The Golden Age
1930 ‘L'âge d'or’ Directed by Luis Buñuel
Synopsis
The film consists of a series of tightly interlinked vignettes, the most sustained of which details the story of a man and a woman who are passionately in love. Their attempts to consummate their passion are constantly thwarted, by their families, by the Church and bourgeois society in general. In one notable scene, the young girl passionately fellates the toe of a religious statue.
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So look, there's this surreal shit going on in this Luis Bunuel/Salvador Dali movie and weird shit happens, but it's not as weird as their other movies cause some stuff kind of happens, but it also doesn't.
Probably the most consistent thing is this one guy who wants to bang some broad, and he gets beat up a lot but there's shit in the way, and the chick literally has a cow sharing her bed, because fuck cows and shit man.
Then there's some sexual imagery goin on and that shit is all over the place, yo. It's like mad innuendo shit, but with visuals. But then Jesus comes out because Bunuel loves that religious imagery and symbolic shit, yo.…
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Buñuel said, "Here you are." Surrealism took shape in feature length cinema. History was made.
Many years later: Carax wept. Lynch smirked. Pasolini had an epiphany. History re-imagined itself in modern cinema.
Many distant years, undetermined: The Len Wiseman generation ages; doesn't have a clue who Luis Buñuel is, nor do they have the instinctual patience for 100 year old surrealism and visceral imagery. History is forgotten.
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L'Age d'Or was the second collaboration between Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali. It is also the second film of my self-inflicted Luis Bunuel season.
The Jump from Bunuel's nonsensical but legendary short 'Un Chien Andalou' to his first feature length picture is quite a pronounced one. Although the same surreal, absurdist elements are there in both, however 'The Golden Age' builds in a lot more symbolism and underlying feelings of resentment and rebellion into it's wonderfully absurd narrative.
Consisting of a series of somewhat interconnected vignettes (the first being a brutal and up-close documentary on scorpions) the film's main Identifiable plot is that of two lovers whose attempts to consummate their relationship are constantly thwarted by an endless succession of…
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Film #6 of 14 Decades, 14 Films Project.
This is some crazy movie. But I have to say, I loved it!
L'Age d'Or is a french surrealist film about a couple trying to consummate their relationship. It's specially about the sexual morals of the time, not only of the bourgeois society but also of the church. When it was released, this film was really polemic.
I won't tell much about the scenes or the plot because it really surprised me at times and I think that's the best feeling we can have while watching a movie for the first time. But I can say I strongly recommend this movie.
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The film hangs together well and I can't fault it ... but I think the phrase is "I just couldn't get into it". Even though, as compared with the last time I started watching it I had less pain and better concentration.
The woman's highly expressive face transfixed me throughout, but her man's Hitlerish moustache and similarly parted hair made him quite unintentionally surreal in the role of lover.
For a film which I'd heard was mostly about trying to have sex in defiance of interruption by the church and other authorities, this contained a tremendous amount of simply milling about at parties, and other meandering activities.
There were certain silly or iconic moments which stuck with me: the cow…
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After all these years and this film is still shocking, it is still disturbing and it is still funny and at the same time, uplifting. It is something that seems to run through Bunuel's work, this sunny disposition, maybe a oneness with nature and this despite (or because of?) his fury bordering hatred of authority, particularly the church. Whether he is shooting a child, pushing over a blind man or tipping a cardinal out of a window, there is a feeling that despite everything seeming so dire, all will turn out well. Life goes on.
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Oh surrealism, you so interesting.
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incredible
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How do you even rate a film like this? I enjoyed the ride and I guess I could look into whatever symbolism or plot that popped up here and there, but why would you? Bunuel and Dali's 2nd collaboration makes a tiny bit more sense but not by much. At least I now have context to the still of the woman kissing the statue's toe after seeing that image pop up in film books forever now.
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[B]
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Bunuel!
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much more gradual descent into madness than Un Chien Andalou. From aimlessly confusing, to having something resembling a plot, to agressive and hilarious absurdity (cow in the bed, demolition), eventually wading into blatant sacrilege and chaos and twisted sexuality. all told I think that made it a better representative of the surreality of dreams. instead of a quick dive into insanity, you start with a series of fun non sequiturs, slowly replacing that with casual horror and perversion until suddenly you're awake and you kinda wish you hadn't let it get that far but are also glad you did.
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Didn't understand some of it but I much enjoyed the more absurd aspects.
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Ummmm, Okay. It could be just a hodgepodge of bizarro, mostly funny imagery, except that some of that imagery is truly disturbing. Man standing with bread on his head, okay; man tossing an archbishop out the window, hilarious (and I don’t mean the sexual fetish stuff either, which is actually sort of charming in its exuberance). But there are other scenes, remarkably sudden and remarkably violent, that stun you randomly occasionally. I thought it was interesting on the whole, and I would probably watch it again now that I know what to expect. I’m sure it’s easier the second time around.
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Film #6 of 14 Decades, 14 Films Project.
This is some crazy movie. But I have to say, I loved it!
L'Age d'Or is a french surrealist film about a couple trying to consummate their relationship. It's specially about the sexual morals of the time, not only of the bourgeois society but also of the church. When it was released, this film was really polemic.
I won't tell much about the scenes or the plot because it really surprised me at times and I think that's the best feeling we can have while watching a movie for the first time. But I can say I strongly recommend this movie.