Other directors tackled the stolen childhood.None of them surpassed Bunuel:it's his movie that should be in top 250 where Truffaut's "les 400 coups" is.Ditto for William Wyler:his "dead end" -which begins like Bunuel's opus,by showing us the bright side of the towns- seems hollywoodian,tamed and grandiloquent.Bunuel's work is universal,and when he says at the beginning "some day the children's rights will be respected" ,one wishes his dream could come true one day:it did not ,still in 2004.
Bunuel had already broached poverty with his stunning "los hurdes" (1932),one of the best (if not the best ) documentaries that was ever done.He has not lost his bite when dealing with fiction characters."Los Olvidados" is one of his very best ,one of his most disturbing.
VIOLENCE:"Los Olvidados" is violence itself :violence against the weak,be it a blind man,a legless cripple -an almost unbearable sequence- or a hen ;violence because there does not seem to be another way of dealing with life.Pedro the hero is a good boy:his longing for his mother's love is harrowing,culminating in the dreamlike sequence ;some people say they do not recognize Bunuel ,but he is everywhere in this film,and his surrealism makes this dream sequence one of the many highlights of the movie:filmed in slow motion,Pedro sees his mother as a madonna,the good and affectionate mother he wants so hard .Even Jaibo,his bad influence has excuses ;when he dies,at the end of the movie,Bunuel shows compassion for him,the scum of the earth.
EROTICISM:violence and erotism walk hand in hand in "los olvidados".If I should choose one sequence,it would be the young girl,letting milk run on her legs ,or Jaibo's extreme desire for Pedro's mother;symbolism ,which is one of Bunuel's trademarks ,is also present:the hen and its eggs epitomizes life ,this life the children are victims of.See how,after swallowing an egg,Pedro spits it on a frame.The hatred his mother feels for men (she has no lover,which is quite surprising) is glaring when she beats the cock.Probably the first of directors ,Bunuel even dares to film a pedophile (in 1950) :as this scene would be too much,Bunuel gives it a silent treatment:it's all the more impressive.
THE "other" ADULTS :outside the shanty town,however,all the men are not like this dirty man.Unlike Truffault,who,in "les quatre cent coups" ,showed caricatures of teachers or cops,Bunuel shows human beings.At the police station,see how the policeman urges the mother to see his imprisoned son;in the reform school-a word which does not fit though , "farm school" would be a better epithet-,the principal proves to have a marvelous sense of psychology and pedagogy:had Jaibo not come again,he would probably have saved Pedro:his beaming face ,when he is aked to buy cigarettes for him is the one moment of happiness and hope for the human nature in a depressing and somber work.
SPOILER The final sequence may repel some,but Bunuel wanted to show life in the shanty towns as it was:the mother's appearance,as the old man carries her son's dead body unbeknowst to her,before throwing him on a garbage heap,takes horror to new limits.It echoes to the egg scene.
As Stevie Wonder would sing a quarter of century later:"Families buying dog food now/Starvation roams the streets/Babies die before they're born/Infected by the grief".
Would you like to come with Bunuel to Mexico city favellas?
Bunuel had already broached poverty with his stunning "los hurdes" (1932),one of the best (if not the best ) documentaries that was ever done.He has not lost his bite when dealing with fiction characters."Los Olvidados" is one of his very best ,one of his most disturbing.
VIOLENCE:"Los Olvidados" is violence itself :violence against the weak,be it a blind man,a legless cripple -an almost unbearable sequence- or a hen ;violence because there does not seem to be another way of dealing with life.Pedro the hero is a good boy:his longing for his mother's love is harrowing,culminating in the dreamlike sequence ;some people say they do not recognize Bunuel ,but he is everywhere in this film,and his surrealism makes this dream sequence one of the many highlights of the movie:filmed in slow motion,Pedro sees his mother as a madonna,the good and affectionate mother he wants so hard .Even Jaibo,his bad influence has excuses ;when he dies,at the end of the movie,Bunuel shows compassion for him,the scum of the earth.
EROTICISM:violence and erotism walk hand in hand in "los olvidados".If I should choose one sequence,it would be the young girl,letting milk run on her legs ,or Jaibo's extreme desire for Pedro's mother;symbolism ,which is one of Bunuel's trademarks ,is also present:the hen and its eggs epitomizes life ,this life the children are victims of.See how,after swallowing an egg,Pedro spits it on a frame.The hatred his mother feels for men (she has no lover,which is quite surprising) is glaring when she beats the cock.Probably the first of directors ,Bunuel even dares to film a pedophile (in 1950) :as this scene would be too much,Bunuel gives it a silent treatment:it's all the more impressive.
THE "other" ADULTS :outside the shanty town,however,all the men are not like this dirty man.Unlike Truffault,who,in "les quatre cent coups" ,showed caricatures of teachers or cops,Bunuel shows human beings.At the police station,see how the policeman urges the mother to see his imprisoned son;in the reform school-a word which does not fit though , "farm school" would be a better epithet-,the principal proves to have a marvelous sense of psychology and pedagogy:had Jaibo not come again,he would probably have saved Pedro:his beaming face ,when he is aked to buy cigarettes for him is the one moment of happiness and hope for the human nature in a depressing and somber work.
SPOILER The final sequence may repel some,but Bunuel wanted to show life in the shanty towns as it was:the mother's appearance,as the old man carries her son's dead body unbeknowst to her,before throwing him on a garbage heap,takes horror to new limits.It echoes to the egg scene.
As Stevie Wonder would sing a quarter of century later:"Families buying dog food now/Starvation roams the streets/Babies die before they're born/Infected by the grief".
Would you like to come with Bunuel to Mexico city favellas?