Okay, that's just me. But whenever I have the chance to watch this one, I gladly do it. The censor might have taken out many scenes, but that doesn't hurt it, maybe it even helped it. Because, to me, as an old-fashioned type, I don't have to SEE things, I don't expect cinema to be realistic, I can well do with hints. Maybe that's why I love Buñuel, and that's why I love this one. No sex, no blood, but overboarding with hints. And not at all sparing the complexities of human behaviour, trust, betrayal, envy, jealousy. Almost everyone in this movie plays a part in Divina Commedia. Attraction, the wife of the attorney who'd loved to be loved, the self-asserted lawyer, his secretary who's secretly in love, the musician, the medical student, maybe even the maid, truthfulness, the lack of it, and everyone seemingly unable to escape from their .. shall we call it destiny?
I can barely imagine - or know about? - another movie that is this dense with one of the great secrets yet unexplained in the lives of us humans: what is love?
Many commentators don't seem to get this point. Obviously there IS quite a lot of love in this movie. Up to killing someone for being unable to stand separation.
Condensed, I'd call it, what has been going on between humans since the dawn of time. When does affection turn into urge, into giving oneself up?
I'll never forget the scene in the garden. When do we dare to shout out at night, to the world and to the stars, "I AM HAPPY!" One says that women are fickle, and here it shows. At that moment the hero is totally at ease with herself. This movie doesn't take sides, it doesn't show us the good and the bad types. It simply observes compatriots. Taking out the scenery from the 1950s, it is a timeless movie.
I'll never forget the scene in the garden. When do we dare to shout out at night, to the world and to the stars, "I AM HAPPY!" One says that women are fickle, and here it shows. At that moment the hero is totally at ease with herself. This movie doesn't take sides, it doesn't show us the good and the bad types. It simply observes compatriots. Taking out the scenery from the 1950s, it is a timeless movie.