The Phantom of Liberty in 35mm

With a name borrowed (with his permission) from Spanish writer José Bergamín’s unproduced play, and inspired by the apocalyptic Angel of Death, Luis Buñuel’s original script is a pitch-black satire about a wealthy group of friends who find themselves unable to leave a well-appointed living room after a dinner party. One of the director’s most inspired takedowns of the bourgeoisie, The Exterminating Angel is a tense exploration of inertia, extravagance, complacency, repetition, and mounting hysteria, and was the last full-length film he made in his adopted nation of Mexico.

Preparing to devote her life as a nun, novitiate Viridiana (Silvia Pinal) is summoned to pay her uncle Don Jaime (Fernando Rey) one last visit before taking her vows. To make Viridiana, Luis Buñuel returned to his homeland of Spain, following his 22-year self-exile during the rise of Francisco Franco’s fascist regime. The film had its world premiere at the 14th Cannes Film Festival, winning the Palme d’Or. Following the premiere, the Vatican denounced the film as blasphemous, and the Spanish government banned the controversial film—Viridiana didn’t premiere in the country until 1977, two years after Franco’s death.

Double Feature

The second and last English-language film directed by Luis Buñuel was co-written by Hugo Butler, also known as H. B. Addis, who was blacklisted in Hollywood during the 1950s. Starring Zachary Scott, Bernie Hamilton, and Key Meersman, this 1960 drama explores themes of oppression and morality through the explicit measures manifested and taken by the characters driven by racism and pedophilia. One of the director’s least appreciated films, The Young One takes a poetic approach in its cinematic language, sensibly narrating questions of humanity while dealing candidly with difficult subject matters.

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