Los Olvidados is a well-known classic. There is no U.S. dvd because the film is in Mexican rights hell, but Criterion have hinted they own the U.S. rights.
Great movie. Discreet Charm of The Bourgeoisie is my favorite Bunuel film, though.
DVD of this great movie is easily available in Germany. Single Edition aswell as in “Mexiko”-Box.
One of Buñuel’s masterpieces, with people in Mexico who still hate it. I saw it for the first time in cinema a few years ago, here in Buenos Aires in a 35 mm copy. Unforgettable.
I was really moved by this movie. I’ve seen this kind of poverty, but to see it captured on film jpretty amazing. They showed it on a PBS program sometime in the late 70’s , I got to see, Jules and Jim, 400 blows,
Los Olvidados, The seventh Seal, Roshomon, i can’t remember the rest but it was a summer thing that ran every friday. I remember putting aside my partying to catch those films because it was showcased as film classics from around the world.
I caved in and ordered a region 1 copy from Spain. Only the features dont work.
It’s available on Amazon Fr.as an OOP double dvd with another rare Bunuel movie. Both films come with English subs, but it ain’t cheap at nearly 40 Euros.
I love this film and I like Buñuel work. Spain has been a forgotten piece of world and may be it still is if it wasn’t for Buñuel cinema.
Region 2 DVDs of Los Olvidados are readily available in all Western European countries in Region 2 format, but these won’t play on American Region 1 machines.
I doubt there are copyright difficulties. I think there is simply no demand for it in the U.S. Criterion told me over a year ago that they would market it but I haven;t seen it yet.
Amazon France may sell both Region 1 and Region 2 copies of this.
I buy all my DVDs from Amazon France, in any case, because they aren’t cut and edited. More American DVDs are chopped than you might guess, and they don’t tell you. Careful of what you’re getting. Our" great democracy" still censors.
I own a Region 2 machine and thus have no problem with European DVDs.
It is gratifying to see interest in Los Olvidados among Forum visitors.
I do hope someone markets this film in the U.S. shortly.
There are moments in this film that leave permanent scars on the sub-conscious:
-The famished boy sucking milk from a goat’s teat.
-The loving mother carrying fetid, maggot-ridden meat to her hungry son – it’s the only meat she can afford..
-The elegant pedophile buying sex from an impoverished child,
Don’t accept excuses from distiributors about “copyright” problems. There are no copyright problems.The film is 60 years old.
This is a gorgeous picture I remember loving when I first saw it in the 1980’s. Must re-watch it! So different from most of Bunuel’s oeuvre… No silly aristocrats squabbling here!
Of special interest to ethnologists was the scene in LOS OLVIDADOS displaying the young girl messaging goat cream into her thighs.
This is an indigenous Mexican folk custom going back centuries and centuries, to the pre-Columbian era.
It allegedly made girls beautiful, desirable and fertile, and assured them a hansome husband and many children.
In reality, the cream wasn’t rubbed into the thighs but into the vagina and lower abdomen. ( So much for the Hayes Office.)
By the way, Mexico has one of the highest birth-rates in Latin America. (So much for goats.)
Take care, fools.
Of special interest to ethnologists was the scene in LOS OLVIDADOS displaying the young girl messaging goat cream into her thighs.
This is an indigenous Mexican folk custom going back centuries and centuries, to the pre-Columbian era.
It allegedly made girls beautiful, desirable and fertile, and assured them a hansome husband and many children.
In reality, the cream wasn’t rubbed into the thighs but into the vagina and lower abdomen. ( So much for the Hayes Office.)
By the way, Mexico has one of the highest birth-rates in Latin America. (So much for goats.)
Take care, fools.
If there isn’t enough demand for a DVD release can’t it be put up on the site for streaming?
I own two new, never-played, unopened region 2 DVDs of Los Olvidados.
I’ll sell them for exactly what I paid for them in Europe last year, but the price is high.
I’ll add $10 for packing and shipping, to a U.S. address.
I suppose this is a violation of a few hundred international copyright laws.
When you visit me at Quentin, bring cheesecake and Smirnoff.
I’m at kimpat17@yahoo.com (that’s not my usual Auteurs address.)
These won’t run on Region1 machines, of course.
GA
I shouldn’t say the price is high.
I paid roughly $40 for each, a year ago, in Euros, plus air shipment, if memory serves me.
In fact, they were shipped to me from Europe – I didn’t buy them there.
Or get brand new region 1 for $28 here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/LOS-OLVIDADOS-Luis-Bunuel-w-ENGLISH-SUBTITLES-NEW-DVD_W0QQitemZ320371351582QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_DVD_HD_DVD_Blu_ray?hash=item4a979ee01e
~ great movie, ~really deep.
~with interesting details: like chicken on top of Peter when he dies (karma) …
but… it lacks the essential: the surrealism of Buñuel
~ great movie, ~really deep.
~with interesting details: like chicken on top of Peter when he dies (karma) …
but… it lacks the essential: the surrealism of Buñuel
it lacks the essential: the surrealism of Bunuel
If you watch the majority of his films that he made in Mexico, you’ll see that those strong visual surreal moments are practically absent. These are his most engaging films I believe. Of course most people are used to what he was doing in Discreet Charm and other films like that, which these early Mexican films are not at all like.
Los Olvidados have that nightmare scene which is very “surreal”.
I think that most of the films from the mexican period (excluding Simon of the Desert, of course) have lots of surrealistic elements infused in a more realistic and “regular” kind of narrative.They aren’t as obvious as the ones from the French period (especially, Phantom of Liberty) which flow like a dream and have that kind of episodic nature rather than sticking with a particular character or the development of a particular situation.
I know it’s an old topic, but someone else drudged it up.
This is probably my favorite Bunuel film, and probably second only to Singin’ in the Rain as my favorite movie of the 50s. Unfortunately I only have it on VHS, which is actually not a terrible copy, but I was wondering why the hell it hasn’t been released yet on DVD.
As far as it’s status as a well known masterpiece, I’d say it’s inclusion on The National Society of Film Critics A-List is a pretty good indicator.
The surrealism is rather downplayed in most of his Mexican films, but not too surprising the dream/nightmare sequence in this movie still stands out. I always viewed the film as Bunuel’s antidote to De Seca’s Shoeshine.
It’s freely available here in Australia on DVD, whereas none of his other 50s ones are.
It’s good, I don’t think great though – like a more idiosyncratic neorealism film, nothing really that we haven’t seen in world cinema before, certainly if you’ve seen Ladri di Bicicletta or Germany Year Zero, etc etc. Bunuel is my favourite director ever, but this isn’t one of my favourites, by a long shot (though Viridiana, Exterminating Angel and Simon of the Desert are, and they’re from the same period) and I’d be inclined to call it overrated. Still, very worthwhile with some great scenes – the aforementioned dream sequence is a knockout.
Gordon Ackerman
I’ve been waiting for years for The Criterion Collection to market Los Olvidados, made by Luiz Bunuel during his (early) Mexican period.
Maybe they have it by now – I haven’t looked lately.
Anyway, to those of you who may have seen this jewel, What do you think of it and why isn’t it better known?
Legend has it that the film was made on broken equipment on long out-dated stock, and that, after more than half a century, the processing lab is still waiting to be paid. (Hang in there, Pablo. Will you take a check?)
Thank you.