MEXICAN BUS RIDE
Subida Al Cielo / Descent to Heaven

A young man must travel to the city to settle his dying mother's will. This is Bunuel's excuse to place the man on a bus with a whore who wants his sex, a politician who wants his vote, a priest who wants his soul and take them on a surreal bus ride with detours for a death, a birth, a wedding and a bit of fornication!

Bunuel was particularly fond of this offbeat comedy. Although one of his lightest, most accessible films, it still retains the deeper themes of birth, copulation and death, and a series of delightful surreal dream sequences.

Mexico 1951, 85 minutes.
ISBN 1-55881-026-9
$39.95

THE CRIMINAL LIFE OF ARCHIBALDO DE LA CRUZ
Rehearsal For A Crime / Ensayo De Un Crimen

Archibaldo's criminal life begins on the eve of the Mexican Revolution when his nanny dies under erotic circumstances. Because he had wished her dead, he becomes convinced that he is a killer and grows up to become a psychopathic woman - hater who wants to kill but he is constantly thwarted in his efforts to carry out a murder.

This comedy of errors, murder, alleged murder, kind of murder and almost murder was one of Bunuel’s best black comedies of the period. It not only pokes wicked fun at the decadent bourgeoisie and at the Latin male, but at some of the director's own obsessions--foot fetishism, I'amour fou, and surrealism.

Directed by Luis Bunuel. Script; Luis Bunuel, E. Ugarte. Photo; Augustin Jimenez. Music; JorgePerez. Cast; Ernesto Alonso, Ariadna Welter, Miroslava Stern, Rite Macedo

Mexico 1955, 91m. Subtitled.
ISBN 1-55881-027-7
$39.95

SIMON OF THE DESERT
Simon Del Desierto

For 6 years, 6 weeks and 6 days, Simon, emulating St. Simon Stylites, has stood on a pillar in the Mexican desert so that he might elevate himself from earthly temptations and bring himself closer to God. This, of course, is just too much for the devil to resist so up she pops to tempt Simon's soul with lust, lapping tongues, burning bodies and a final airplane time travel ride to the world capital of sin — 1960’s New York— where she has promised to dance the decadent "radioactive flesh" dance at the trendiest of New York discos!

Originally intended as a feature, the film had to be truncated when the money ran out. Nevertheless, it remains one of Bunuels most inspired looks at the impossibility of absolute piety; a theme he returned to time and time again. Highly Recommended and unanimously voted by our jaded staff as the one NYFA video they would actually watch without being ordered to do so by management!

Special Jury Prize Venice 1965

Directed by Louis Bunuel. Script; Bunuel. Cast: Silvia Pinal, Claudio Brook, Hortensio Santovena, Enrique Alvarez Felix.

Mexico, 1965, 45 minute subtitled version.
ISBN 1-55881-125-7
$19.95

EXTERMINATING ANGEL

Bunuel's meditations on class struggle, religion and meaningless rituals brought forth this strange film. The guests at a dinner party discover that they cannot leave their hosts' dining room. At first It appears that there is a strange and unknown force at work —even the servants have fled the premises for reasons they, themselves, cannot explain). As the days pass without food or water, the trapped guests decline into a choreographed orgy of denial, retribution and degradation.

“basically, I simply see a group of people who couldn’t do what they want to...that kind of dilemma, the impossibility of satisfying a simple desire, often occurs in my movies. From the standpoint of reason, there is no reason for this film” —Louis Bunuel

Directed by Luis Bunuel. Screenplay by Bunuel and Luis Alcoriza. With Silvia Final, Enrique Rambal, Lucy Gallardo, Claudio Brook, Bertha Moss, Ofelia Montesco.

Spain, 1962, 91 minutes. Subtitles
ISBN 1-55881-124-9
$29.95

LOS OLVIDADOS
The Young and the Damned

Pedro, a young boy from the Mexican slums, falls in with a gang of delinquents headed by Jaibo, a hardened young man. Slowly, and somewhat unwillingly, Pedro descends into a life of crime that ends in a tragic denouement.

Bunuel made Los Olvidados after a disappointing list of commercial Mexican outings. The uncompromising portrait of misery and violence brought Bunuel back to International attention and earned him a prize for Best Direction at Cannes. Bunuel’s script was based on a number of actual cases and the characters are composites of real live delinquents. The result is something reminiscent of an Italian Neorealism film. But Bunuel --- who began his film career by slitting an eyeball in Un Chien Andalou and made acid-trip images a fine art --- added a whole series of bizarre visions and juxtapositions to the film including a dream sequence which Pauline Kael described as "the most brilliantly conceived dream I have ever seen in any film."

Script and direction by Louis Bunuel. With Estela Inda, Alfonso Mejia, Roberto Cobo, Miguel Inclan. Originally from Mayer-Kingsley.

Mexico 1950. 88 minutes.Subtitled.
ISBN 1-55881-123-0
$19.95

OTHER BUNUEL TITLES AVAILABLE

UN CHIEN ANDALOU
L'AGE D'OR
FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER
LAND WITHOUT BREAD