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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
* View IMDb information

Top comments

  1. dombrewer's avatar

    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
  2. apetree83's avatar

    apetree83

    https://christiebooks.co.uk/anarchist_films/simon-of-the-desert-simon-del-desierto-1965-luis-bunuel/ 4 years 1 month ago
  3. Siskoid's avatar

    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
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In 5 official lists

  1. This movie ranks #21 in TSPDT's Brief Encounters
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    TSPDT's Brief Encounters

    21
  2. This movie ranks #94 in iCheckMovies's 1960s Top 100
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    iCheckMovies's 1960s Top…

    94
  3. This movie ranks #503 in The Criterion Collection
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    The Criterion Collection

    503
  4. This movie ranks #544 in Amos Vogel's Film as a Subversive Art
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    Amos Vogel's Film as a S…

    544
  5. This movie ranks #906 in TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest Films
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    TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest F…

    906
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