Mexico
1965
45 minutes
Black and White
1.33:1
Spanish
460
Simon of the Desert is Luis Buñuel’s wicked and wild take on the life of devoted ascetic Saint Simeon Stylites, who waited atop a pillar surrounded by a barren landscape for six years, six months, and six days, in order to prove his devotion to God. Yet the devil, in the figure of the beautiful Silvia Pinal, huddles below, trying to tempt him down. A skeptic’s vision of human conviction, Buñuel’s short and sweet satire is one of the master filmmaker’s most renowned works of surrealism.
| Simon | Claudio Brook |
| Brother Matías | Enrique Alvarez Félix |
| The devil as an old witch | Francisco Reiquera |
| The mother | Hortensia Santoveña |
| Priest | Luis Aceves Castañeda |
| Priest | Antonio Bravo |
| The mutilated one | Enrique del Castillo |
| The devil | Silvia Pinal |
| Director | Luis Buñuel |
| Screenplay | Julio Alejandro and Luis Buñuel |
| Producer | Gustavo Alatriste |
| Cinematography | Gabriel Figueroa |
| Production Design | Jesús Bracho |
| Music | Raúl Lavista |
| Editing | Carlos Savage |
Whether trapped in a mansion or on a pillar, their characters aren’t going anywhere, and lambs and sheep have a habit of wandering into frame—Luis Buñuel’s The Exterminating Angel and Simon of the Desert make a perfect matched set indeed, as critics have been enjoying discovering . . .
A good friend of Luis Buñuel’s suggested in conversation that the director was likely to be damned twice: once for being an atheist, and once for joking about it . . .
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