This quote, attributed to the Spanish director Luis Bunuel, and the cool irony of the paradox it represents, is the essence of one of his short masterpieces, the 45 minute black and white "Simon of the Desert", recently released on dvd by The Criterion Collection.
The film is loosely based on the story of Saint Simeon Stylites, an ascetic who spent his life standing on top of a pillar in the middle of the desert in penance to his God.
The actor who plays Simon, Claudio Brook, was the same one who so memorably played the imposing butler character in Bunuel's other great film of the period, The Exterminating Angel, about a group of guests at a dinner party who find themselves inexplicably unable to leave, as if beset by a spontaneous and contagious lack of will.
(For you younger fans, Brook even made an appearance late in his career in Guillermo del Toro's early horror classic "Cronos", I'm sure as an homage to del Toro's great predecessor in Mexican cinema.)
Silvia Pinal, who played the title character in Bunuel's 1961 film "Viridiana" which won the Palme D'or at the Cannes Film Festival, plays the devil who comes in various guises to tempt Simon from his pillar and his state of grace.
Here she teases him with her long tongue. Is it real?
The film is gorgeous and was the last collaboration between Bunuel and the great cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa (there is a beautiful site dedicated to his life and work here). And it was the final film that Bunuel made in Mexico before he returned to Europe and the international productions like "Belle du Jour" and "That Obscure Object of Desire" that were the last works of his amazing career.
It's weird to see a 45 minute movie, but I read that the producer ran out of money and they were only able to complete part of Bunuel's intended vision of the story.
But the movie does not feel incomplete, and even the bizarre ending where the characters are suddenly transported to a 60's New York rock and roll nightclub where an indifferent Simon sits in a black polo-neck sweater surrounding by shimmying dancers feels like a poetically just and satisfying conclusion.
william
The first time I saw Simon of the Desert, it blew me away! It was 1971, I was 17 and I had never seen anything which so essentially commented on the surrealistic and sometimes silly, yet utterly real, beauty of spirituality.
Posted by: sarah | February 24, 2009 at 05:54 PM
These images are incredible. The devil temptress is remarkable.
Posted by: dutchbaby | February 26, 2009 at 05:55 AM
There are many philosophical issues concerning the existence of God. Some definitions of God are sometimes nonspecific, while other definitions can be self-contradictory. Arguments for the existence of God typically include metaphysical, empirical, inductive, and subjective types, while others revolve around holes in evolutionary theory and order and complexity in the world. Arguments against the existence of God typically include empirical, deductive, and inductive types.
Posted by: generic viagra | April 12, 2010 at 10:49 AM
It's great to hear from you and see what you've been up to. In your blog I feel your enthusiasm for life. thank you.
Posted by: New Jordans | May 12, 2010 at 06:33 PM