And, as promised, I'm more deliberately tackling the Luis Bunuel filmography. With that in mind, this morning I watched his 1965 film Simon of the Desert. It very imaginatively and audaciously tells the story of the 5th century Syrian saint Simeon Stylites, who spent over thirty years sitting on top of a series of pillars as part of his devotion to God. Amazingly, he drew followers. I can remember how in my early days of teaching more traditional history classes my students were amazed/appalled by his story. Bunuel does an interesting job both celebrating and parodying him, or at least his parodying his often hypocritical followers. In a classic Bunuel moment the film ends up with Simon (Claudio Brook) and Satan (Silvia Pinal) in a New York City discotheque. Recommended.
No comments:
Post a Comment