Luis Buñuel on DVD

Discuss internationally-released DVDs and Blu-rays or other international DVD and Blu-ray-related topics.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
Lemmy Caution
Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 3:26 am
Location: East of Shanghai

#101 Post by Lemmy Caution » Thu Jun 21, 2007 4:52 am

Reviving a Bunuel thread after a long hiatus seems rather appropriate.

There's a series of Bunuel's put out on the Japanese Imagica label. Unfortunately they only have Japanese and Chinese subtitles, despite having English menus. Still I picked up La Hurdes/Terre Sans Pain and El Rio y La Muerte, as I have no other versions available ... and some very rusty Spanish language ability. I wish they had Spanish sub-titles, as I would comprehend more that way.

Quality seems reasonably good, though they are cropped slightly on the sides, not so sharp at times, and somewhat high contrast There was at least one or two more titles in the series, but I can't recall which at the moment.

Not exactly useful for English-speakers, but might be worth noting for Asians and Spanish speakers.

Otherwise, I have a number of the Yume Bunuels and I'd agree that they are pretty decent and definitely watchable.

User avatar
Steven H
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:30 pm
Location: NC

#102 Post by Steven H » Tue Aug 14, 2007 7:33 am

FACETS is releasing El Bruto on Oct. 23rd. The previous R1 version of this film is OOP, I assume because it's going for about $135 on amazon.com.

User avatar
Lemmy Caution
Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 3:26 am
Location: East of Shanghai

#103 Post by Lemmy Caution » Thu Aug 16, 2007 11:32 am

Today I spotted a 26-disc box of Bunuel. His complete filmography apparently. Being in China, it is almost assuredly not a proper release. The shop thought that it only had French subtitles. Seemed to be a guess, but I doubt it has English subs. I'll try to get someone to open it and check for me, if possible. Anyway, it was kind of cool (if frustrating) to just hold such an item in my hand for a minute or two.

User avatar
dx23
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 8:52 pm
Location: Puerto Rico

#104 Post by dx23 » Thu Aug 16, 2007 12:23 pm

Steven H wrote:FACETS is releasing El Bruto on Oct. 23rd. The previous R1 version of this film is OOP, I assume because it's going for about $135 on amazon.com.
sorry for that. I just got married and need some spare cash.

User avatar
Steven H
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:30 pm
Location: NC

#105 Post by Steven H » Thu Aug 16, 2007 12:34 pm

dx23 wrote:
Steven H wrote:FACETS is releasing El Bruto on Oct. 23rd. The previous R1 version of this film is OOP, I assume because it's going for about $135 on amazon.com.
sorry for that. I just got married and need some spare cash.
Yours is the best deal. Good luck!

User avatar
Kinsayder
Joined: Mon Oct 10, 2005 6:22 pm
Location: UK

#106 Post by Kinsayder » Sat Sep 01, 2007 3:02 pm

Simon of the Desert in a French twofer with Exterminating Angel.

User avatar
dx23
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 8:52 pm
Location: Puerto Rico

#107 Post by dx23 » Wed Nov 07, 2007 10:23 pm

Any reviews on the new Facets release of El Bruto (The Brute)?

eez28
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2007 11:51 am
Location: Houston

#108 Post by eez28 » Wed Nov 07, 2007 10:43 pm

dx23 wrote:Any reviews on the new Facets release of El Bruto (The Brute)?
Beaver on El Bruto

User avatar
tavernier
Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2005 7:18 pm

#109 Post by tavernier » Thu Nov 08, 2007 1:35 am

eez28 wrote:
dx23 wrote:Any reviews on the new Facets release of El Bruto (The Brute)?
Beaver on El Bruto
Christ, that looks like shit....even for Facets.

User avatar
Cold Bishop
Joined: Tue May 30, 2006 9:45 pm
Location: Portland, OR

#110 Post by Cold Bishop » Thu Nov 08, 2007 2:48 am

tavernier wrote:Christ, that looks like shit....even for Facets.
I disagree... for Facets, this is quite decent.

User avatar
bunuelian
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 11:49 am
Location: San Diego

#111 Post by bunuelian » Fri Nov 09, 2007 3:42 am

While surfing Amazon the other day I was surprised to see some new Bunuel releases. Una Mujer Sin Amor and Susana are two titles that are available now. I strongly suspect that from a technical perspective the releases aren't very strong, but these films likely will never receive much more than a passing treatment anyway. They are minor Bunuel no matter how you cut it, unless you happen to cut with a well-used spatula. Mujer is an especially mundane soap opera.

Susana does have some wonderfully humorous moments, however. One shot in particular stands out in my mind, when we watch Susana bending over doing some scrubbing, with her tits giggling, and she looks up sharply at the manboy she's seducing. It's one of the sexiest moments in all of Bunuel's work - her look goes right to the hearts/dicks of the men watching the film for the titty payoff.

Although I'm a completist about Bunuel, I'm not sure I'll ever drop the cash for these unless I can get them very cheap indeed. I guess that makes me a faux completist.

As for El Bruto, even a bad disc is worth it to see this film. It's a gem on par with his best Mexican work.


User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

#113 Post by domino harvey » Fri Nov 09, 2007 3:54 pm

there's plenty of discussion of the new Bunuel Facets releases in the Facets thread

User avatar
jesus the mexican boi
Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2004 5:09 am
Location: South of the Capitol of Texas

#114 Post by jesus the mexican boi » Fri Nov 09, 2007 4:51 pm

bunuelian wrote:Susana does have some wonderfully humorous moments, however. One shot in particular stands out in my mind, when we watch Susana bending over doing some scrubbing, with her tits giggling, and she looks up sharply at the manboy she's seducing. It's one of the sexiest moments in all of Bunuel's work - her look goes right to the hearts/dicks of the men watching the film for the titty payoff.
There are several of these Susana-uses-her-sex-as-a-weapon scenes in the movie. My favorite is when Susana is cleaning the panes on the glass doors of the bookcase, bosom heaving, while Don Fernando Soler polishes the barrel of his shotgun.

I disagree about this being minor Bunuel. Perhaps I'm biased -- I actually enjoy Bunuel's Mexican output as a whole much more than his earliest and latest works. But Susana is a film I can watch endlessly. It's charming and, I think, note-perfect in its portrayal of the reform school girl come to wreck the peaceful rancho by seducing anyone with a scrotum. I think it's a great doublefeature with El Bruto, as Susana and Katy Jurado's character in that film share certain affinities as lustful creatures. Also, I think it's interesting to see Bunuel's characterizations of the elderly in both films -- the slumlord's practically diapered dad in Bruto, and the dicho-spouting housekeeper in Susana. This film is especially about the subversion of order and even when order is seemingly restored, there's more subversion in the subtext.

Again, I highly recommend it to fans of epoca de oro Mexican cinema, Bunuelophiles and Russ Meyer fans. Ok, maybe they'll find it tame. But I dig it.

User avatar
GringoTex
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 5:57 am

#115 Post by GringoTex » Fri Nov 09, 2007 5:40 pm

davidhare wrote:Speaking of Mexican Bunuel does anyone else have a soft spot for Abismos de Pasion? Along with the Rivette it's surely the best Wuthering Heights around. And light years ahead of the Wyler.
Weren't you the one proclaiming Subida al Cielo the greatest of Bunuel's Mexican films? I finally saw it last week and you were right.

User avatar
jesus the mexican boi
Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2004 5:09 am
Location: South of the Capitol of Texas

#116 Post by jesus the mexican boi » Fri Nov 09, 2007 6:12 pm

davidhare wrote:Speaking of Mexican Bunuel does anyone else have a soft spot for Abismos de Pasion? Along with the Rivette it's surely the best Wuthering Heights around. And light years ahead of the Wyler.
See soft spot here. I really am awed by the Mexican Bunuels (Eclipse boxset, anyone?) and his Cumbres Borrascosas aka Abismos de Pasion is a great one. Transposing the moors to the monte is a stylistic leap and a rewarding one, replete with Bunuel's entomological urges rising to the fore and the corpse bride at the foot of the grave. Some terrific surrealist imagery here, and who knows what was made of it at the time, but I think -- like many Mexican Bunuels -- it's woefully underrated.

Subida al Cielo is Bunuel's oneiric road picture, which also captures, as has been posited here, the socioeconomic and political atmosphere of the time and place. Fascinating that davidhare brings that up -- the politics of Bunuel -- as they are part and parcel of nearly every one of his Mexican films: the blind beggar and the rich pederast in Olvidados, where love is dreamed as a giant raw steak; the educated and the untutored in El Rio y la Muerte; those who would work for free and those who would lose the strength of their labor unions in Nazarin.

The more Mexican Bunuel, the merrier. I can't recommend these films enough -- there's always something to be found. And to that end, I also heartily recommend the book of interviews, "Objects of Desire," by Perez Turrent and de la Colina, which spends several worthy pages on these "bread-and-butter" years.

User avatar
codam
Joined: Sat Jun 02, 2007 5:40 am
Location: London

#117 Post by codam » Fri Feb 01, 2008 10:21 am

Reading this review of the German Bunuel Mexico box set makes me really sorry that it's only got German subtitles... The review says each film is wonderfully restored, so is there any chance of an English-subtitled release?

Also, why have symbols like ñ in topic titles become garbled? Is it possible to fix this?

User avatar
Lemmy Caution
Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 3:26 am
Location: East of Shanghai

#118 Post by Lemmy Caution » Fri Feb 01, 2008 12:52 pm

A few days ago I picked up
A Woman Without Love (1951)
Starring: Roberto Canedo, Dolores Del Rio Director: Luis Bunuel
Image

# Studio: Facets Cinemateca
# DVD Release Date: September 25, 2007
# Run Time: 91 minutes

Haven't had a chance to check it out yet, except to confirm that it has Eng. subtitles.

User avatar
username-Italian Style
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2008 8:19 pm
Location: Midwest, U.S.A.

Luis Bunuel

#119 Post by username-Italian Style » Sun Feb 24, 2008 6:25 pm

Are there any other good DVDs for his films besides the films Criterion has already offered?

Im looking to see these films:

The Exterminating Angel
The Brute
Nazarin
Tristana
Los Olvidados
Simon of the Desert

Are there quality releases of these films or should I wait patiently for Criterion to release them?

User avatar
miless
Joined: Sat Apr 01, 2006 9:45 pm

Re: Luis Bunuel

#120 Post by miless » Sun Feb 24, 2008 7:26 pm

username-Italian Style wrote:The Exterminating Angel
Criterion is definitely releasing this one in the near future.

User avatar
tryavna
Joined: Wed Mar 30, 2005 4:38 pm
Location: North Carolina

Re: Luis Bunuel

#121 Post by tryavna » Mon Feb 25, 2008 1:09 pm

username-Italian Style wrote:The Brute
Actually, I'd say that, overall, this is the best of the three Bunuels that Facets recently released in terms of A/V quality. The microscopic subtitles are still a problem, but less so depending on the size of your screen.
Nazarin
This was one of the Mexican Alter titles that I picked up, so I presume the upcoming Lionsgate release will be similar. As the "youngest" of the Mexican films released by Alter, it looks the best, but it's nothing to write home about. At $10, however, the upcoming Lionsgate will be a no-brainer.
Tristana
I presume that the R2 is the best existing version of this title, but it's the weakest in Optimum's boxset by far. Unless you went for the boxset, it's probably best to wait on Criterion.
Los Olvidados
This was also one of Alter's releases -- and probably the worst-looking of the lot. It deserves a full-out restoration, considering its stature, but the announced Lionsgate release probably throws a monkey-wrench into KochLorber's plans. (They were promising a restoration.)
Simon of the Desert
Like Exterminating Angel, Janus/Criterion have the rights to this one. Like other folks around here, I was surprised that Criterion didn't release the two of these with Viridiana. Otherwise, due to its length, Simon may be a problematic title to market. Perhaps if Criterion packaged it with a definitive version of Las Hurdes (i.e., with its three existing soundtracks), that might work. At any rate, it's probably best just to wait for Criterion, and whet your appetite for it with TCM's regular showings (which seem to happen about once a year).

User avatar
reaky
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 8:53 am
Location: Cambridge, England

#122 Post by reaky » Fri Apr 04, 2008 12:28 pm

One for the UK contingent: last month they gave away VIRIDIANA, this week it's THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL. The INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY has a Bunuelito on board!

User avatar
Arn777
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 6:10 am
Location: London

#123 Post by Arn777 » Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:34 pm

wow, thanks, i wasn't aware of it, will definitely get it.

User avatar
tojoed
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2008 11:47 am
Location: Cambridge, England

#124 Post by tojoed » Sat Apr 05, 2008 5:12 pm

Yes, thanks reaky. I don't normally get the IoS, but I will tomorrow.

jurples
Joined: Wed Oct 17, 2007 4:27 pm

#125 Post by jurples » Thu May 29, 2008 10:15 pm

I recently spotted a copy of Luis Bunuel's Wuthering Heights on DVD in a shop whose cover art was red with black letters. I believe it was priced at $22. When I tried to go online and do some research about it, I couldn't find an image of this dvd anywhere. Is anyone aware of which version of this movie this dvd is and if that's a decent price for it?

Post Reply