Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carrière have constructed a series of surreal sketches, loosely linked, with most amusing opening where a statue knocks a soldier unconscious. Then a man's dreams (a postman visits the bedroom in the middle of the night) lead him to a doctor - we then follow the nurse Milena Vukotic and her crazy episode in a B&B with monks, an incestuous nephew (when he pulls the covers off his aunt it's clearly a much younger model) and an S&M couple. There's a slightly draggy episode involving the police, but things pick up with a girl who's gone missing (although she's there - the chief of police interviews her - inspiration for Welcome to the Doll's House?) and an assassin who's sentenced to death and becomes a celebrity. Familiar faces abound - Jean-Claude Brialy, Julien Berthaud (Prefect), Adriana Asti (naked piano playing sister), Michael Lonsdale, Michel Piccoli (the other Prefect), Adolfo Celi, Monica Vitti, Jean Rochefort. Great fun.
Photographed by Edmond Richard, featuring Buñuel's own sound effects.
I've missed Buñuel, a director who had two enormous fans in the guise of Michael Powell and Alfred Hitchcock.
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