Les Paradoxes de Bunuel

The cutting of the eye-ball in ”Un Chien Andalou” is perhaps the most memorable film sequence ever. Ants crawling from a hole in the palm of a hand or donkey carcasses on a piano being dragged through a room are other images that will stay on the retina. The debut of twentyeight- year old Buñuel was an immediate scandal cum classic, and banned in several countries for a long time. Then came the equally classic ”Age of Gold” followed by the documentary ”Land without Bread”, and after that a period of fifteen years in which Bunuel did not make a single film. He resumed his carreer in Mexico, but it was the European period of the sixties and seventies that saw one of the most consequent and idiosyncratic filmmakers ever. ”Viridiana, the Diary of a Chambermaid, Belle de Jour, Tristana, the Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” and ”That Obscure Object of Desire ”are all quietly disposed but rageing attacks on the catolic church and bourgeois society.
Buñuel the person was as distant as Alfred Hitchcock. They both loved building up myths around themselves, yet at the same time holding a strict shield in front of their private lives. Buñuels autobiography ”My last Breath” contains an array of entertaining anecdotes from and about his life as a modernist and especially as a surrealist. Unfortunately the work never attemps to tell very much about his films, and furthermore has a quite debateable truthfulness, regarding the events depictured.
In spite of the fact that the BBC made a splendid documentary about the greatest of all Spanish filmmakers in its Arena series a couple of years ago, and despite the interview book ”Objects of Desire, Les Paradoxes de Buñuel” is a welcome arrival. The potrait is produced by Serge Silberman, who also produced many of Buñuels later films. In addition to a remarkably wellflowing working rapport they enjoyed a private friendship for 22 years.
Fourteen years after Buñuels death Silberman wants to give his picture of the tempestrous filmmakers life and work, as well as putting forefront the person behind the objects so often misinterpreted by audience and critics alike.
Among the participants, Silberman himself appears of course, is director Juan Bardem, who in 1960 persuaded Bunuel to return to Spain for ”Viridiana”, scriptwriter Jean-Claude Carrière, a frequent Buñuel collaborator, and the directors son, Juan-Luis Buñuel.

Medverkande
Juan Bardem, Juan-Luis Buñuel, Jean-Claude Carrière, Fernando Ray, Carlos Saura, Serge Silberman: Producent
Serge Silberman-vill komma hit...: Manus
Serge Silberman, Jean-Claude Carrière, Jean-Luis Buñuel, Jorge Amat: Foto
Jean-Michel Humeau: Musik
Ramon de Herrera: Talat språk
French