Watch unlimited films online for $6.99.
Try MUBI for FREE.
 

Simon of the Desert

Simón del desierto

Mexico

1965

45 Min
Black and White
1.33:1
Spanish
  • Currently 4.2/5 Stars.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

   |   

DIR Luis Buñuel

PROD Gustavo Alatriste

SCR Julio Alejandro, Luis Buñuel

DP Gabriel Figueroa

CAST Claudio Brook, Enrique Alvarez Félix, Francisco Reiguera, Hortensia Santoveña, Luis Aceves Castañeda, Antonio Bravo, Enrique del Castillo, Silvia Pinal

ED Carlos Savage

PROD DES Jesús Bracho

MUSIC Raúl Lavista

Venice (In Competition): Special Jury Prize, FIPRESCI Prize

Synopsis

Simon of the Desert is Luis Buñuel’s wicked and wild take on the life of devoted ascetic Saint Simeon Stylites, who waited atop a pillar surrounded by a barren landscape for six years, six months, and six days, in order to prove his devotion to God. Yet the devil, in the figure of the beautiful Silvia Pinal, huddles below, trying to tempt him down. A skeptic’s vision of human conviction, Buñuel’s short and sweet satire is one of the master filmmaker’s most renowned works of surrealism. —The Criterion Collection

Director

Original

Luis Buñuel

Sent off for a Jesuit education by his prosperous Spanish parents, Luis Buñuel went on to attend the University of Madrid, where he first became interested in the burgeoning European film industry. Upon graduating from Paris’ Academie du Cinema, his first movie job was as an assistant to French-based directors Jean Epstein and Mario Nalpas. In partnership with an old friend, Spanish painter/sculptor Salvador Dali, Buñuel put together the three-reel surrealist masterpiece Un Chien Andalou (1928), the film that features dead donkeys on a piano, a razor slashing an eyeball, and other deliberately shocking images that cineastes have either praised or damned for the past seven decades.

Buñuel’s first feature film, L’Age d’Or, was banned from public exhibition almost immediately from the moment of its 1930 premiere; its principal opponents were high-ranking members of the Catholic church, who condemned the film as savagely sacrilegious. After 1932’s Land Without Bread, an uncompromising… read more

Wall

Displaying 4 of 16 wall posts.
Picture of ramosbarajas

ramosbarajas

26May12

Perfectly irreverent. Much like Nazarin, Simon tries his best to be as Christ-like as possible without any results. It's Buñuel's way of saying those actions can only be considered obsolete. The ending is great for its nonsensical approach; you can't possibly expect it, but it's so absurd it fits. This is probably the funnest role I've seen Pinal in. Now off to watch her other comedies and musicals.

Picture of Yuki Aditya

Yuki Aditya

16Apr12

how to measure your faith depends on where u r standing right now...

Max Slobodin likes this

Picture of TFCHooligan69

TFCHooligan69

5Mar12

A rather entertaining short film.

Picture of Daniela

Daniela

28Dec11

Weird, crazy, funny, I loved it.

Related Films

Fans

Displaying 5 of 527 fans.

Lists

Displaying 5 of 132 lists.

Reviews

Displaying 3 of 3

the greatest indictment of existence since sartre's 'no exi't.

By Maicol Andrés Ordoñez on January 22, 2010

Simon plays the part of pious, ascetic saint throughout the narrative look of the movie only to be whisked away to NYC where rock and roll is alive and raging and shaking the screen. Before any one…  read review

Untitled

By Eric Maquilo​n on November 27, 2009

Terrific film by one of my favorite film makers of all time. Silvia Pinal as the Devil, and Claudio Brook as Simon are both fantastic in their roles. Might I add that Pinal is as beautiful as ever…  read review

Simon Of The Desert

By Art Vandela​y on November 27, 2008

I stayed up until 4 A.M. one July evening to catch this on Turner Classic Movies, as I had no other way, at the time, of seeing it. When the final scenes drew, closing the film’s transmission, I was…  read review

Forum

Displaying 1 discussion topic.

What a hoot!!!!!

17 posts by 11 people over 2 years ago

DVD

Buy the DVD from The Criterion Collection.