I used to be a fan of Buñuel for ages, seen most of his movies. Now this was a primer for me. And I'm struck. While this doesn't belong to the frequently mentioned movies of his, it completely took me to emotional pieces. Most other directors would have rendered it into another mess of boring plot, which it actually is: a boring plot. But Buñuel knew how to turn boring stuff into masterpieces. And so he did with this one. It starts straightforward, like mentioned elsewhere, so the need to summarize the plot is unnecessary. And then it takes turns and turns. And like so often with Buñuel's movies - very much contrary to most other directors - don't give you the 'good' and the 'bad' ones, neither does this. It leaves the audience to decide for themselves to chose from the figure to sympathize with at a specific moment. And in this movie, at least my sympathies floated about continuously. This makes his movies so great for me: in real life there is hardly anybody to back fully, and who's always right. And so the situation is in here. Except maybe of Meche, everyone is wrong at one moment or another, respectively right one moment or another. And this extends into real crime, including murder. It also shows love, of the purest kind. However, like most Buñuel movies, it shows the weak characters that we humans have, and our so frequently inhuman behaviour. Once we have found the proper way to handle ourselves, it usually is too late. And here, likewise, everything is always just too late.
