L'AGE D'OR (1930, FRANCE) TRISTANA (1970, SPAIN)

MOVIES I WATCHED BECAUSE I GOT A SUBSCRIPTION TO NETFLIX AND THEY WERE IN THE 1001 MOVIES YOU MUST SEE BEFORE YOU DIE BOOK MONTH  

(Post 7 of 10)

L'AGE D'OR

Spanish Director Luis Bunuel was described as a "vagabond filmmaker..a director without a country" by film historian Gerald Mast. 

Before seeing this Bunuel double feature, I had only previously seen his film An Andalusian Dog, so I don't know why I was expecting something a little more straightforward this time around. However, The Age of Gold (L'Age D'or) was what came up. And after 69 minutes of women sucking the toes of statues, men having bloody faces for no reason, random orgies, religious desecration, and a Christ-like figure who...I'm not actually sure what he was doing! Anyway, after all that I realized this was another adventure in surrealism. And it does have some strong imagery (including the clerics who appear to have escaped their predicament in An Andalusian Dog) and I may try to see this one again at some point. But I'm frankly ready for some different Bunuel films.

The scholarly film source Wikipedia describes the controversy surrounding this movie, including a riot at a theater during the film's initial run in France in 1930.

Tristana is from 1970 (forty years after L'AGE D'OR for those of you doing the math at home) and is a story of a young lady (the ubiquitous Catherine Denueve) who has a most unhealthy relationship with her Uncle. The complexity of their relationship is the gist of this sad and disturbing film. And it is told in a straightforward manner. 

Interesting that Bunuel has listings in the 1001 book spanning from the 1920's until the 1970's. He and Alfred Hitchcock are the only directors to have films in the 1001 book from all those decades.

TRISTANA