Buñuel: Simon of the Desert

In Luis Buñuel's Simón del desierto / Simon of the Desert (black and white, 1965), a saintly ascetic lives atop first one pillar, then another, where he is thrice tempted by the Devil (in the guise of Silvia Pinal). Third time's the charm.

Simon as Holy Fool and Wise Man (played grandly by Claudio Brook) could represent any religious tradition in his primal existential ascetic stance, but he is in fact based on a real person, a Syrian Christian saint now known as Symeon the Stylite (ca. 390-459 A.D.) and also Saint Simeon Stylites the Elder; there were other stylitoe ("pillar-hermits"), too. Maybe we'll see more of them in the throes of the 21st century? 

The central dramatic conflict in Simón del desierto -- Simon vs. the temptations of the Devil -- is largely unseen or ignored by various pilgrims and other visitors to Simon's pillar-shrine. Below the pillar, priests, various monks, Simon's mother (who lives in a nearby hut), a foul-mouthed dwarf, hungry poor and even a possessed monk seem more concerned about what Simon can do for them than anything else. Yet when a miracle occurs -- a man whose hands have been chopped off for stealing bread has his hands restored -- the crowd seems ho-hum or even pissed off about it. Such ungrateful people.

I won't even go into the nice little twist at the end of this short masterpiece.

Silvia Pinal, whose 80th birthday is coming up on September 12, 2011, here plays the Devil, just about to pop out of a casket to tempt Simon anew.

Today's Rune: Gateway.