Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Los Olvidados

151213 Olvidados smSunday December 13th 2015, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Los Olvidados. Directed by Luis Buñuel, 1950, 80 minutes, In Spanish with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begin at 9pm. Free admission.

This is probably the most famous film made by Spanish director Luis Buñuel while he lived for several decades as an exile in Mexico. Less surreal than his European films, even almost documentary in its mood, it follows the story of several rough street kids in Mexico’s ghettos. Although the movie can feel visceral, and it indeed shocked audiences with its radical portrayal of street life and poverty, this beautifully crafted film also lyrically transcends its hard-hitting subject matter.

Luis Buñuel’s depiction of life in Mexico’s slums stunned audiences at the Cannes Film Festival in 1951, with Buñuel picking up the Best Director award, and relaunching the filmmaker’s career after a twenty-year hiatus. The film focuses on the story of an unloved teenage boy, Pedro, who fights to turn his life around against the circumstances of extreme poverty. Unflinchingly honest, at times surreal… and ultimately heartbreaking, Los Olividados is an original, game-changing piece of cinema from one of the medium’s true masters. Some of the images in this flick are more haunting than anything Hollywood has had to offer for the last decade. Really.

This is probably the most famous film made by Spanish director Luis Buñuel while he lived for several decades as an exile in Mexico. Less surreal than his European films, even almost documentary in its mood, it follows the story of several rough street kids in Mexico’s ghettos. Although the movie can feel visceral, and it indeed shocked audiences with its radical portrayal of street life and poverty, this beautifully crafted film also lyrically transcends its hard-hitting subject matter.

Luis Buñuel’s depiction of life in Mexico’s slums stunned audiences at the Cannes Film Festival in 1951, with Buñuel picking up the Best Director award, and relaunching the filmmaker’s career after a twenty-year hiatus. The film focuses on the story of an unloved teenage boy, Pedro, who fights to turn his life around against the circumstances of extreme poverty. Unflinchingly honest, at times surreal… and ultimately heartbreaking, Los Olividados is an original, game-changing piece of cinema from one of the medium’s true masters. Some of the images in this flick are more haunting than anything Hollywood has had to offer for the last decade. Really.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Doors open at 8pm, film begins at 9pm, free entrance. You want to play a movie, let us know: joe [at] squat [dot] net

Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: La Voie lactée (Luis Buñuel, 1969)

Sunday July 8th 2012, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema, THE MILKY WAY 1969 (La Voie lactée). Directed by Luis Buñuel, 101 minutes, In French with English subtitles. High-definition screening. A movie night by guest programmer Jeffrey Babcock. door opens at 20pm,  film starts at 21pm,

The way that Monty Python was influenced by Luis Buñuel is clear. When Michael Palin wrote the obituary of Buñuel in Rolling Stone magazine, he said that all they were trying to do in their films was be Buñuel. He then listed every Monty Python film and which Buñuell film they were ripping off in each. He said that Bunuel was one of their main inspirations. But at the same time there are differences, in that Buñuel was a bit more intelligent and stylish, where Python was more crass and almost totally non-aesthetic.

In Buñuel’s La Voie lactée we follow two clochards (bums, drifters) who are traveling through the countryside on their way to the holy city of Santiago de Compostela, and go into a time warp…. coming across all the dogmas and hypocrisies of Christianity throughout the ages. Filled with absurd images and heretical black humor, the film continues surrealism’s attack on normality and blind belief.

One viewer’s comment: “One of best movies that analyzes European Catholicism with a Surrealistic microscope. Two allegorical pilgrims on there way to Santiago de Compostela from Paris see 2000 years of Orthodoxy through a series of unrelated vignettes dealing with heresies and anathema.
Get this movie. Pierre Clementi rules as the Destroying Angel! Original language: French with a touch of Spanish and Mystical Latin. I see this movie as the natural sequel to Simon of the Desert. Luis Bunuel, filmmaker, Surrealist Extraordinaire, we’ll never see his kind again!”

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066534/
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Door opens at eight! You are welcome! Film night at Joe’s Garage, nice and cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to play a movie, let us know: joe [at] squat [dot] net