'It’s been Surreal: Films of Luis Buñuel'

The Series includes Buñuel’s New Digital Restoration of ‘Un Chien Andalou,’ ‘Land Without Bread,’ ‘Belle de Jour,’ ‘L’Age d’Or,’ ‘Viridiana,’ ‘The Phantom of Liberty’ and ‘The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.’

With the 1929 short Un Chien Andalou, Luis Buñuel (1900-1983) dove headfirst into Surrealism; the film’s mirthful logic and shocking images (most famously, a sliced eyeball) established the Spanish filmmaker’s unrivaled talent for bringing dreams and nightmares to the screen. After making Un Chien Andalou and its feature-length playmate, L’age d’or, he fled the Spanish Civil War and eventually settled in Mexico; the iconoclastic director would frequently return to Europe to make one boundary-blowing film after another.

Fetish, religion, bourgeois society and moral degradation occupy Buñuel cinema like slyly winking serpents. As varying combinations of madonna and whore, Viridiana, Tristina and Séverine from Belle de Jour are movie heroines unlike any other, and Buñuel’s gleefully ballsy treatment of taboos remains deliciously entertaining. The razor-sharp class commentary of these works is fused with the cinematic anarchy of Andalou in the director’s later featuresThe Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Phantom of Liberty, bringing Luis Buñuel’s surreal career full circle.

Series also includes Land Without Bread (in a new digital restoration informed by the original scenario notes), a display of production-related gems from the Buñuel Institute archive, a Surrealist Ball, featuring appetizers from Buñuel’s personally curated home dinner menu, and other surreal surprises.

Thursday, May 29 – 7:30 pm    

• Double Feature: L’age d’or and Viridiana
• Special exhibit: Production-related gems from the Buñuel Institute archive will be on display. See what the program to Buñuel’s L’age d’orlooked like, read the director’s letter about the making of Viridiana, and view rare production photos of the films, both of which were targeted by censors.

Saturday, May 31 – 7:30 pm

• Saturday Night Surrealist Ball: Un Chien Andalou, Land Without Bread, and Belle de Jour.
• A pageant of iconic Buñuel characters (including a few animals) will greet you when you arrive for the Surrealist Ball, which  feature films, including an 85th annniversary screening of Un Chien Andalou (presented in a restored version) appetizers from Buñuel’s personally curated home dinner menu, his favorite martinis (that just might be served by a nun), rare photos, a costume contest and more Buñuelian interludes. 

 Sunday, June 1 – 7:30 pm     

• Double Feature: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Phantom of Liberty.
• Special exhibit: Production-related gems from the Buñuel Institute archive will be on display. See foreign posters forThe Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, the script toThe Phanton of Liberty (yep, these stream-of-consciousness films had screenplays) and rare archival photos.