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 Illusion Travels by Streetcar More at IMDbPro »La ilusión viaja en tranvía (original title)

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7 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Great Mexican Bunuel; A must see comedy, 24 August 2000
Author: Aw-komon from Los Angeles

Don't think this is a light film just because it's a comedy made with Mexican actors. There are many layers here and much clever satire not only on the Mexican society of that period but (as always with Bunuel) human behavior in general. The ironic detachment of the director is never so far as to render these characters unrealistic caricatures; far from it, they're as fully real as anything in 'Los Olvidados,' except here things are examined from a much less cynical angle. Comedy is, after all, the flipside of tragedy and if comedy sells better, you only run the risk of being misunderstood by most of the audience on a very superficial level; on a deeper level even the commonest comedy fan implicitly gets the message. This film is in many ways similar in its structure and tone (and on a deeper level even in subject matter) to Alexander Payne's 'Citizen Ruth' and 'Election' or Todd Solondz's 'Welcome to the Dollhouse.' Except here, Bunuel shows less 'cruelty' than in most of his other films; here he tries his hand at an homage to certain great American comedies of the '30s and '40s which managed to use comic misadventures to veil serious messages underneath. The difference is that Bunuel consciously planned and fully intended this result whereas the Americans may have just ended up there unexpectedly and unconsciously.

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4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Very amusing Mexican Bunuel!, 8 June 2002
8/10
Author: zetes from Saint Paul, MN

Two streetcar conductors whose streetcar is set to be dismantled sneak into the station late one night to take it for one last spin. They spend all night and most of the next day having small adventured throughout Mexico City. Agustin Isunza is the film's standout as an old man, Papa Pinillos, who worked for the streetcar company most of his life. He was laid off a while back, but he does little with his time besides get on random streetcars to see if their drivers are competent. When he jumps on the 133, he quickly realizes that it's stolen and he spends the rest of the film desperately trying to get the company to believe him. It's a fun movie and very charming. Not a necessary Bunuel film, but fans should certainly catch it. 8/10.

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2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Illusion Travels By Streetcar (Luis Bunuel, 1954) **1/2, 15 October 2010
6/10
Author: MARIO GAUCI (marrod@melita.com) from Naxxar, Malta

On first viewing – again, as part of that 2007 Bunuel/NFT retrospective – I had found this to be an enjoyable but rather insubstantial comedy; on this revisit, my opinion has not changed about this minor work from the celebrated Spanish director. Indeed, I was surprised to learn (from the opening credits) that Bunuel was not even involved in the screen writing process of this one – although, I do not think it is a coincidence that the film's comic highlight is a wonderful "Garden of Eden" pageant sequence early on (in which the three protagonists playing God, Adam and a swim-suited Eve, are tormented by a heavily-horned Lucifer wearing a shirt sporting the word "serpent"!).

The film is fairly similar to Bunuel's earlier (and superior) Mexican 'road movie' ASCENT TO HEAVEN aka Mexican BUS RIDE (1952) in that it is set, for the most part, on a means of public transportation. Besides, its plot line of an ancient vehicle being taken for one last ride before ending up in a scrapheap also harks back to such classic comedies as Harold Lloyd's SPEEDY (1928) and Ealing's practically contemporaneous THE TITFIELD THUNDERBOLT (1953). Incidentally, Bunuel's cinematic idol Fritz Lang, made his own railroad movie that same year: the noir-ish melodrama HUMAN DESIRE (which I own but have yet to watch) – itself a remake of Jean Renoir's LA BETE HUMAINE (1938).

As usual with Bunuel's films from this period, it starts with a faux-documentary narration and, in this case, amusingly concludes on a "this was just one of a thousand stories" line a' la Jules Dassin's seminal noir THE NAKED CITY (1948). The director's depiction of the downtrodden Mexican villagers' everyday life (culminating in a riot when the smuggling of corn as fertilizer is accidentally discovered by one of the bumbling protagonists) brought on comparisons with Italy's then-current Neo-realist movement – something which Bunuel readily denied. Indeed, while the story could well have been inspired by a similarly liberating ride through the streets of Paris made by the Surrealist movement in 1931, the truth is that the film was commissioned by a nascent Mexican public transport company to counter the bad press caused by an accident they had had the previous year!

Two regular actors from Bunuel's work in Mexico – the lovely Lilia Prado and the amiably rotund Fernando "Mantequilla" Soto (as a streetcar conductor named Tarrajas) – also appear here, alongside Carlos Navarro (as Prado's streetcar mechanic boyfriend) and Agustín Isunza (as Papa Pinillos, a nosy ex-railroad employee). The perennially frustrated attempts of the two company employees to take back the streetcar they stole before its absence is discovered is paralleled by Papa Pinillos' constantly dismissed claims of this very theft to his pompous former employers.

Among the commuters who inadvertently get to make use of the runaway streetcar (the film's alternate title) are: a schoolmistress with her classroom of unruly children who are, eventually, stranded on a film set (an orphan in their midst is told that the long-legged starlet being made-up is his long-lost mother!); two elderly ladies carrying a statue of Jesus Christ in "Ecce Homo" guise; a couple of 'penniless' politicians; a clueless American tourist who mistakes the protagonists' reluctance to accept fare – which would have aggravated their misdemeanor – as "Communist" behavior (possibly, former party member Bunuel's barbed comment on the "Red Scare" then currently scourging through Hollywood); and, most memorably, slaughterhouse workers carrying their slabs of meat along as 'luggage'! I cannot forget to mention that, very early on in the film, there is also a throwaway laugh-out-loud moment when a billboard reads: "Well…so what?"

P.S. Surprisingly enough, the film played without a glitch on my Philips DVD player which, usually, has a lot of trouble dealing with DivX files!

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2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
A trolley worker point of view., 17 May 2009
10/10
Author: Héctor Lara (laratramex@live.com.mx) from Mexico

The newly born Servicio DE Transportes Eléctricos del D.F. had to do this film to demeaning the bad press caused by "La Venta" accident the previous year, the story and some actors come from Subida al Cielo, and show the company shops at Indianilla neighborhood in México City. Aside from Buñuel intention of a series of sit-coms, his surrealism becomes an every day fact in the Mexican way of life, such anecdotes still happen at STE, now mostly with trolleybuses and the Xochimilco LRV. When we got a VHS copy, we showed it at Tetepilco depot, amusingly the Transportation Dept. boss was also an Ingeniero Benítez, and our efforts to save rolling stock from the torch, have became a nice Traction Museum, without everyone around getting drunk, I'm the Union Historian and had to check it frame by frame to list appearing units: At the opening scene we see several types later succeeded by the first Westram trolley-coaches and a PCC in the Transfer-table, 133 real number was 378, a Brill 11 windows 2-trucker, many points of Mexico City to be checked, for example when they leave the school kids at a filming it was at Calzada de Tlalpan across the gates of CLASA-Films! and the Overhead-repair trolley that block the return to the depot is to be restored at Tetepilco Museum. must add more comments later---

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3 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Heartfelt, enjoyable comedy, 1 December 2007
8/10
Author: stalker vogler from Xanadu

I have the most respect for Bunuel's Mexican period. It is during those years that he directed what is in my opinion his masterpiece, after Un Chien Andalou, that is Los Olvidados. Unlike the pessimistic nature of that movie that seems to say Mexican life ruins itself from the inside, La ilusion viaja en tranvia looks almost like a Fellini movie in being understanding of people's idiosyncrasies. As a movie you shouldn't expect much, the purpose of the film when it was created was merely to entertain, Bunuel didn't get much out of these films, neither financially nor in terms of recognition. The fact that Subida al Cielo was nominated for the Cannes awards left me quite puzzled at some point. As entertainment this movie works pretty well even now, and I don;t think that people watching this could get bored at any point.

The real virtue of the film, although, lies in the image it gives us of the Mexican life in the mid fifties. I mean why would anyone actually watch such a movie today, after more than half a century. This is a "piece of evidence" showing us what Mexico looked like back then, it was interesting for me to see the people, clothes, cars, general poverty and occasional richness, the street lighting etc.

The funniest scene of the film, if I got it right, I think was the one when one of the characters accidentally makes the acquaintance of some smugglers that were transporting corn in bags disguised to look like fertilizer made in the U.S.A. Think for a moment: American fertilizer imported by Mexico given its hyperinflation?!... Now that's funny! The best part is that even if you could "read" this movie as being essentially leftist, Bunuel does manage to keep a balance between justice the worker's cause and their impotence in doing anything for it. Unlike Wajda's A Generation (a movie also dealing with the worker's condition and their need to rebel) released the next year, Buneul is never overtly Marxist and there are moments when I almost tend to think he is criticizing the idea of people's rebellion.

The script is good, the actors do a fairly good job, especially Agustin Isunza who interprets a character who dedicated his whole life for the company and is frustrated at seeing the tram "stolen" by a bunch of newcomers. Lilia Prado is even prettier than two years back in Subida al Cielo. Plenty of stuff to be enjoyed here 8/10

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4 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
A streetcar named retire, 14 November 2006
Author: dbdumonteil

A streetcar is to be dismantled and two pals are not prepared to accept it.

Bunuel's touch can be felt in the scenes dealing with religion: -The show that takes Genesis to the stage ;the grotesque actors play God,Lucifer,Adam and Eve and more ...Certainly ,the director had much fun directing these scenes -which have little to do with the main plot- -The two ladies and their Virgin Mary statuette ;while people are giving raw meat for free (even heart!)in the streetcar,they are puzzled because "normally" you've got to pay for everything.They forget that Christ gave bread and fish to His people as reported by the Gospels.

Apart from these sequences,it is a simple comedy,and in Bunuel's great filmography,it is nothing by a curio.

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1 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Episodic comedy, 18 July 2008
8/10
Author: kosmasp

You have to suspend your disbelief a bit to fully enjoy the comedic moments. It is mostly based or let's say feels like something "real", but of course strange things are happening, that are meant to be funny (they are) ...

Again Mr. Bunuel shows off his skills. Great direction, nice story, with a human touch. There's even the occasional obsession theme that ran through many of his films (haven't seen all of them, so maybe it's even a running theme through all his movies). But again it's a comedy so it's more lighthearted. Not that there is no villain, but suffice to say, that it's not really about that/him! :o)

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2 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
An unusual Buñuel that makes you laugh at last, 12 December 2000
Author: (hawparks2@yahoo.com) from Los Angeles, California

To all Buñuel fans that haven't seen this one, let me tell you that the big laugh comes at the end and keeps you laughing for a long time.after the movie is over. Very unusual for Buñuel, but nevertheless very realistic and enjoyable. For the delightful laughing effect he produced at the end, I rated 9.5.

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5 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
A pleasant comedy, no more, 16 December 2000
6/10
Author: psteier from New York

Ignore the title and opening and closing narration that imply that there is more here than meets the eye, which is a humorous look at life in Mexico City in the early 1950's. Very nice location shooting.

Best scene: the pageant of the fall of Satan and of Adam and Eve.

Best actor: Agustín Isunza as a retired motorman trying to report that the street car has been stolen.

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6 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
A Minor Buñuel, 20 January 2008
5/10
Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In the 50's, in Mexico, the streetcar mechanic Juan Godinez (Carlos Navarro) and the pilot Tarrajas (Fernando Soto) become upset when they are informed by their supervisor that the streetcar number 133 will be decommissioned. They go to a party and late night, they get drunk and decide to borrow the streetcar for one last spin for fun, without charging the passengers. Completely wasted, they sleep in the streetcar and on the next morning, they get in troubled and weird situations while trying to return the vehicle to the garage.

"La Ilusión Viaja en Tranvía" is a minor movie of Buñuel. This naive comedy presents jokes with religion; criticizes the inflation, the corruption and the tough condition of the poor people in Mexico city; exposes the ridiculous behavior of henchman, represented by the retired Papa Pinillos (Agustín Isunza). Unfortunately, the comedy is not funny, with the exception of the scenes with the villain Papa Pinillos, responsible for the best and funniest moments of the film. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "A Ilusão Viaja de Bonde" ("The Illusion Travels by Streetcar")

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