Luis Buñuel on DVD

[Gordon]

Ah, thanks, guys. I now recall viewing that Beaver review when it was originally published and thinking that it looked like a good transfer, but Gary has since re-wrote the review after getting a few emails. Some of the captures look quite nice, but some have that waxy analogue pallette look to them. This must be one of those instances where transfer looks good when still and diplayed on a PC monitor, but actually looks like dung on large screen and actually playing - moving. A lot of interlaced non-anamorphic transfers look great when displayed in a screen capture, but when you play them back zoomed-in on a 50 inch, they look like horrendous. Gary always makes this caveat when such transfers come his way, but some archive reviews at other DVD sites don't, as they were written waaaay back in the 90s! I have almost been tripped up a few times by such antiquated methods of quality control.

Oh, well, I'll just have to look forward to the Facets edition...

Listed on the Arrow Films website.

Exterminating Angel and Viridiana

Great news! But one wonders how far off the Criterion edition might be.

[GringoTex]

Great news! But one wonders how far off the Criterion edition might be.

I expect Criterion to live up to their reputation and give us a Bunuel Mexican boxset. They may be the only compnay in the world who can.

[bunuelian]

I imagine Viridiana will open up a broader scope for Bunuel's films in the CC, with Exterminating Angel being the premier next choice. I'm doubtful that a box set will result, though. Is Nazarin available to them? Without it, El, or Archibaldo, I'm reluctant to hold my breath for a box set.

The next Bunuel from CC ought to be Milky Way, which could only be released in an artificial grouping with other "sacraligious" films (Nazarin, Simon). I'd buy it despite the artifice . . . .

[jorencain]

I've been waiting for them to release "The Milky Way" for quite a while; I've seen Rialto's release in the theaters twice in the last 2 years, so it MUST be in the works at Criterion. I was really disappointed when it wasn't released at the same time as (or instead of) "Phantom of Libery". TMW is one of my favorite Bunuel films, and I really hope that it's next in chute from Criterion.

[loplop]

Any idea exactly when The Exterminating Angel is to be released ?

[justeleblanc]

I expect Criterion to live up to their reputation and give us a Bunuel Mexican boxset. They may be the only compnay in the world who can.

Koch Lorber is releasing Olvidados, and my guess is they might have more Mexicans up their sleeve.

I assumed the next Criterion release would be Exterminating Angel, packaged with Simon just as the Tout va Bien/Letter to Jane disc.

[Cobalt60]

Any idea exactly when The Exterminating Angel is to be released ?

The Exterminating Angel is on TCM on 06/15, so keep and eye out for that Janus logo.

[unclehulot]

The Exterminating Angel is on TCM on 06/15, so keep and eye out for that Janus logo.

It was already aired last year, and was confirmed as having the Janus logo, as noted in this thread

[Ashirg]

DVD Times review of Exterminating Angel

[alfons416]

DVD Times review of Exterminating Angel

am i the only one who think this is Bunuels most overrated film? saw at least a dozen Bunuel movies in the cinema last year and i hade really high expectations before i saw this and was really disappointed.

[Greathinker]

am i the only one who think this is Bunuels most overrated film?

this has been my first and only Bunuel film and despite not being familiar with the director's work I couldn't possibly call this film a masterpiece. It's long and meandering and takes absurd to a whole new level, of course all of this could and likely was intended by the director but it doesn't make for an enjoyable viewing experience-- rather I feel like I'm being punished. I'm positive there's more of a depth here that I'm unwilling to go into but there's nothing that makes me want to, and if I wanted to see a real scorching of the complacent, bourgeois upper-class I'd watch The Rules of the Game instead

My first impression of Bunuel and one that I hope doesn't stick is that he's trying to impress, like a magician with a bag of tricks, saying, "now take a look at this!" Whereas a more honest director like Bergman would say, "I've created this scenario, now lets explore it together." Sorry to post such a provisional opinion of an acclaimed artist, but this film makes me less enthusiastic about viewing the rest of his work

[ola t]

The dinner guests arrive twice. They ascend the stairs and walk through the wide doorway, and then they arrive again--the same guests, seen from a higher camera angle. This is a joke and soon we will understand the punch line: The guests, having so thoroughly arrived, are incapable of leaving.

[MichaelB]

I don't have my copy to hand, but I distinctly recall Bunuel confirming in his autobiography that this effect was entirely intentional - if I remember rightly, he chided someone for pointing it out, as though patronisingly assuming that he (Bunuel) had somehow missed it after umpteen viewings.

[vogler]

In the opening scenes, as the servants are making moves to escape the house, and just before the guests arrive, Bunuel appears to have filmed one group of servants getting ready in a couple of shots and then after another couple of shots of the hosts, repeats the same "escaping servants" sequence with shots from different camera setups. Something like an intentional Ed Wood-like "continuity error."

I used to but no longer have a British VHS version which - relying on memory - did indeed have this "extra" couple of shots. But the Arrow R2/AVChannelR4 source, eliminates them.

This is true - I noticed this straight away. The correct order of shots is that the servants are leaving but see that the guests are entering the hall so they hide in another room. The guests then enter the hall, the host calls his butler and the guests go up the stairs. It then cuts to the servants in the other room who begin to leave thinking that the guests have gone upstairs but then the guests enter the hall again so they retreat back into the other room. We then see the guests entering for a second time, the host calls his butler and the guests go up the stairs.

Bunuel speaks of this in his autobiography My Last Breath. Here are some excerpts:

'In life, as in film, I've always been fascinated by repetition' ... 'There are at least a dozen repetitions in The Exterminating Angel' ... 'Another repetition occurs when the guests enter the hall and the host calls his butler twice; in fact, it's the same scene, but shot from different angles.'

He also recalls how his chief cameraman said to him that there was something very wrong because the scene was in there twice without realising that this was intentional.

I have read elsewhere that this scene was cut in certain prints by distributors who thought it was an error. I was aware of this already so the first thing I did when I got this dvd was to check if the scene was there. The Spanish dvd also has the same problem (I think the same print was used). This is a shame as it is a wonderful moment of Bunuelian incongruity.

I also have a copy of a vhs which does have the repeated scene and I think it is a copy of the British tape. The quality is horrible though. This dvd will suffice for now but I really hope Criterion do it properly at some point in the near future.

Looks like a lot of people replied to this already while I was farting around trying to find my vhs copy. I may have repeated some of their points.

[vogler]

The godammed discs WONT suffice

No, you're quite right - I'm being far too lenient. I'm wondering how widespread this problem is. Has anyone seen a real print of the film as opposed to just a video copy and if so did it have the scene intact? I have a feeling that many prints of The Exterminating Angel may have the scene cut.

Incidentally I also have a copy of the screenplay. I just had a look at it and the scene is written the same as in the vhs version and as I described it above.

[Gropius]

Has anyone seen a real print of the film as opposed to just a video copy and if so did it have the scene intact? I have a feeling that many prints of The Exterminating Angel may have the scene cut.

I once saw a screening at a repertory cinema, and noted that scene as a classic Bunuel-ism. Cutting it makes about as much sense as removing the opening of Un chien andalou because a barber would never cut an eyeball in real life.

[davebert]

It's a shame that Exterminating Angel gets butchered in such a way. I caught it twice at NYU last year (once in class, once at a Saturday screening), and they were using a print from of their donated libraries. It had some scratches and the audio had some definite hissing, but if that was just put on DVD without significant improvement I would still buy it...

[Anonymous]

The Exterminating Angel , Viridiana, Simon del Desierto and a host of others have been available as torrent files at The Pirate Bay for at least a year or so. I take it they were rips of the Italian DVDs or possibly Spanish or French as well. None of those were english subtitled but the same person who uploaded the files subtitled a lot of them himself. A lot of those subtitles were expectedly dodgy so I was resubbing the Exterminating Angel myself using the Green Integer 64 book (what someone earlier in the thread called the screenplay) when I realized the Exterminating Angel file I had downloaded was missing the scene that repeats itself. I have the Arrow disc and it's the exact transfer as he torrent file which as I've said is the Italian DVD transfer although the Arrow image looks a shade better than the file I downloaded. So it seems whoever scanned the film back whenever those initial discs were made is responsible for the cut. Sort of annoying considering what an anticipated title this is for the digital medium. Reminds me of the ridiculous New Yorker disc of Weekend with the car crash scene where the film itself goes off the track spliced back into place with the resulting white line.

[Don Lope de Aguirre]

I am not sure if this is the right place to be posting this or if this is common knowledge but the R2 Yume Pictures Nazarin is an abomination!!

You have been warned...

[Gropius]

I am not sure if this is the right place to be posting this or if this is common knowledge but the R2 Yume Pictures Nazarin is an abomination!!

Care to expand? Are we talking poor picture quality, poor subtitles or both?

Yume also have 'The Great Madcap' and 'Ascent to Heaven' coming up on their books, both of which are supposed to be pretty minor Bunuel (not that I've seen them).

[Gropius]

Subida al Cielo is one of the greatest of all Bunuels!

You've piqued my interest now; to be honest I've never seen any Bunuel film between L'Age d'or and Los olvidados, or indeed the latter and Viridiana. Certainly, I don't think he ever made a below-par film post-1960 (with the possible exception of Tristana, which seemed like a weaker retread of Viridiana), so perhaps the earlier ones are just as good (even Robinson Crusoe?).

[Don Lope de Aguirre]

Care to expand? Are we talking poor picture quality, poor subtitles or both?

Yume also have 'The Great Madcap' and 'Ascent to Heaven' coming up on their books, both of which are supposed to be pretty minor Bunuel (not that I've seen them).

Let's put it this way: when I first saw the image I almost gasped... It might not be quite as distracting on a regular widescreen TV but I really had to make an effort just to finish the film! It's a DVD from another age almost...

Bunuel's 50s/Mexican films are worth looking up, from what I have seen. Although I feel that a couple of them are far too much under the influence of Hitchcock, there are some real gems...

[tryavna]

Certainly, I don't think he ever made a below-par film post-1960 (with the possible exception of Tristana, which seemed like a weaker retread of Viridiana), so perhaps the earlier ones are just as good (even Robinson Crusoe?).

I've not seen many of his Mexican films, but all I have seen were worthwhile. I think that, after Los Olvidados, my favorite is Nazarin, which strikes me as a warm-up for Viridiana but told from a male point of view (i.e., the main character trying live a pure Christian life outside the Church is a priest rather than a novitiate nun). At any rate, you'd probably find it an interesting point of comparison for both Viridiana and the later Tristana.

I also tend to rate Robinson Crusoe fairly high -- probably higher than most other forum members. It's an extremely faithful adaptation of the novel, so it's not as fully Bunuelian as other movies. But it's interesting to see how he handles the material (and the English language). And of course, Dan O'Herlihy is outstanding in it.

[zedz]

You've piqued my interest now; to be honest I've never seen any Bunuel film between L'Age d'or and Los olvidados

I haven't seen close to all of the Mexican films, but they're by far my favourite period for Bunuel (and you can throw in the non-Mexican films from the same era, like La Mort en ce jardin and Viridiana). There's a demonic resourcefulness in his twisting of traditional forms and low-budget production constrictions into highly personal and perverse expression.

That said, I find El Gran Calavera very weak. If it's a poor disc, I'd probably avoid it.

[Michael Kerpan]

The UK DVD of Exterminating Angel looks a lot better than the old US video I once watched.