Luis Bunuel was one of the founders of the surrealist movement in films along with Salvador Dali. Surrealism is the exploration of something beyond the real. It is digging into the dream like, deep unconscious to discover new realms of expression. It is the mind’s unconditioned, unhampered response to ideas. It is not rational, not pragmatic and not populist.
In that sense surrealism is intrinsically artistic and iconoclastic. It challenges established modes of thought, pre-conceived notions and rational principles. Bunuel’s first few films are surreal in mood and spirit. They represent free expression and the Director’s experiment with the distortion of reality which is shocking for a rational, conditioned mind. In his later films like Nazarin, Viridiana, Simon of the Desert he is concerned with the questions of religion, faith and morality. He is playful and inquisitive about the shifting and slippery nature of religious morality. Perceived or practiced notion of religion is at logger heads with the lofty and grand principles of the church .For the people religion, morality and faith are matters of convenience than strict adherence. Nevertheless this kind of love-hate relationship with religion in the films of Bunuel which is marked by perpetual suspicion gives them an ambivalence and dubiousness. In Viridiana the staunch faith of a young nun is put to test when a group of beggars and mendicants sheltered by her turn against her in a fit of drunken revelry and rape her. In the film the lewd repast of the vagabonds is made to mirror and satirize the Last Supper. Bunuel frequently focuses on the interaction between the religious, the moral and the social. The sacred (institutions, thoughts, individuals) has to face a test of character which blurs the line between the real, the unreal and the surreal.
In his social films like The Young one, The discreet charm of the Bourgeoisie, Belle De Joure, The Criminal life of Archibald De La Cruz, Bunuel explores themes of middle class morality and crime. Again what is perceived as normal from the outside is a façade, an appearance; the immoral and the unnatural have the vast canvas of the mind to thrive. Outwardly people maintain a semblance of control, discipline and order. In The Young one, Bunuel examines questions of racism and sexual morality. A girl who is under the protection of her estate owner is sexually molested by him. She is young and innocent and cannot comprehend what his advances mean.
The Criminal Life of Archibald could be called a representative Mexican film. Archibald thinks of murder but all the women who he thinks of murdering are killed by some other person or due to some other reason before he can do it. When Archibald surrenders before a judge requesting to be arrested, The Judge says, “You have the potential of being a criminal”, “I can’t prosecute you for wishing someone’s death” Bunuel’s genius as in most other great directors is about unsettling the audience and not giving advice or instruction. The camera captures the essence of the moment, the moment where everything hangs in balance like the spin of an electron. The blending of the real and the surreal is seamless as in The Simon of the Desert where symbolically Simon falls from his high pedestal of virtue and piety into the cauldron of carnal pleasures. Nazarin is another film with deep religious overtones frequently straddling faith and agnosticism. Andrei Tarkovsky calls it one of his ten favourite films. Bunuel ranks among the greatest of film makers and his films are quintessentially human.