'Death In The Garden' (1956, La mort en ce jardin)
Jul 15, 2017 22:12:20 GMT
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Post by petrolino on Jul 15, 2017 22:12:20 GMT
'Death In The Garden' is a dramatic film of two distinct halves. The first half is a story of rioting and revolution, focusing on various people who get caught up in unrest at a mining outpost somewhere in South America. The second half follows the declaration of martial law which sends five characters on a desperate jungle adventure; rugged adventurer Shark (Georges Marchal), hard-bitten hooker Djin (Simone Signoret), craggy diamond miner Castin (Charles Vanel), the miner's cheeky deaf-mute daughter Maria (Michele Girardon) and philosophical priest Father Lizardi (Michel Piccoli). The first half of the movie is dry, sober and literary while the second half is aroused, unkempt and ultimately delusional.
'Death In The Garden' is based on a novel by Belgian author Jose-Andre Lacour. The adapted screenplay was written by director Luis Bunuel with his trusted partner Luis Alcoriza and an assist from surrealist poet Raymond Queneau whose novel 'Zazie In The Metro' was soon to be filmed by Louis Malle (this continues an association Bunuel held with writers from the surrealist movement from his first film to his last).
'Death In The Garden' means a great deal to me because it's the first film I saw from my favourite filmmaker Luis Bunuel. I bought it on video when I was at school, this led me to buy a copy of 'Belle De Jour' (1967) which was also available, and from that point on I think I knew I'd found a director whose work I'd savour until my dying day. Before today, I'd not seen 'Death In The Garden' in over 20 years and I can say I have clear feelings about it now. Bunuel really didn't care for this picture, coming on to it as a hired hand, and I can see why as the first half tends to drift and feels a bit laborious. There's some interesting snippets of dialogue but I think the first half's main purpose becomes the set up for the jungle trip which is the section that really delivers. Most people who see the movie recall one unforgettable vision which is kind of remarkable because it only lasts a few seconds (an image of a snake writhing among ants). Emotions are what drives the jungle odyssey, culminating in a jarring moment between the preacher and the girl where we're left to ponder who's made it out with their faculties intact and who's been rendered an acid casualty. It's not my favourite of Bunuel's pictures by a long shot but it's still a film with plenty to offer.
The new dual-format dvd release of 'Death In The Garden' from Eureka Entertainment provides an excellent restoration. There's also a new interview with my all-time favourite French actor, Mr. Michel Piccoli, and seeing as he's now 91 and suffering ill health, I cherish anything new that comes my way (plus it's a very funny and illuminating interview). I hope Eureka will consider a release of 'Simon Of The Desert' (1965) in future as it's still absent here in U K. Also, a Bunuel movie I've not seen that Alfred Hitchcock is said to have greatly admired, the mystery 'El' (1953).
'Death In The Garden' is based on a novel by Belgian author Jose-Andre Lacour. The adapted screenplay was written by director Luis Bunuel with his trusted partner Luis Alcoriza and an assist from surrealist poet Raymond Queneau whose novel 'Zazie In The Metro' was soon to be filmed by Louis Malle (this continues an association Bunuel held with writers from the surrealist movement from his first film to his last).
"If you've seen Un Chien andalou (1929), it's unlikely you've ever forgotten the experience. If you haven't seen it, prepare yourself for one of strangest, craziest, most darkly fascinating movies of all time. To begin with the basics, Un Chien andalou is not the sort of film you'd expect to become an acclaimed masterpiece. It's a silent movie, about sixteen minutes long, and carefully constructed so that nothing in it makes sense. That includes the title, which means "an Andalusian dog," even though the film has nothing to do with Andalusia and there isn't a dog in sight. In all, it sounds like a scenario for disaster. Yet this unique work, first shown in 1929 to a mix of enthusiastic cheers and outraged boos, stands as a towering classic of world cinema, still explored and enjoyed by movie buffs far and wide. Roger Ebert called it "the most famous short film ever made," adding that "anyone halfway interested in the cinema sees it sooner or later, usually several times." For newcomers and experts alike, Un Chien andalou is best approached by way of its director, Luis Buñuel, who wrote the film with painter Salvador Dalí, another Spaniard with an inimitable style. Buñuel and Dalí are the most famous advocates of surrealism, the enormously important artistic movement that commenced in the 1920s and influences filmmakers (David Lynch, Harmony Korine) and artists (Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons) to this day. Surrealists want to bypass logical, everyday thinking in order to express the vast realms of experience - passions, obsessions, extremes of love, hate, hope, fear - that reason and rationality can't fully account for, much less tame or control. Dalí did this by painting hallucinatory visions (melted watches, a sphinx with Shirley Temple's head) and sporting a mustache that looks like a lethal weapon. Buñuel did it by directing dozens of films that attack commonsensical values and conventions with ferocious glee."
- David Sterritt, Turner Classic Movies
"In his essay 'The Object of Desire and the Totality of the Real', Georges Bataille speaks to the unrelenting nature of passion and its precarious relationship to the intellect : "In reality, what fascinates in this way speaks to passion but has nothing to say to the intellect. Thus it appears, in many cases, that the latter is less lucid than a simpler reaction. In point of fact, the intellect cannot justify the power of passion, and yet it naively considers itself obliged to deny that power. But in choosing to hear of other reasons but its own, the intellect errs; for it can go into the reasons of the heart if it so chooses, provided it does not insist on reducing them first to the calculation of reason. Once it has made this concession it can define a domain in which it is no longer the sole rule of conduct: it does so if it speaks of the sacred, of what surpasses it by nature. The most remarkable thing is that it is quite capable of speaking of what surpasses it; indeed, it cannot conceive that it might finally be able to justify itself without abandoning its own calculation."
: It is impossible to watch this film without thinking that the very brilliant Luis Buñuel sourced this very essay for his remarkable film, 'That Obscure Object of Desire'. So far, I think it has to be my favorite Buñuel film (can I take that back right away?) because of its delicacy and it’s display of absolute perfection in what it is intending to say, what it may be intending to say, and a culmination of the film career of a remarkable director. After this film Luis Buñuel retired. He made 'That Obscure Object of desire' in 1977 and in 1983 he died. Buñuel is a surrealist, but what I love about his later works is the way he infused the philosophical principles of surrealism into his work, as well as using his famous visual techniques to take us into alternate realities. All the same Bunuel rules apply here. We have the dusted muted colours, the almost cartoonish quality, a dwarf, and to display the complete incomprehension of the male over his object of desire, he has two completely different actresses (who look different and behave different) portray his love interest, as each fumbles their way through a perverse love affair that is really a battle for the control of the self."
- Lisa Thatcher, 'That Obscure Object Of Desire – Luis Buñuel And The Universality Of Desire'
- David Sterritt, Turner Classic Movies
"In his essay 'The Object of Desire and the Totality of the Real', Georges Bataille speaks to the unrelenting nature of passion and its precarious relationship to the intellect : "In reality, what fascinates in this way speaks to passion but has nothing to say to the intellect. Thus it appears, in many cases, that the latter is less lucid than a simpler reaction. In point of fact, the intellect cannot justify the power of passion, and yet it naively considers itself obliged to deny that power. But in choosing to hear of other reasons but its own, the intellect errs; for it can go into the reasons of the heart if it so chooses, provided it does not insist on reducing them first to the calculation of reason. Once it has made this concession it can define a domain in which it is no longer the sole rule of conduct: it does so if it speaks of the sacred, of what surpasses it by nature. The most remarkable thing is that it is quite capable of speaking of what surpasses it; indeed, it cannot conceive that it might finally be able to justify itself without abandoning its own calculation."
: It is impossible to watch this film without thinking that the very brilliant Luis Buñuel sourced this very essay for his remarkable film, 'That Obscure Object of Desire'. So far, I think it has to be my favorite Buñuel film (can I take that back right away?) because of its delicacy and it’s display of absolute perfection in what it is intending to say, what it may be intending to say, and a culmination of the film career of a remarkable director. After this film Luis Buñuel retired. He made 'That Obscure Object of desire' in 1977 and in 1983 he died. Buñuel is a surrealist, but what I love about his later works is the way he infused the philosophical principles of surrealism into his work, as well as using his famous visual techniques to take us into alternate realities. All the same Bunuel rules apply here. We have the dusted muted colours, the almost cartoonish quality, a dwarf, and to display the complete incomprehension of the male over his object of desire, he has two completely different actresses (who look different and behave different) portray his love interest, as each fumbles their way through a perverse love affair that is really a battle for the control of the self."
- Lisa Thatcher, 'That Obscure Object Of Desire – Luis Buñuel And The Universality Of Desire'
Michel Piccoli, Catherine Deneuve & Luis Bunuel
Carole Bouquet, Angela Molina & Luis Bunuel
Carole Bouquet, Angela Molina & Luis Bunuel
'Death In The Garden' means a great deal to me because it's the first film I saw from my favourite filmmaker Luis Bunuel. I bought it on video when I was at school, this led me to buy a copy of 'Belle De Jour' (1967) which was also available, and from that point on I think I knew I'd found a director whose work I'd savour until my dying day. Before today, I'd not seen 'Death In The Garden' in over 20 years and I can say I have clear feelings about it now. Bunuel really didn't care for this picture, coming on to it as a hired hand, and I can see why as the first half tends to drift and feels a bit laborious. There's some interesting snippets of dialogue but I think the first half's main purpose becomes the set up for the jungle trip which is the section that really delivers. Most people who see the movie recall one unforgettable vision which is kind of remarkable because it only lasts a few seconds (an image of a snake writhing among ants). Emotions are what drives the jungle odyssey, culminating in a jarring moment between the preacher and the girl where we're left to ponder who's made it out with their faculties intact and who's been rendered an acid casualty. It's not my favourite of Bunuel's pictures by a long shot but it's still a film with plenty to offer.
“The film was a ‘La Mort en ce jardin’ (‘Death in a Garden’) was a co-production between Oscar Danciger’s company Producciones Tepeyac and a Paris-based company, Dismages. The French producers, it seems, hoped to replicate the success of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s ‘Le Salaire de la peur’ (The Wages of Fear, 1953), also set in Latin America and involving an expedition into the jungle. With this in mind they specified the casting of one of the stars of that film, the veteran character actor Charles Vanel, as an elderly miner, and also chose Simone Signoret to play a prostitute - something near type-casting, this, as Signoret had already played street-walkers in Yves Allegret’s Dedee d’Anvers (1948), Max Ophuls’ La Ronde (1950) and Jacques Becker’s ‘Casque d’Or (1952). The cast also included Michel Piccoli, in the first of seven films he would make with Bunuel, more than any other actor; the action star Georges Marchal, who earlier the same year had starred in Bunuel’s previous French-language film, Cela s’appelle l’aurore; and making her screen debut, 18-year-old Michele Girardon, later to star in Eric Rohmer’s first feature, Le Signe du lion (1962).”
- Philip Kemp, ‘Jungle Fever – Bunuel’s La More en ce jardin’
"Those three months shooting in Mexico were for me, Michel Piccoli and Charles Vanel like an unforgettable holiday. For a start, there was Bunuel; every actor who's worked with him has already said it: to spend a day with Don Luis isn't work, it's sheer pleasure."
- Simone Signoret on the filming of 'Death In The Garden'
- Philip Kemp, ‘Jungle Fever – Bunuel’s La More en ce jardin’
"Those three months shooting in Mexico were for me, Michel Piccoli and Charles Vanel like an unforgettable holiday. For a start, there was Bunuel; every actor who's worked with him has already said it: to spend a day with Don Luis isn't work, it's sheer pleasure."
- Simone Signoret on the filming of 'Death In The Garden'
Georges Marchal & Simone Signoret
Francois Truffaut & Luis Bunuel
A luncheon hosted by George Cukor in his Hollywood mansion in honor of Luis Buñuel (from left to right, back row : Robert Mulligan, William Wyler, George Cukor, Robert Wise, Jean-Claude Carriere and Serge Silverman / in the front row, from left to right : Billy Wilder, George Stevens, Luis Bunuel, Alfred Hitchcock, and Rouben Mamoulian)
The new dual-format dvd release of 'Death In The Garden' from Eureka Entertainment provides an excellent restoration. There's also a new interview with my all-time favourite French actor, Mr. Michel Piccoli, and seeing as he's now 91 and suffering ill health, I cherish anything new that comes my way (plus it's a very funny and illuminating interview). I hope Eureka will consider a release of 'Simon Of The Desert' (1965) in future as it's still absent here in U K. Also, a Bunuel movie I've not seen that Alfred Hitchcock is said to have greatly admired, the mystery 'El' (1953).
