dir. Luis Bunuel
writ. Salvador Dali, Luis Bunuel
feat. Gaston Modot, Lya Lys
Watching this film is like seeing the child that will become an adult one day. Bunuel shows off his trademark notions of meaningless bourgeois existence and base human desire. In fact, he uses very specific elements that will later appear in beautiful and pointed films such as The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Phantom of Liberty. Here, however, we're stuck in the age of the slow old silent film, often waiting for the story to get on to its next segment. The heavy handed attack on the church at the end of the picture feels overwrought, an exclamation point at the end of a run-on sentence.
Dali rejected the film, already in the midst of a falling out with Bunuel who didn't get along with Gala, Dali's wife, claiming that Bunuel had replaced Dali's "authentic sacrilege" with "a primary ant-clericalism and an over-explicit political message." While this is a fair argument, more importantly, any messages intended are heaved at the screen instead of played out with the panache Bunuel will later show, leaving this film feeling more like a curiosity than a piece of groundbreaking artwork.
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