Autumn 2008 Latin American Film Series
Luis Buñuel’s Mexican Films: A Retrospective
Wednesdays at 7:30 PM
180 Hagerty Hall, 1775 College Road, OSU Campus
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
All films subtitled in English
El/The Strange Passion
October 22
Francisco is rich, rather strict on principles, and still a bachelor. After meeting Gloria by accident, he is suddenly intent on her becoming his wife and courts her until she agrees to marry him.
Francisco is a dedicated husband, but little by little his passion starts to exhibit disturbing traits. Nevertheless, Gloria meets with skepticism as she expresses her worries to their acquaintances. 1953. 92 mins.
Nazarín
November 5
A humble and spiritual priest (Francisco Rabal) attempts to live by the principles of Christianity but is cast out of his church for helping a local prostitute. Nazarin wanders the country roads of turn of the 20th-Century Mexico, offering help to the poor and begging for food. His followers consider him a saint, but this does not protect him from hatred and humiliation from both the church and the people he meets on the road.
He ends up being beaten in prison and begins to question his faith for not being able to forgive his attacker. Based on the novel by Benito Pérez Galdós. 1959. 95 mins.
Viridiana November 19
Banned in Spain and denounced by the Vatican, Luis Buñuel’s irreverent vision of life as a beggar’s banquet is regarded by many as his masterpiece.
In it, novice nun Viridiana does her utmost to maintain her Catholic principles, but her lecherous uncle and a motley assemblage of paupers force her to confront the limits of her idealism. Winner of the Palme d’or at the 1961 Cannes Festival. 1961. 91 mins.
El Ángel exterminador/The Exterminating Angel
December 3
A group of socially prominent guests arrive for a formal dinner party but find themselves unable to leave the drawing room after the meal.
Some unexplainable force prevents their escape and as time passes the social order begins to break down. The guests give in to fear, superstition, and irrational acts as disasters mount. Only one person holds the key to the group’s unexplainable entrapment, which she discovers in a surprising dénoument. 1962. 95 mins.
