07 September 2008

Director Spotlight: Luis Buñuel


Luis Buñuel was an amazing Spanish director who had a fine craft for surrealist film. In fact, you could even attribute the advent of surrealist film to him. Surrealist cinema's trademark is that it seeks to surprise, by creating strange objects & characters, illogical plotlines, bizarre costumes, freakish images, and above all, dream-like qualities, to shock and amuse the viewer. It was he, who, with his good friend Salvador Dalí, created the seminal and avant-garde film Un Chien Andalou in 1929. With a small budget, and nothing but images (sound was added later), they created a visual masterpiece. Set upon a story filled with imagery- death, love, dreams, bodies, man, woman- they depicted a world void of standards and conventional themes. They went on to collaborate on a second film, L'Age d'Or, with less success and critical acclaim.

Buñuel's career spanned half a century, and includes a mix of Spanish and French films. He directed some of foreign film's best-known movies [commentary for Nazarin, Viridiana, and La Voie Lactée coming soon].

In 1962 he started his collaboration with the famed French screenwriter, Jean-Claude Carrière, for Diary of a Chambermaid, starring Jeanne Moreau. Adapted from the Octave Mirbeau novel and filmed in gorgeous black-and-white, it focused on a bourgeois French family in the campagne. Scandal, lies, death and twisted characters abound, with Jeanne Moreau holding her own as a Parisian housekeeper who woos many men (including the devious Michel Piccoli) to get what she wants. My particular favorite was the patriarch, who, along with being bourgeois and snotty, happened to harbor a secret shoe fetish, and employs Moreau as a model for his shoe collection. In the backdrop lies the rise of French fascism in the 30s, which, in classic Buñuel fashion, is portrayed in a creepy, subversive way. This movie was the advent of the Buñuel-Carrière partnership that gave us 7 Buñuel masterpieces (3 of them I describe below).

One of his more popular films was the 1967 French film, Belle de Jour, that introduced the young Catherine Deneuve to stardom. The story is about a young Parisian housewife (full of ennui, not unlike a certain Flaubert character, Emma Bovary), and her entrance into a seedy, seclusive brothel. Aside from the fact that she was cloaked in the wonderful sartorial visions of Yves Saint Laurent, Deneuve shined as Buñuel's louche femme. Tragic interludes, somber moods and a stark portrait of love and life, this movie is as beautiful as Sévérine (Deneuve's character).

In the 1970s Buñuel and Carrière collaborated closely with the Spanish actor Fernando Rey. Together, all three made The Indiscreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and That Obscure Object of Desire. Buñuel & Carrière were nominated for Oscars, in best original screenplay and best adapted screenplay, respectively. These were beautifully made, full of satire & wit, all with a surrealist backdrop. In Indiscreet Charm, Fernando Rey plays an ambassador from a little-known (fake) Latin American country. He and his French bourgeois friends attempt to eat together for many meals, but get thwarted every time. Drugs, sex, scandals, and affairs mingle with imagery of war, death, religion, and, most importantly, dreams. Towards the end one isn't really sure if one is watching the visual representation of the characters' dreams, or a play. It's worth watching many times just to remember all the layered aspects to this film.

That Obscure Object has similar images, with fewer turns and less characters. Rey plays a rich businessman in Paris who falls in love with Conchita, played by two different actresses. One is a sexy, exotic, fiery girl, and the other, a reserved, quiet, and simple beauty. They appear back to back, from one scene to the next, as the same love interest. Ultimately the film focuses on the intangibility and inescapable death of love and passion. An interesting point to note is that Michel Piccoli, a frequent cast member of Buñuel's films, dubbed over the entire dialogue of Fernando Rey's character. (What strikes me as ironic is that Rey, who always spoke French with a Spanish accent, played the Frenchman in William Friedkin's The French Connection. He wasn't dubbed then, however...) This proved to be Buñuel's last and final film, and it was truly a masterpiece. In true Surrealism form, he wanted to burn all of his films upon his death. Thankfully for film admirers, they remain intact.



Scene from The Indiscreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is below:

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