Table Of Content

A Companion to Luis Buñuel Wiley-Blackwell Companions to Film Directors The Wiley-Blackwell Companions to Film Directors survey key directors whose work together constitutes what we refer to as the Hollywood and world cinema canons. Whether Haneke or Hitchcock, Bigelow or Bergman, Capra or the Coen brothers, each volume, comprised of 25 or more newly commissioned essays written by leading experts, explores a canonical, contemporary and/or controversial auteur in a sophisticated, authoritative, and multi-dimensional capacity. Individual volumes interrogate any number of subjects – the director’s oeuvre; dominant themes; well-known, worthy, and under-rated films; stars, collaborators, and key influences; reception, reputation, and above all, the director’s intellectual currency in the scholarly world. Published 1. A Companion to Michael Haneke, edited by Roy Grundmann 2. A Companion to Alfred Hitchcock, edited by Thomas Leitch and Leland Poague 3. A Companion to Rainer Werner Fassbinder, edited by Brigitte Peucker 4. A Companion to Werner Herzog, edited by Brad Prager 5. A Companion to Pedro Almodóvar, edited by Marvin D’Lugo and Kathleen Vernon 6. A Companion to Woody Allen, edited by Peter J. Bailey and Sam B. Girgus 7. A Companion to Jean Renoir, edited by Alastair Phillips and Ginette Vincendeau 8. A Companion to François Truffaut, edited by Dudley Andrew and Anne Gillian 9. A Companion to Luis Buñuel, edited by Rob Stone and Julián Daniel Gutiérrez-Albilla A Companion to Luis Buñuel Edited by Rob Stone and Julián Daniel Gutiérrez-Albilla A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication This edition first published 2013 © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s publishing program has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell. Registered Office John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK Editorial Offices 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell. The right of Rob Stone and Julián Daniel Gutiérrez-Albilla to be identified as the authors of the editorial material in this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A companion to Luis Buñuel / edited by Rob Stone and Julián Daniel Gutiérrez-Albilla. pages cm. – (Wiley-Blackwell companions to film directors) Includes bibliographical references and index. Includes filmography. ISBN 978-1-4443-3633-7 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Buñuel, Luis, 1900-1983–Criticism and interpretation. I. Stone, Rob, editor of compilation. II. Gutiérrez-Albilla, Julián Daniel, editor of compilation. PN1998.3.B86C66 2013 791.4302′33092–dc23 2012042930 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Cover image: Luis Buñuel in 1954. Photo © Getty Images Cover design by Nicki Averill Design and Illustration Set in 11/13pt Dante by SPi Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India 1 2013 Contents 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 vi Contents 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 Contents vii 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 Influence 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 Contributors Ernesto R. Acevedo-Muñoz is Associate Professor and Chair of Film Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He teaches courses on Latin American and Spanish cinemas, film theory, classical genres, and on directors Luis Buñuel, Pedro Almodóvar, Alfred Hitchcock, and Stanley Kubrick. He is the author of the books Pedro Almodóvar (BFI, 2007) and Buñuel and Mexico: The Crisis of National Cinema (University of California Press, 2003), and his work has appeared in many journals and anthologies including Quarterly Review of Film and Video, Lit, Film & History, Letras peninsulares, After Hitchcock, Authorship in Film Adaptation, and Genre, Gender, Race & World Cinemas. Mieke Bal is a cultural theorist and critic based at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), University of Amsterdam. Her areas of interest range from biblical and classical antiquity to seventeenth-century and contemporary art and modern literature, feminism, migratory culture, and mental illness. Her many books include Of What One Cannot Speak: Doris Salcedo’s Political Art (University of Chicago Press, 2010), A Mieke Bal Reader (University of Chicago Press, 2006), Travelling Concepts in the Humanities (University of Toronto Press, 2002), and Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative (University of Toronto Press, 3rd edition 2009). Mieke is also a video artist, and co-directed a series of experimental documentaries. She made the video installation “Nothing Is Missing” that contin- ues to be displayed (2006 to present). Her first fiction film, A Long History of Madness, and exhibitions derived from it, are currently touring internationally (with Michelle Williams Gamaker). Occasionally she acts as an independent cura- tor. Her co-curated group exhibition “2MOVE: Video, Art, Migration” traveled to four countries. www.miekebal.org Paul Begin is Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies at Pepperdine University (Malibu, CA). He has authored various articles on Luis Buñuel’s filmography and cinematic technique. He has also published essays related to social issue cinema in Spain. Contributors ix Tom Conley is the author of An Errant Eye: Poetry and Topography in Early Modern France (University of Minnesota Press, 2011) and Cartographic Cinema (University of Minnesota Press, 2007), and has studied Buñuel in Surrealismo: lectura de “Tierra sin pan” (Valencia, 1988) and other places. He is the translator of works by Marc Augé, Gilles Deleuze, and others. He teaches in Visual & Environmental Studies and in Romance Languages at Harvard University. Sarah Cooper is Reader in Film Theory and Aesthetics at King’s College London, where she is also Head of the Film Studies Department and Deputy Head of the School of Arts and Humanities. She has published widely on French film and theory. Her books include Selfless Cinema?: Ethics and French Documentary (Legenda, 2006) and Chris Marker (Manchester University Press, 2008). She is currently completing a book titled The Soul of Film Theory for BFI/Palgrave Macmillan. Arnaud Duprat de Montero is a former student of the Conservatoire Libre du Cinéma Français and Lecturer at Rennes 2 University. His research focuses on Buñuel’s final films, with a transcultural approach between Hispanic and French cinema. The representation of characters on screen and the precise part that actors play in cinematic creation are also key elements of his research. He is the author of articles on Luis Buñuel, Jean-Claude Carrière, Raúl Ruiz, Pedro Almodóvar, Carlos Saura, Víctor Erice, Vittorio de Sica, Isabelle Adjani, André Téchiné, and Fabrice du Welz. In 2011 he published Le dernier Buñuel (Rennes University Press: Le spectaculaire collection). Peter William Evans is Emeritus Professor of Film Studies at Queen Mary, University of London. He has published widely on Hollywood, British, and Spanish films (especially Buñuel). His most recent book is Top Hat (Wiley- Blackwell, 2010), and he is currently writing a BFI Classic on Douglas Sirk’s Written on the Wind (1956). Wendy Everett is former Reader in Film Studies and French at the University of Bath, and Research Fellow at the Camargo Foundation, Cassis, France. Her princi- pal research interests are in European cinema, and she has published widely in the field, as well as giving lectures and papers around the world. Recent publications include books on colour, identity, and space in European cinema, as well as numer- ous articles on the fractal narratives of the postmodern, concepts of genre in European film, and the European road movie. She is a member of the editorial board of Literature/Film Quarterly, USA, and The Soundtrack. Sally Faulkner is Senior Lecturer in Hispanic studies at the University of Exeter in the UK. Her research and teaching interests include Spanish cinema, modern Spanish literature, cultural studies, film studies, and adaptation studies. She is the author of Literary Adaptations in Spanish Cinema (Tamesis-Boydell & Brewer, 2004) x Contributors and A Cinema of Contradiction: Spanish Film in the 1960s (Edinburgh University Press, 2006), and co-editor (with Derek Flitter) of “Memory and Exile in Twentieth- and Twenty-First Century Spanish Culture,” a special edition of the Journal of Iberian and Latin American Research (2011). In 2011 she held a UK Arts and Humanities Research Council Fellowship for a project entitled “A New History of Spanish Cinema: Middlebrow Films and Mainstream Audiences,” and is currently writing A History of Spanish Cinema for Continuum’s European Cinema series. Ramona Fotiade is Senior Lecturer in French at the University of Glasgow. She has recently published several book chapters and co-edited several books and magazine special issues on Surrealist and experimental cinema, in particular the special issue of La Part de l’Oeil devoted to Benjamin Fondane (no. 25–26, 2010– 2011), the new critical edition of Fondane’s Ecrits pour le cinéma (Verdier, 2007), as well as contributions to the edited works Quaderni degli studi danteschi – Dante in France (2012), Mélusine XXIX – Le Surréalisme sans l’architecture (2009), and The Unsilvered Screen: Surrealism on Film (Wallflower Press, 2007). In 2010 she contrib- uted several articles on cinema and architecture to the catalogue of The Surreal House exhibition (Barbican Arts Centre, London). Her book Pictures of the Mind: Surrealist Photography and Film and a study of Jean-Luc Godard’s À bout de souffle are forthcoming. Felicity Gee completed her doctoral studies in the Department of Media Arts, Royal Holloway University of London, on the subject of cinematic magic realism and its critical inception in the modernist avant-garde. She has written and presented on a variety of topics related to this research, including the surrealist marvelous, Marxism and geopolitics in magic realism, René Magritte, and F.W. Murnau. She worked previously as a lecturer in English and film studies in Japan, and has recently taught film theory as a visiting lecturer at Royal Holloway. Kate Griffiths is Lecturer in French and Translation at Cardiff University. She has published widely on the adaptation of texts across time and media. Her AHRC- supported monograph, Emile Zola and the Artistry of Adaptation, appeared with Legenda in 2009. She is currently working on a companion volume, supported by the AHRC, on Zola and television as well as a web resource on Zola and radio adaptation. Julián Daniel Gutiérrez-Albilla is Assistant Professor of Spanish at the University of Southern California. His research and teaching interests are in Spanish and Latin American cinema and Spanish cultural studies, critical theory, and psychoanalysis. His article on Almodóvar’s Volver was recently published in the Bulletin of Hispanic Studies and a chapter on Jaime Camino’s Los niños de Rusia was recently published in Spain on Screen: Developments in Contemporary Spanish Cinema (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). His publications on Spanish and Latin American