Diary of a Chambermaid (Le journal d'une femme de chambre)

The titular heroine, a beautiful young woman with a disturbed and tempestuous nature, escapes a women’s reform school during a stormy night. Finding refuge in the hacienda of a prosperous and respectable family, Susana (Rosita Quintana) soon destabilizes the relationship dynamics of the ranch as she seduces the men who inhabit it. While Susana is less overtly surreal in comparison to the rest of Luis Buñuel’s filmography, the film highlights the director’s subversive style as he explores social critique by demonstrating the fragility of morals through a well-to-do Mexican family.

Luis Buñuel orchestrates consistent unpredictability through narrative pivots and tonal shifts in his satirical masterpiece that won France an Oscar for International Feature Film and received a nomination for Original Screenplay, co-written by Jean-Claude Carrière. A series of happenings sewn together amid a relatively consistent motif is driven by the six French bourgeois who persistently pursue a dinner plan that is repeatedly interrupted by random incidents. In this repetitive digression, the value of the earnest pursuit becomes trivial, exposing the absurdity of the characters’ thoughtless actions.

Made during Luis Buñuel’s prolific two-decade period in Mexico, Los olvidados won the country’s second major prize at Cannes, following the landmark win of María Candelaria (1944). This against-formula juvenile crime drama showcases the power of Indigenous actress Estela Inda, recipient of a Silver Ariel for Best Supporting Actress for her memorable performance as the mother of the film’s young, impressionable protagonist; both characters try their damnedest to rise above the crime festering in the slums of Mexico City.

Double Feature

Following the success of The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972), Luis Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carrière collaborated on another satirical comedy as co-writers, which became Buñuel’s penultimate cinematic work as director. Starring such greats as Julien Bertheau, Monica Vitti, and Jean-Claude Brialy, to name a few, this surrealist masterpiece comprises nonlinear episodes moving from the early 1800s during Napoleon’s colonial occupation in Spain and monks gambling while drinking and smoking to an upper-class gathering with guests seated on toilet seats. A scent of absurdity permeates the air of these episodes despite the naive earnestness of the characters.