Priest: "For six years, six months and six weeks, you've stood on that column Simon. Your asceticism has edified us all."By Luis Buñuel
With Claudio Brook and Silvia Pinal
I came across Simon of the Desert randomly while looking through movies. It came across as a really experimental movie and since it was by Luis Buñuel I decided to give it a shot.
The movie starts in an unknown place in the middle of a desert with a religious procession walking and chanting. Soon enough, they arrive at the base of a column and the priest addresses the man atop the column, Simon, a pious repentant trying to reach a spiritual state closer to God through practicing asceticism. Simon climbs down and passes through the crowd, his mother greeting him, and he tells her that this is the last time they will see each other in this life and that they will meet in front of God next time. Simon climbs on top of another, higher column. As the time passes, many people visit Simon, mostly religious congregations but also the Devil incarnated in a woman, who tries to seduce and lure him to come down.
I liked many of the themes in the movie, particularly asceticism, which I find a very deep concept. His asceticism was mostly explored through the temptations and visits from the Devil that he had to face. While I understand that this movie is mostly intended to be a farce exposing flaws inherent in the Church, I felt that too often, many important themes were left unexplored.
The comic relief of some of the situations was short-lived and didn't impact the movie much. The Devil is an interesting character but too much of a caricature, sadly reinforcing the idea that the devil is a woman of little virtue. T
The real strength of the movie lies in its twist ending but even the dialogue then felt like a let down. I felt there could have been a lot more exploration of the interactions Simon had with villagers, for example the dwarf shepherd or the beardless religious man who were both sent away and blessed by Simon but we don't know more about them, we don't know what they were expecting from Simon or what their dialogue with him invoked in them.
Running a mere 45 minutes, one can't blame the editing for cutting down all the key scenes and I am left with the feeling of an incomplete picture.
I liked: Asceticism. Faith in the farce and farce in the faith.
I disliked: Feels experimental for the sake of being experimental, without enough substance to back it up. Incomplete.
51/100
Maybe I had unfair expectations of a constructed critique of religion and that's why I felt disappointed.
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