very late at night that seemed intriguing at the time but did not hold up well when I caught them on video years later. This didn't seem that good even the first time around. I don't like art people who just like to stir things up - unless they are baking a cake. Otherwise, it seems pointless.