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Directed by Luis Buñuel

Directed by Luis Buñuel

8 Episodes

One of cinema’s great iconoclasts and mischief makers, Spanish master Luis Buñuel combined surrealist non sequiturs with taboo-shattering attacks on the bourgeoisie, the church, and social hypocrisy to create some of the most incendiary films of the twentieth century. Perpetually on the cutting edge, he began his career as a member of the French surrealists, collaborating with Salvador Dalí on the scandalous avant-garde landmark L’ÂGE D’OR. After being exiled from Spain, he worked primarily in Mexico for two decades, a period that culminated with the savage satire THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL. It was upon his return to France in the 1960s that Buñuel entered into the extraordinary final phase of his career, producing a string of internationally acclaimed masterpieces—including BELLE DE JOUR and THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE—in which his outré, straight-from-the-id imagery and scathing commentaries on class, sex, religion, and conventional morality reached new heights of subversive power.

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Directed by Luis Buñuel

8 Episodes

  • Directed by Luis Buñuel Teaser
    01:52
    Directed by Luis Buñuel Teaser
    Episode 1

    Directed by Luis Buñuel Teaser

    Episode 1

  • “Cinéastes de notre temps”: Luis Buñuel
    37:33
    “Cinéastes de notre temps”: Luis Buñuel
    Episode 2

    “Cinéastes de notre temps”: Luis Buñuel

    Episode 2

    On April 4, 1964, the French television series “Cinéastes de notre temps” presented an episode on filmmaker Luis Buñuel, directed by Robert Valey and produced by Jeanine Bazin and André S. Labarthe. The following are edited excerpts.

  • Robinson Crusoe
    1:29:11
    Robinson Crusoe
    Episode 3

    Robinson Crusoe

    Episode 3

    Directed by Luis Buñuel • 1954 • United States, Mexico
    Starring Dan O’Herlihy

    Master director Luis Buñuel’s first color film (and first of only two he made in English) is a fascinating, unjustly neglected adaptation of Daniel Defoe’s classic survival novel. His take on the story—in which the epo...

  • Viridiana
    1:31:21
    Viridiana
    Episode 4

    Viridiana

    Episode 4

    Directed by Luis Buñuel • 1961 • Spain
    Starring Silvia Pinal, Fernando Rey, Francisco Rabal

    Banned in Spain and denounced by the Vatican, Luis Buñuel’s irreverent vision of life as a beggar’s banquet is regarded by many as his masterpiece. In it, novice nun Viridiana does her utmost to maintain ...

  • The Exterminating Angel
    1:33:23
    The Exterminating Angel
    Episode 5

    The Exterminating Angel

    Episode 5

    Directed by Luis Buñuel • 1962 • Mexico
    Starring Silvia Pinal, Jacqueline Andere, José Baviera

    A group of high-society friends are invited to a mansion for dinner and find themselves inexplicably unable to leave, in Luis Buñuel’s daring masterpiece THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL (EL ÁNGEL EXTERMINADOR)...

  • Simon of the Desert
    45:34
    Simon of the Desert
    Episode 6

    Simon of the Desert

    Episode 6

    Directed by Luis Buñuel • 1965 • Mexico
    Starring Claudio Brook, Silvia Pinal

    SIMON OF THE DESERT is Luis Buñuel’s wicked and wild take on the life of devoted ascetic Saint Simeon Stylites, who waited atop a pillar surrounded by a barren landscape for six years, six months, and six days, in order...

  • Belle de jour
    1:40:11
    Belle de jour
    Episode 7

    Belle de jour

    Episode 7

    Directed by Luis Buñuel • 1967 • France
    Starring Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, Michel Piccoli

    Catherine Deneuve’s porcelain perfection hides a cracked interior in one of the actress’s most iconic roles: Séverine, a Paris housewife who begins secretly spending her after­noon hours working in a b...

  • The Phantom of Liberty
    1:44:19
    The Phantom of Liberty
    Episode 8

    The Phantom of Liberty

    Episode 8

    Directed by Luis Buñuel • 1974 • France
    Starring Michel Piccoli, Jean-Claude Brialy, Monica Vitti

    Bourgeois convention is demolished in Luis Buñuel’s surrealist gem THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY. Featuring an elegant soiree with guests seated at toilet bowls, poker-playing monks using religious medals ...

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