Buñuel en el laberinto de las tortugas (2018)

[Drunk Monk]

For the Bunuel aficionados and because I saw L'Age Dor with DM which this animated film uses.

Kanopy-ed. Finally.

This is distributed to the US by GKids who distributes a lot of euro kids film. This is not a kids film. I doubt they even read the synopsis. They must’ve figured that it was a cartoon so it must be for kids. Not. It’s got some mature elements, not gratuitously so, but definitely beyond most kids and probably many adults. 

It’s a retelling of Bunuel’s struggles after the pope blacklists him for the sacrilege of L’age Dor. He can’t find backers for a doc he’s trying to make about an impoverished region of Spain until his friend wins the lottery. Then he shoots it with his friend and two others on location, staging scenes and recklessly spending the winnings.

I’ve never seen the doc. It’s well regarded and excerpts are spliced in the animation to great effect. Bunuel was a sadist staging violent animal deaths. I never put that together until this. Given it’s real brutality, I may pass. They show some harsh scenes from the actual doc, even by today’s standards because they are real. I’ve lost my stomach for animal sacrifice for cinema after Cannibal Holocaust (Thanks ed).  

The film projects Bunuel’s neurosis about being in the shadow of Dali through some surreal nightmares. His trip to visit Dali is only acknowledged with a street sign to Cadaques so you have to know that’s where Dali lived (it’s a Spanish film and Spaniards know). I wasn’t impressed by the storytelling or animation style but the history was compelling enough to keep me engaged.

No sword fights. Recommended for DOOM surrealists as more of a history lesson, a chapter in the life of a legendary filmmaker - arguably the first pioneer in shock cinema.