Directed by:
Luis BuñuelCinematography:
Albert DuvergerCast:
Gaston Modot, Lya Lys, Max Ernst, Luis Buñuel, Paul Éluard, Claude Heymann, Jean Aurenche, Pierre Prévert, Jacques B. Brunius, Joaquín Roa, Juan Esplandiu (more)Plots(1)
Luis Buńuel's second film is a surreal attack on bourgeios ideals that incited a riot when first released and still retains its power to shock. Buńuel began the film as a collaboration with Salvador Dali, but after a few days working together the two had a falling out and Buńuel made the film himself, incorporating many of Dali's ideas. Its narrative follows two nameless characters, a man and a woman, through a series of scenes connected by dreamlike logic as they try, unsuccessfully, to make love. One memorable sequence finds the couple writhing around on a cliff when a mob of socialites comes upon them and pries them apart. Frustrated, the man sees a yelping poodle and kicks it into the air. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Reviews (3)
No wonder the Age of Gold caused quite a stir back in its day. The maker of the (slightly more) twisted Un Chien Andalou was inspired by the warped mind of the Marquis de Sade and made a film that is certainly worth seeing, even if it won't appeal to everyone (I was only half convinced). The central couple could not have been more unlikeable, while the interaction between the Man and the Woman was – willy-nilly – a sure source of humour. The final scene with the degenerate like "120 Days of Sodom" with "Jesus" was inserted into the film perhaps a little too forcefully. A kind of foreshadowing of the later Pasolini. ()
L'amour fou as the boldest motif of a film that is otherwise intentionally “broken” and devoid of narrative points of reference. Why waste time on the narrative when all you need to put the better society at unease are individual scenes and gags that seem to be taken from rather coarse slapstick? (I consider the kicking of the dog and the shooting of the boy, though gratuitously shocking, to be the peak of Buñuel’s feats of anarchy). Buñuel also dealt with the obstacles that civilised society places in the path of natural human needs in his later work, but he gave them a more modest form and subtly hid the phallic symbolism beneath the surface, whereas here he puts it front and centre with obsessive thoughts of sex. As his method he adopted entomological observation, with which The Golden Age begins. He limited direct interventions in the image and held back with the visual assaults (Un Chien Andalou begins with one such unforgettable assault) in favour of more subversive provocations such as bending genre rules, concealing what’s essential and exaggerating what’s marginal. Still, I wouldn’t condemn The Golden Age as the cold class (and generational) rebellion of a once hot-blooded Spaniard. No one has yet shot a more accurate scene about the fetishisation of the human body. 75% ()
Luis Buñuel demonstrates the power of the direction that helped shape and transform cinema. This is no longer just associative rambling; this is a film with a story, although it may be hard to find. The symbols present here are definitely not to be ignored, and they work well. It affects you and it does something to you, whether it's the cow in the bed or the sinner resembling Jesus. ()
Gallery (22)
Photo © Vicomte de Noailles
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