These three gods of art and culture deserved something better than mediocre adventure film. I admire the talent of Carlos Saura and I'm sure he is great fan of Federico Garica Lorca, Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali but I think that in order to do something really avantgrade and different he fell into the pool of meanness. The art of these three is out of reach for the modern artists and we should not doubt that. They as godfathers and originators of surrealism created and killed their own grateful child by writing the greatest possible poems, painting the most beautiful and full of sense paintings and bringing both into the most powerful and greatest of all arts-the cinema. May be the film would be better if it's a bit longer, because many of the lines were not well described and that has nothing to do with surreal understanding of the film, Saura just didn't developed all his characters and story lines. But even if that was done, I don't think that the real followers of there three icons would be satisfied because as I said, what they have done, can not be done again and never can be done in better way. So a simple biographical movie about their lives and friendship will be better and even more interesting I think. Let the masters do the masterpieces.
4 Reviews
These three gods of art and culture deserved something better!
xmournx23 October 2005
Warning: Spoilers
Bunuel And King Solomon's Table (Carlos Saura, 2001) ***
Bunuel197612 November 2010
While this is the very first film from distinguished Spanish film-maker Saura I have watched (and which, as it happens, he himself considers his best work – though it is an opinion which no one else seems to share!), I have collected some 18 other titles of his mostly within this last year!
To begin with, I must congratulate him on his choice of actor (bearing the odd name Gran Wyoming!) playing the aged Luis Bunuel – since he is a dead-ringer for the Surrealist master (less so his younger counterpart). The idea of having Bunuel and his inseparable youthful companions, the eccentric painter Salvador Dali and the ill-fated poet Federico Garcia Lorca, involved in an Indiana Jones-type archaeological quest/adventure was certainly amusing and bizarre – but the end result, while generally enjoyable, is insufficiently memorable and decidedly pointless in the long run!
That said, Saura is obviously well-versed in the works and experiences of the three protagonists – so that he has Bunuel and Dali accuse one another of triggering their 'subsequent' much-publicized and long-lasting rift, while Garcia Lorca has a chilling premonition of his own death during the Spanish Civil War (in perhaps the single most awe-inspiring moment here, as a boy is shown literally lifting the sea to check what is underneath – an image so strong that it even graced the movie's posters!). The most delightful moment, then, sees Bunuel being accosted by a local critic, whose initial enthusiasm (he even goes on to name the director's most demanding effort, THE MILKY WAY [1969], as his favorite!) unaccountably gives way to a diatribe against his occasionally questionable artistic choices (the musical GRAN CASINO [1947], the fine remake of WUTHERING HEIGHTS [1954] – albeit deemed inferior to William Wyler's 1939 Hollywood rendition – and even the semi-Western THE RIVER AND DEATH [1955], which I personally like a good deal but the director himself seemed not to care for); Saura has the last laugh, though, as the man is revealed to be a fugitive from a lunatic asylum - just like a character in THE MILKY WAY itself!
When the trio are getting close to their objective, they decide to separate: however, fate (or their collective fears and desires) contrive to stall their progress – with Lorca becoming witness to an impromptu flamenco performance (though ostensibly suggesting the poet's latent homosexuality, it is worth noting that Saura would over the years tackle various forms of traditional Spanish dances on film!), Dali haunted by visions of his disapproving wheelchair-bound father, and Bunuel giving in to the wiles of a femme fatale (played by Italian bombshell Valeria Marini). By the way, one definite link here to the real Bunuel is the on-screen presence of his regular screen writing partner Jean-Claude Carriere (whom I have recently managed to contact in order to express my appreciation for his prolific and diverse legacy!) as the mystery man who instigates the search for the all-powerful artifact that once belonged to the Hebrew King of Biblical times; then again, a SIMON OF THE DESERT (1965)-like ascetic monk and the church where a famous scene from TRISTANA (1970) was filmed also put in an appearance – whereas, at the climax, our heroes encounter a giant robot straight out of Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS (1927) - a movie the real Bunuel had written about during his short stint as a contemporary Parisian film reviewer!
To begin with, I must congratulate him on his choice of actor (bearing the odd name Gran Wyoming!) playing the aged Luis Bunuel – since he is a dead-ringer for the Surrealist master (less so his younger counterpart). The idea of having Bunuel and his inseparable youthful companions, the eccentric painter Salvador Dali and the ill-fated poet Federico Garcia Lorca, involved in an Indiana Jones-type archaeological quest/adventure was certainly amusing and bizarre – but the end result, while generally enjoyable, is insufficiently memorable and decidedly pointless in the long run!
That said, Saura is obviously well-versed in the works and experiences of the three protagonists – so that he has Bunuel and Dali accuse one another of triggering their 'subsequent' much-publicized and long-lasting rift, while Garcia Lorca has a chilling premonition of his own death during the Spanish Civil War (in perhaps the single most awe-inspiring moment here, as a boy is shown literally lifting the sea to check what is underneath – an image so strong that it even graced the movie's posters!). The most delightful moment, then, sees Bunuel being accosted by a local critic, whose initial enthusiasm (he even goes on to name the director's most demanding effort, THE MILKY WAY [1969], as his favorite!) unaccountably gives way to a diatribe against his occasionally questionable artistic choices (the musical GRAN CASINO [1947], the fine remake of WUTHERING HEIGHTS [1954] – albeit deemed inferior to William Wyler's 1939 Hollywood rendition – and even the semi-Western THE RIVER AND DEATH [1955], which I personally like a good deal but the director himself seemed not to care for); Saura has the last laugh, though, as the man is revealed to be a fugitive from a lunatic asylum - just like a character in THE MILKY WAY itself!
When the trio are getting close to their objective, they decide to separate: however, fate (or their collective fears and desires) contrive to stall their progress – with Lorca becoming witness to an impromptu flamenco performance (though ostensibly suggesting the poet's latent homosexuality, it is worth noting that Saura would over the years tackle various forms of traditional Spanish dances on film!), Dali haunted by visions of his disapproving wheelchair-bound father, and Bunuel giving in to the wiles of a femme fatale (played by Italian bombshell Valeria Marini). By the way, one definite link here to the real Bunuel is the on-screen presence of his regular screen writing partner Jean-Claude Carriere (whom I have recently managed to contact in order to express my appreciation for his prolific and diverse legacy!) as the mystery man who instigates the search for the all-powerful artifact that once belonged to the Hebrew King of Biblical times; then again, a SIMON OF THE DESERT (1965)-like ascetic monk and the church where a famous scene from TRISTANA (1970) was filmed also put in an appearance – whereas, at the climax, our heroes encounter a giant robot straight out of Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS (1927) - a movie the real Bunuel had written about during his short stint as a contemporary Parisian film reviewer!
Someone would think that I did´t understand the movie...
rockjaw8 October 2001
Yeah, maybe I´m not so pedant as to feel satisfied with the film. The references to Buñuel´s movies are simply "too easy" to locate, perhaps because Saura is not interested in making people find clues but in making those people know how "cool" he is... Yes, I can recognize "Tristana", or "Viridiana", even "Un chien andalou", and so what. The film is boring. I thought, just before I watched it, then, if I were lucky I would see a mix between "Raiders of the Lost Arc" and "Shakespeare in Love", but I was mistaken. Nothing so great. Just another dull and unhappy attempt to imitate one of the chapters of "The Outer Limits". But not as funny and very much more pretentious. Alterio as Dali? Just awful. Lorca as a sissy afraid of his own poems... just horrible. And I prefer not to talk about the make-up and SFX. The whole movie is a good idea badly made. I was in the premiere, in The San Sebastian Festival, and could see Saura himself introducing the movie to the audience. Well, that morning the critics had been... "no mercy", you know... And I think he was just apologizing. You feel curiosity?... I did. Not worth to lose two hours of your life.
An astonishing and surreal journey
diztorted15 November 2001
Carlos Saura directing and ode to Luis Bunuel, Salvador Dali and Federico Garcia Lorca in the shape of a surreal, mysterious but delightful journey. What else do you need? As Dali said somewhere in the movie "I've just had a mental excitation" with this movie. Imagine a threesome of excentric artist following clues in the search of a mythological piece known as the "table of king Solomon" and experiencing surreal visions throughout the story such as a kid lifting the sea as if it was a mattress in the floor to look what's beneath.
The music, the dialogues, the environment, and the colors of the film, take you to a place that might look like familiar places, only in other dimension where strange things are normal for the people. A place where your mind can really grow on to the exterior.
I've seen many bad reviews for this film, I even read one that said "this is a film only for Saura or Bunuel's fans", but I'm not sure about that. I am a fan of both but more than that I'm a fan of films, of the art of motion picture and every single variation it might have, and I tell you movies like this one once again remind me what it is that I love about films so much...the ability to get away and live experiences I would never do in the real world.
The music, the dialogues, the environment, and the colors of the film, take you to a place that might look like familiar places, only in other dimension where strange things are normal for the people. A place where your mind can really grow on to the exterior.
I've seen many bad reviews for this film, I even read one that said "this is a film only for Saura or Bunuel's fans", but I'm not sure about that. I am a fan of both but more than that I'm a fan of films, of the art of motion picture and every single variation it might have, and I tell you movies like this one once again remind me what it is that I love about films so much...the ability to get away and live experiences I would never do in the real world.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
