Bunuel Horror?

I'm a big fan of Lynch and Jodorowsky but I cannot stand Almodovar. The only thing I'll give him credit for is that he helped Alex de la Iglesia make his debut as a director with ACCION MUTANTE. Bunuel I'm very interested in but I've yet to track down any of his films on DVD. I think a few of them are out there, somewhere ...

First off, who are you and why do you live in South Carolina, damn it? So far you've proven yourself an excellent addition to these hallowed boards. Kudos.

I assume your asking whether or now 'we' consider Luis Buñuel (not to be confused with Juan Luis Buñuel who has made a couple of horror films) to be a 'horror director'? I consider him more of a Surrealist than any specific genre. 'Susana' is a pretty interesting study in creating discord. I do agree that 'An Andalusian Dog' has some fairly disturbing imagery.

I am a fellow Bunuel enthusiast and a big fan of Un Chien Andalou. That film is one of the best of all-time I think; it's definitely a springboard for the horror genre, but to classify it as only "horror" de-notes the film I believe; in actuality it is larger than the genre itself.

What makes Bunuel so great to me is ability to make us laugh and cringe, sometimes within the same scene. His films are nasty, beautiful, sexy (each film features a stocking shot), irreverant, comic, witty (an understatement), thoughtful, passionate, dispassionate (his view of characters), and without a hint of pretense. He is in the top drawer of filmmakers, beside the likes of Renoir, Lang, Welles, Ozu, Kurosawa (though, Bunuel is miles ahead) and a couple others.

Of his films that are on dvd ( I think there are four or five now), I would say rent Diary of a Chambermaid (it's from Criterion) or Belle de Jour first, but I stress that seeing his early films first and then seeing his later films works the best. One must realize that with Bunuel ANYTHING can happen, and I do mean anything. To quote David Thomson, "a mother may cut open her son's stomach to see if he's well-fed." That's Bunuel for you. His films are very sophisticated and often have much to do with the struggle between man and woman or man and woman against religion (Catholicism to be exact), as well as the skewering of the rich, but mostly he takes aim at human nature. Bunuel is my favorite director (he also wrote a great autobiography); I recognize him as the greatest of all-time (sorry for not being humble) and he made the best final film of any director (at the age of 78!), that being That Obscure Object of Desire. Another interesting aspect in his career is that it almost seems as though he became better as he aged, like a fine wine; he proved year after year why film can be both art and entertainment.

I finally got to see Un Chien Andalou a few days ago. It more than lived up to what I heard about it. I don't think it was supposed to make any narrative sense (though I'm sure there have been books written about that) but as a collage of absurd, poetic, disturbing images and scenes it works perfectly. The rotting donkey carcass on the piano being dragged across the room, the ants crawling out of the hole in that guy's hand, the infamous eye-slicing and was it just me or were all the women played by men with make up on? Genius. Pure genius. Now I'll have to find a decent DVD release of it. Any suggestions?

Kino International owns the distribution rights. Sadly there are currently no plans for a DVD release in the immediate future.

I've seen TIE ME UP, TIE ME DOWN, WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN and ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER, all of which I hated or was indifferent about.

Legba, great post(s) ... BELLE DE JOUR is a favorite of mine, so much so that when I fist saw the film on a bootleg VHS about 10 years ago, I decided that my role model would be Pierre Clementi

When done sincerly and with style, adding horrific and/or disturbing elements to a drama always adds interest in my book ...

Liliana Cavani's THE NIGHT PORTER features some of the most troubling images I have ever had the pleasure to watch, and not only do they give the viewer an added slap, the graphic tone of certain scenes adds to the saddness and dispair, and helps retain those feeligs long after the film has ended ...

Another great is Michael Powell, whose beautiful BLACK NARCISSUS was not without some chilling moments, those of which only hinted at what he would give fans of horror in PEEPING TOM

And I can't go without mentioning Peter Weir, and in particualar, PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK ...

You guys are my kind of people.

John Waters, Terry Gilliam, David Lynch, Jodorowsky... all great stuff.

Kudos to Peeping Tom too, I can't be the only one who prefers it to Psycho, surely? Truly disturbing film for 1960, kinda killed Powell's career. Psycho is nowhere as sadistic as Peeping Tom.

I'm well ashamed to say I've only seen Belle de Jour and am seriously lacking in Bunuel-knowledge, but I'm planning to buy his films blind, which I never do. Keep hearing great stuff about The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, and The Phantom of Liberty.

How about Ravenous? A black comedy with some horror thrown in... or is it the other way around? Great B-flick anyway.