UIS BUNUEL

Like Antonioni (see below) the films of Bunuel, from the early surrealist classics Un Chien Andalou and L'Age d'Or, to the later narrative symbolism of Siridiana, are also concerned with the contemporary death of instinct. But whereas ntonioni tenders the absolute truth of that experience, Bunuel almost always soups-it-up, either politically or psychologically. And so does his interpreter, Ado Kyrou, in a veritable cheerleader critique. Bunuel, as Kyrou enthusiatically notes, is a disturber of the peace; anti-clerical and anti-bourgeois, he couples old Boemian rebellion with New Left social pieties. His films- technique-wise still tuck in the '30's- entertain sado-masochistic elements of struggle and violence, but always in the name of love, with Eros serving as the Bunuel ""hero"" and Jesus the ""villain"". However, quite apart from the Freudian, Marxian or pseudo-Nietzschean ""shock therapy"", Bunuel at heart is really a romantic individualist. Others- and Kyrou has included paeans from Henry Miller, Breton and Tony Richardson -- come to different conclusions. Incidentally, Bunuel's own remarks -- vivid, militant, telling-re the best in the book. The scenario slices are a treat too. For the disciples.