CONTAINS SPOILERS .CONTAINS SPOILERS;CONTAINS SPOILERS
At first sight,"la Mort en Ce Jardin" looks like an adventure yarn for the whole family,but I hope the grown-ups are old enough to know better;it's for sure a very accessible work,when compared to former ones (un chien andalou,los hurdes,el)but do not believe the great Spanish director has lost his bite:even when he filmed "Robinson Crusoe" (another "family movie"?),Bunuel's obsessions surfaced.
What puzzles the spectator is the big budget:scope,colors(and the cinematography in the second part is absolutely enthralling),big French stars (Simone Signoret and Charles Vanel ,fresh from Clouzot's "les diaboliques",George Marshall,and also Michel Piccoli who ,though by no means at the beginning of his career,was not very known yet),and a score by Paul Miraski,one of Edith Piaf's favorite composers.
There are two jungles:the first one is Man Jungle.Its predators are the military men,its bitter fruit is religion.As the colonels humiliate,forbid,imprison,torture and kill,the priests-here represented by father Lizzardi(Piccoli)-urge the population to resign themselves to it.This priest character is very important,because he is the rough draft of what will be completely fulfilled two years later in "Nazarin"-"La Mort en Ce Jardin" will seem more relevant if you know the 1958 film-You've got to see Piccoli,bringing religious consolation to the prisoners in their dungeon:The raider Chark (Marshall ),who is practical-minded -and who's thus akin to "Viridiana"'s cousin in the 1961 masterwork- will pretend he take the priest's holy writ seriously,only in order to escape.But the best scene in which Bunuel shows his true face is the one in the church.Chark, prisoner led by the soldiers ,walks across a church where Lizzardi is celebrating mass:with his gun,one of the soldiers forces him to kneel down.Later another character will tell the priest that everywhere he and his religious mates come,begins the exploiters'reign.
This first part has often be criticized,because they say it moves too slow,but it's necessary to make acquaintance with the main characters ,who will leave the first jungle for the second one:outside Lizzardi and Chark,we have an old man( Vanel),who's forced to escape because the army thinks he is an agitator,his mute daughter,and a prostitute Djinn (Signoret,at her bitchiest).
The second part has been praised quite rightly so.Bunuel succeeded in creating a stifling atmosphere full of animal noises -the music is totally absent here and will come back only for the last shots-.The astounding cinematography enhances a green hell garden and these who thinks Bunuel completely jettisoned his surrealistic art should have a second look at it:because it is HERE,even if it's fleetingly.I will take four examples:the first one is the Paris postcard:for a very short while,we do believe the fugitives are back in their dear country;the second one is the snake eaten by ants (seen through the priest's eyes).There's more to the picture than meets the eye:the plane which had crashed in the jungle and which will save some of the characters acquires a surrealistic dimension."God has saved us!" the priest tells.But the raider is not fooled:"it took fifty people's lives (the plane passengers) to save us!".But the most extraordinary picture is Signoret,in the jungle,wearing an evening gown,complete with bright jewels,she's found in the plane.Here again,the priest will be completely helpless,his bible can only be used to light a fire (always Bunuel's practical mind).And Bunuel's religious disgust reaches a climax when the old man goes crazy and yells that God has cursed them .
That work ,generally regarded as a minor Bunuel work,is actually extremely intriguing.Although it has not the strength of such works as the ones I mention above ,it includes almost all his recurrent features.Adapted from a José André Lacour novel,dialogue by Raymond Queneau,who wrote "Zazie dans le métro",which Louis Malle transferred to the screen in 1960.
At first sight,"la Mort en Ce Jardin" looks like an adventure yarn for the whole family,but I hope the grown-ups are old enough to know better;it's for sure a very accessible work,when compared to former ones (un chien andalou,los hurdes,el)but do not believe the great Spanish director has lost his bite:even when he filmed "Robinson Crusoe" (another "family movie"?),Bunuel's obsessions surfaced.
What puzzles the spectator is the big budget:scope,colors(and the cinematography in the second part is absolutely enthralling),big French stars (Simone Signoret and Charles Vanel ,fresh from Clouzot's "les diaboliques",George Marshall,and also Michel Piccoli who ,though by no means at the beginning of his career,was not very known yet),and a score by Paul Miraski,one of Edith Piaf's favorite composers.
There are two jungles:the first one is Man Jungle.Its predators are the military men,its bitter fruit is religion.As the colonels humiliate,forbid,imprison,torture and kill,the priests-here represented by father Lizzardi(Piccoli)-urge the population to resign themselves to it.This priest character is very important,because he is the rough draft of what will be completely fulfilled two years later in "Nazarin"-"La Mort en Ce Jardin" will seem more relevant if you know the 1958 film-You've got to see Piccoli,bringing religious consolation to the prisoners in their dungeon:The raider Chark (Marshall ),who is practical-minded -and who's thus akin to "Viridiana"'s cousin in the 1961 masterwork- will pretend he take the priest's holy writ seriously,only in order to escape.But the best scene in which Bunuel shows his true face is the one in the church.Chark, prisoner led by the soldiers ,walks across a church where Lizzardi is celebrating mass:with his gun,one of the soldiers forces him to kneel down.Later another character will tell the priest that everywhere he and his religious mates come,begins the exploiters'reign.
This first part has often be criticized,because they say it moves too slow,but it's necessary to make acquaintance with the main characters ,who will leave the first jungle for the second one:outside Lizzardi and Chark,we have an old man( Vanel),who's forced to escape because the army thinks he is an agitator,his mute daughter,and a prostitute Djinn (Signoret,at her bitchiest).
The second part has been praised quite rightly so.Bunuel succeeded in creating a stifling atmosphere full of animal noises -the music is totally absent here and will come back only for the last shots-.The astounding cinematography enhances a green hell garden and these who thinks Bunuel completely jettisoned his surrealistic art should have a second look at it:because it is HERE,even if it's fleetingly.I will take four examples:the first one is the Paris postcard:for a very short while,we do believe the fugitives are back in their dear country;the second one is the snake eaten by ants (seen through the priest's eyes).There's more to the picture than meets the eye:the plane which had crashed in the jungle and which will save some of the characters acquires a surrealistic dimension."God has saved us!" the priest tells.But the raider is not fooled:"it took fifty people's lives (the plane passengers) to save us!".But the most extraordinary picture is Signoret,in the jungle,wearing an evening gown,complete with bright jewels,she's found in the plane.Here again,the priest will be completely helpless,his bible can only be used to light a fire (always Bunuel's practical mind).And Bunuel's religious disgust reaches a climax when the old man goes crazy and yells that God has cursed them .
That work ,generally regarded as a minor Bunuel work,is actually extremely intriguing.Although it has not the strength of such works as the ones I mention above ,it includes almost all his recurrent features.Adapted from a José André Lacour novel,dialogue by Raymond Queneau,who wrote "Zazie dans le métro",which Louis Malle transferred to the screen in 1960.