An escaped convict named Chark (Georges Marchal) comes to a little town next to gold digger's camp . In this South American settlement is living a lot of French people . Chark is taken prisoner by local militia , who accuses him of having carried out a bank robbery in a neighboured little village . The police also confiscates the gold mine for the state , due to this the prospectors start a revolt , but it is beaten . As the group of French people must flee the revolution between striking miners and soldiers . There takes place a riot ; all of them have to escape and Chark agrees to lead them to safety but their trek throughout the jungle is fraught with danger and not just from animal life . As Chark , Father Lizzardi (Michael Piccoli) , Castin (Charles Vanel) , his deaf-mute daughter (Michele Girardon) and Djin (Simone Signoret) , a whore to whom Castin is in love are fleeing into the jungle . Where they begin fighting for their lives and suffering lots of perils .
Adventure movie by the great Luis Buñuel , it is filled with thrills , action , revolts , drama and gorgeous outdoors from jungle . This isn't a typical Buñuel film , though there are some symbolism but no surrealism . Interesting and thought-provoking screenplay from Raymond Queen and Luis Alcoriza , Buñuel's usual screenwriter . Pretty good cast gives fine acting ; it is mostly formed by nice French actors such as Georges Marchal as an adventurer arrested by the local police , Simone Signoret as experimented prostitute , Michael Piccoli as Father Lizzardi , Charles Vanel as an old miner who falls in love for a whore , and Michele Girardon , early deceased at 36 , and probably best remembered for her role in the John Wayne comedy adventure ¡Hatari! . Colorful and glowing cinematography by Jorge Stahl , filmed on location in Texcoco , Catemaco , Veracruz , Mexico . Atmospheric as well as evocative musical score by Paul Misraki .
The motion picture was compellingly directed by Luis Buñuel . This Buñuel's strange film belongs to his Mexican second period . It is between Mexican epoch and French period ; in fact , it's plenty of known French actors ; as Buñuel subsequently emigrated from Mexico to France where filmed other excellent movies . After moving to Paris , at the beginning Buñuel did a variety of film-related odd jobs , including working as an assistant to director Jean Epstein . With financial help from his mother and creative assistance from Dalí, he made his first film , this 17-minute "Un Chien Andalou" (1929), and immediately catapulted himself into film history thanks to its disturbing images and surrealist plot . The following year , sponsored by wealthy art patrons, he made his first picture , the scabrous witty and violent "Age of Gold" (1930), which mercilessly attacked the church and the middle classes, themes that would preoccupy Buñuel for the rest of his career . That career, though, seemed almost over by the mid-1930s, as he found work increasingly hard to come by and after the Spanish Civil War , where he made ¨Las Hurdes¨ , as Luis emigrated to the US where he worked for the Museum of Modern Art and as a film dubber for Warner Bros . He subsequently went on his Mexican period with "The Great Madcap" , ¨Los Olvidados¨ , ¨The brute¨, "Wuthering Heights", ¨El¨ , "The Criminal Life of Archibaldo De la Cruz" , ¨Robinson Crusoe¨ , ¨Death in the garden¨ and many others . And finally his French-Spanish period in collaboration with producer Serge Silberman and writer Jean-Claude Carrière with notorious as well as polemic films such as ¨Viridiana¨ , Tristana¨ , ¨The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" and his last picture , "That Obscure Object of Desire" .
Adventure movie by the great Luis Buñuel , it is filled with thrills , action , revolts , drama and gorgeous outdoors from jungle . This isn't a typical Buñuel film , though there are some symbolism but no surrealism . Interesting and thought-provoking screenplay from Raymond Queen and Luis Alcoriza , Buñuel's usual screenwriter . Pretty good cast gives fine acting ; it is mostly formed by nice French actors such as Georges Marchal as an adventurer arrested by the local police , Simone Signoret as experimented prostitute , Michael Piccoli as Father Lizzardi , Charles Vanel as an old miner who falls in love for a whore , and Michele Girardon , early deceased at 36 , and probably best remembered for her role in the John Wayne comedy adventure ¡Hatari! . Colorful and glowing cinematography by Jorge Stahl , filmed on location in Texcoco , Catemaco , Veracruz , Mexico . Atmospheric as well as evocative musical score by Paul Misraki .
The motion picture was compellingly directed by Luis Buñuel . This Buñuel's strange film belongs to his Mexican second period . It is between Mexican epoch and French period ; in fact , it's plenty of known French actors ; as Buñuel subsequently emigrated from Mexico to France where filmed other excellent movies . After moving to Paris , at the beginning Buñuel did a variety of film-related odd jobs , including working as an assistant to director Jean Epstein . With financial help from his mother and creative assistance from Dalí, he made his first film , this 17-minute "Un Chien Andalou" (1929), and immediately catapulted himself into film history thanks to its disturbing images and surrealist plot . The following year , sponsored by wealthy art patrons, he made his first picture , the scabrous witty and violent "Age of Gold" (1930), which mercilessly attacked the church and the middle classes, themes that would preoccupy Buñuel for the rest of his career . That career, though, seemed almost over by the mid-1930s, as he found work increasingly hard to come by and after the Spanish Civil War , where he made ¨Las Hurdes¨ , as Luis emigrated to the US where he worked for the Museum of Modern Art and as a film dubber for Warner Bros . He subsequently went on his Mexican period with "The Great Madcap" , ¨Los Olvidados¨ , ¨The brute¨, "Wuthering Heights", ¨El¨ , "The Criminal Life of Archibaldo De la Cruz" , ¨Robinson Crusoe¨ , ¨Death in the garden¨ and many others . And finally his French-Spanish period in collaboration with producer Serge Silberman and writer Jean-Claude Carrière with notorious as well as polemic films such as ¨Viridiana¨ , Tristana¨ , ¨The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" and his last picture , "That Obscure Object of Desire" .