Pssst, want to check out Simón del desierto in our new look?
Information
- A.k.a.
- Simon of the Desert
- Year
- 1965
- Runtime
- 43 min.
- Director
- Luis Buñuel
- Genres
- Drama, Comedy, Fantasy, Short
- Rating *
- 8.0
- Votes *
- 5,305
- Checks
- 2,167
- Favs
- 259
- Dislikes
- 18
- Favs/checks
- 12.0% (1:8)
- Favs/dislikes
- 14:1
Top comments
-
dombrewer
Brilliant. No less impressive though the funding fell through during shooting and Bunuel was forced to rewrite the film from a feature to a 45 minute short overnight... it's still a classic. Pinal is beautiful as ever, and hilariously anarchic as the Devil sent to tempt Simon from his pillar in the desert. A real pleasure and a film that deserves a much wider audience. 12 years 7 months ago -
apetree83
https://christiebooks.co.uk/anarchist_films/simon-of-the-desert-simon-del-desierto-1965-luis-bunuel/ 4 years 1 month ago -
Siskoid
I was only familiar with Buñuel's surrealist films, so Simon of the Desert, while an absurdist tragi-comic fable and not a piece of realism, was a nice, more accessible surprise. Buñuel takes the story of a Syrian saint who stood on a column in the desert to show his piety and turns him into a kind of super-Jesus being tempted by Satan, to explore his complicated feelings about Christianity. Through vignettes in the life of Samuel, the film exposes hypocrisies, shows off the absurdity of Jansenism and Biblical literalism, and in its abrupt finale (Buñuel has blamed financial concerns for the film's length, others have said it was originally meant to be part of an anthology that never came to be), shows us why Scripture is inadequate to describe the world, and at the same time, how we're inadequate as interpreters of Scripture. Because that's the thing, as a piece of cinematic blasphemy, it's really very reverent; it's mostly angry at humanity for its false piety. A complex work that I wish were slightly longer. 5 years 3 months ago
Friends
Login to see which of your friends have seen this movie!In 5 official lists
-
This movie ranks #21 in TSPDT's Brief Encounters
TSPDT's Brief Encounters
21 -
This movie ranks #94 in iCheckMovies's 1960s Top 100
iCheckMovies's 1960s Top…
94 -
This movie ranks #503 in The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection
503 -
This movie ranks #544 in Amos Vogel's Film as a Subversive Art
Amos Vogel's Film as a S…
544 -
This movie ranks #906 in TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest Films
TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest F…
906