Nearly a decade before 400 blows comes Luis Buñuel's Los Olvidados from Mexico. It involves a group of street punks who go around harassing the elderly, robbing the handicapped and generally running amok. At the same time, one of the kids yearns for his mother's affection, only to get sent to a work-camp/school instead. All the while, the town is trying to figure out who murdered a local teenager.
The film is a clear reaction/response to the Neorealist movement going on across the pond, with characters taken straight from the streets and dialog heavily filled with local language. I speak Spanish fluently and still found myself struggling to understand the dialect and slang of Mexico city teenagers. The complete authenticity of these kids will obviously influence later films like 400 blows, kids and City of God.
The camera-work is fairly straightforward. Despite being a Buñuel film, the narrative propels itself without too many twists, allowing characters to tell the story in a logical manner. At the same time, there is a considerably surrealist dream sequence which roots the film strictly into Buñuel's library.
Ultimately the film is extremely enjoyable, although much of the humor is lost in the subtitles and English language translation. The shock of the story still holds today and should leave viewers with a nice bitter taste at the end.
The film is a clear reaction/response to the Neorealist movement going on across the pond, with characters taken straight from the streets and dialog heavily filled with local language. I speak Spanish fluently and still found myself struggling to understand the dialect and slang of Mexico city teenagers. The complete authenticity of these kids will obviously influence later films like 400 blows, kids and City of God.
The camera-work is fairly straightforward. Despite being a Buñuel film, the narrative propels itself without too many twists, allowing characters to tell the story in a logical manner. At the same time, there is a considerably surrealist dream sequence which roots the film strictly into Buñuel's library.
Ultimately the film is extremely enjoyable, although much of the humor is lost in the subtitles and English language translation. The shock of the story still holds today and should leave viewers with a nice bitter taste at the end.