Thursday, September 30, 2010

The End of SIMON OF THE DESERT


“Salvador Dali seduced many ladies, particularly American ladies, but these seductions usually consisted of stripping them naked in his apartment, frying a couple of eggs, putting them on the woman's shoulders and, without a word, showing them the door.”

This quote was uttered by the famed surrealistic film maker Luis Bunuel. He was a renown and sophisticated drinker. TIME magazine had reviewed his 1967 offering about a French housewife drawn into prostitution by her lust. The movie was rated R. The cashier at the Pilgrim Theater in Boston's Combat Zone was a film buff. She let me in twice. I was a good-looking 15 year old.

When my professor in CINEMA 101 extolled the LE CHIEN ANDALOU as the triumph of the mind over materialism, I countered that the sophomoric cartoon of Freudism couldn't compare to the raw sensuality of Catherine Deneuve. The professor disapproved of my argument and my final grade was a D+.

Luis Bunuel won accolades at Cannes, Venice, and even scored to Oscars with THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE in 1972 and THE OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE in 1974. My film professor would have approved of both films, however my second favorite Bunuel film was SIMON OF THE DESERT about an ancient priest living atop a Roman pillar seeking enlightenment only to fail by succumbing to the Devil's succubus.

The movie lasted 45 minutes and the last scene is the fallen saint in a New York beatnik bar. His reward from Satan. Bored and blase.

I love it and to view this scene please go to the following URL

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8742143483092286611#

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