Rating: 5/5
After an opera, a rich dude hosts a dinner party. But after the help leave and everyone stays the night, they discover that they cannot leave the room they’re in
What can I say? It’s a surrealist masterpiece — Buñuel sharpens his focus from his earlier work and makes a critique of wealth and the state that is as relevant now as it was then
A big reason is that it does not explicitly reference any historical events or figures, but instead slowly says the quiet parts out loud: appeals to decency, moments of silence, calls for dispassionate rationality
It also captures the tensions felt during quarantine — the typhoid quarantine is explicitly referenced — the loss of control, the constant proximity, the indefinite length
Stray Thoughts / Quotes
- Mother! was obviously inspired by this
- Chicken in a handbag, I know, I know it’s serious
- “I think the lower class is less susceptible to pain”
- Washable plastic Virgin Mary statue
- “Three things I’ve hated since I was a child — violence, starvation, and filth”
- Thing?!
- “We don’t want reason; we want out of here”