LACIS Festival de Cine
 Each spring the Cinematheque collaborates with the Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies program (LACIS) to present a film series from a different region of the Spanish/Portuguese speaking world. This spring we will host a brief retrospective of Luis Buñuel's Mexican and Spanish work. Exiled after the Spanish Civil War, Buñuel moved first to the United States and then to Mexico. It was in the Spanish-speaking state that the surrealist truly found his voice as a filmmaker. Though he is perhaps best known today for his work in French, Buñuel became a cinematic master in his native Spanish.
Special thanks to Professor Katarzyna Beilin and Juan Egea of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and to LACIS.
Friday, March 27, 7:30 p.m.
Introduction by Professor Juan Egea
Viridiana
Mexico/Spain, 1961, 35mm, b/w, 90 min.
In Spanish with English subtitles
Directed by Luis Buñuel
With Silvia Pinal, Francisco Rabal, Fernando Rey
After more than 20 years of exile, Buñuel returned to Spain in 1960 to film Viridiana. The film won the Palme d'Or at 1961's Cannes Film Festival before it set off an international scandal. Condemned by the Pope, banned in Spain, seized from theaters in Italy, and legally entangled in Mexico, the story of an aspiring nun who instead creates an earthly refuge went on to become one of Buñuel's greatest box office successes.
Print courtesy of Janus Film.
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Friday, March 27, 9:15 p.m.
Surprise Screening
In Spanish with English subtitles
Directed by Luis Buñuel
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Saturday, March 28, 7:30 p.m.
Introduction by Professor Katarzyna Beilin
The Exterminating Angel (El Ángel exterminador)
Mexico, 1962, 35mm, b/w, 95 min.
In Spanish with English subtitles
Directed by Luis Buñuel
With Silvia Pinal, Enrique Rambal, Claudio Brook
Some critics say this film was Buñuel's rehearsal for The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. We say the original is better. The second installment (Viridiana was the first) in a trilogy directed by Buñuel, starring Pinal, and produced by her husband Gustavo Alatriste, The Exterminating Angel is the story of a dinner party gone horribly wrong -- its guests, it appears, are locked in the sitting room for eternity.
Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.
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Saturday, March 28, 9:20 p.m.
Simon of the Desert (Simón del desierto)
Mexico, 1965, 35mm, b/w, 45 min.
In Spanish with English subtitles
Directed by Luis Buñuel
With Claudio Brook, Silvia Pinal, Enrique Álvarez Félix
Luis Buñuel's wicked and wild take tells us about 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. Everything goes well until the devil (the beautiful Silvia Pinal) shows up and tries to tempt him down. Buñuel’s short and sweet satire is one of the master film maker's most renowned works of surrealism. The film is also the third and last installment with actress Pinal (after Viridiana and The Exterminating Angel).
Print courtesy of the National Film and Television Archive, London.
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Sunday, March 29, 4:00 p.m.
Cita en la Frontera
Argentina, 1940, 35mm, b/w, 90 min.
In Spanish with English subtitles
Directed by Mario Soffici
With Libertad Lamarque, Claudio Martino, Floren Delbene
We had to cancel this screening last year because the preservation project was not complete. It's done now, and we are thrilled to bring you the Academy Film Archive's brand new print of Cita en la frontera! This classic Argentine musical teams famous director Mario Soffici with iconic Argentine actress Libertad Lamarque at the height of her Argentine career, before she moved to Mexico in the late 1940s.
Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.
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