A Companion to Luis Buñuel

Few cinematic figures are more controversial—or misunderstood—than the Spanish–born Mexican filmmaker Luis Buñuel (1900–1983). Condemned by the Vatican, exiled by Spain’s Franco dictatorship, winner of an American Oscar, celebrated by the French New Wave, this creator of cinematic Surrealism is widely hailed as one of the most original directors in the history of film. A Companion to Luis Buñuel presents an extensive collection of critical readings that examines myriad facets of Buñuel’s life, works, and cinematic themes.  Contributed to by many of the world’s most distinguished film experts and emerging young scholars on Buñuel and Surrealism, the multidisciplinary readings offer new approaches to his films that reflect and challenge recent developments in the humanities and contemporary film studies while remaining faithful to the paradoxical, ambivalent and heterogeneous nature of Buñuel’s work. In–depth analysis of the contribution of Buñuel to Spanish, French, and Mexican cinema utilizing a wide range of original textual, theoretical, and historical approaches is offered on topics ranging from Buñuel’s fascination with firearms and insects to his portrayals of feminine sexuality, Surrealism, and violence. A Companion to Luis Buñuel offers bold new insights to help shape our understanding of the enigmatic genius of one of the giants of world cinema.

Contributors viii Acknowledgments xviii Introduction: The “Criminal” Life of Luis Buñuel 1 Rob Stone and Julián Daniel Gutiérrez–Albilla Part One An Aragonese Dog 59 1 Interview with Juan Luis Buñuel 61 Rob Stone 2 Luis Buñuel and the Politics of Self–Presentation 79 Julie Jones 3 Buñuel, Master Pyrotechnician: The Role of Firearms in His Cinema 98 Guy H. Wood and Javier Herrera Navarro 4 Buñuel’s Critique of Nationalism: A Migratory Aesthetic? 116 Mieke Bal Part Two A Golden Age 139 5 Surreal Souls: Un chien andalou and Early French Film Theory 141 Sarah Cooper 6 Fixed–Explosive: Buñuel’s Surrealist Time–Image 156 Ramona Fotiade 7 L’Âge d’or 172 Agustín Sánchez Vidal 8 Buñuel Entomographer: From Las Hurdes to Robinson Crusoe 188 Tom Conley Part Three The Forgotten One 203 9 The Complicit Eye: Directorial and Ocular Paradigms in Luis Buñuel’s Mexican Films and Interdisciplinary Visuality (1940s and 1950s) 205 Erica Segre 10 Out of Place, Out of Synch: Errant Movement and Rhythm in Buñuel’s Mexican Comedies 226 Tom Whittaker 11 Susana: Melodrama and the Voluptuosity of Destruction 240 María Pilar Rodríguez 12 Young Outlaws and Marginal Lives in Latin American Cinema: The Landmark of Buñuel’s Los olvidados 255 Ana Moraña Part Four Strange Passions 277 13 The Creative Process of Robinson Crusoe: Exile, Loneliness, and Humanism 279 Amparo Martínez Herranz 14 The Cinematic Labor of Affect: Urbanity and Sentimental Education in El bruto and Ensayo de un crimen 302 Geoffrey Kantaris 15 Stars in the Wilderness: La Mort en ce jardin 324 Sarah Leahy 16 Transitional Triptych: The Traps of International Cinemas in Buñuel’s Cela s’appelle l’aurore, La Mort en ce jardin, and La Fièvre monte à El Pao 340 Ernesto R. Acevedo–Muñoz 17 Buñuel Goes Medieval: From Sewing to Cervantes and the Vagina Dentata 362 Sherry Velasco Part Five An Exterminating Angel 379 18 The Galdós Intertext in Viridiana 381 Sally Faulkner 19 Spectral Cinema: Le Journal d’une femme de chambre 399 Kate Griffiths 20 Between God and the Machine: Buñuel’s Cine–Miracles 414 Libby Saxton 21 The Road and the Room: Narrative Drive in the Films of Luis Buñuel 431 Marsha Kinder Part Six Discretion and Desire 455 22 On a Road to Nowhere: Parodic Movement as Time–Image in La Voie lactée and Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie 457 Sheldon Penn 23 The Intertextual Presence of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Belle de jour 479 Arnaud Duprat de Montero 24 Splitting Doubles: Ángela Molina and the Art of Screen Acting in Cet obscur objet du désir 494 Peter William Evans 25 Buñuel and Historical Reason 509 Cristina Moreiras–Menor 26 Through a Fractal Lens: New Perspectives on the Narratives of Luis Buñuel 518 Wendy Everett Part Seven And in the Spring 535 27 Mutilation, Misogyny, and Murder: Surrealist Violence or Torture Porn? 537 Paul Begin 28 Inside/Outside: Space and Sexual Behavior in Belle de jour and La Pianiste 554 Jimmy Hay 29 Surrealist Legacies: The Inf luence of Luis Buñuel’s “Irrationality” on Hiroshi Teshigahara’s “Documentary–fantasy” 572 Felicity Gee 30 Luis Buñuel’s Angel and Maya Deren’s Meshes: Trance and the Cultural Imaginary 590 Susan McCabe Filmography 608 Index 624

Rob Stone is Professor of European Film in the Department of Art History, Film and Visual Studies at the University of Birmingham where he directs B–Film: The Birmingham Centre for Film Studies. He is the author of Spanish Cinema (2001), The Wounded Throat: Flamenco in the Works of Federico García Lorca and Carlos Saura (2004), Julio Medem (2007) and Walk, Don′t Run: The Cinema of Richard Linklater (2013). Julián Daniel Gutiérrez Albilla is Assistant Professor of Spanish at the University of Southern California. He has published on a wide range of Hispanic films including articles and chapters in edited works on Pedro Almodóvar, Hector Babenco, Luis Buñuel or Lucrecia Martel. He is the author of Queering Buñuel: Sexual Dissidence and Psychoanalysis in his Mexican and Spanish Cinema (2008).