Continuing from the previous post, I'm happy to report that Alex Gibney promotes not just El ángel exterminador / The Exterminating Angel (1962), but also Luis Buñuel in general, including another one of my all-time faves, his Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie / The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972).
Gibney is primarily known for making thought-provoking documentaries ranging from Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005) and Taxi to the Dark Side (2007) to a study of Hunter S. Thompson, to Casino Jack and the United States of Money (2010) and Magic Trip (2011).
A sampling of Gibney on Buñuel's Exterminating Angel: "things happen that are so mysterious and embrace the contradictions of everyday life. You didn't know whether to laugh or cry or get really angry. There was a tremendous sense of irony and mystery, and also the sense of a mischievous filmmaker behind all of this . . . It was a sense of humor that appealed to me, even within this world that was very harshly critical of these seemingly civilized people, who are in fact, in some ways, no better than animals. And animals are always appearing in the film. . ." From Robert K. Elder, ed., The Film That Changed My Life: 30 Directors On Their Epiphanies in the Dark (Chicago Review Press, 2011), pages 95-96.
Still from Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie which, as a full-length motion picture, is in color.
Today's Rune: Movement.
2 comments:
his titles sound thompsonesque. I wonder if old Hunter was an influence.
You got to admit ken Lay was pretty smart, he died before they could send him to prison.
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