Search - Nuestro Cine Clasico: Flor Silvestre/Subida al Cielo on DVD

Better than expected

Timothy Byrne | Seattle, WA United States | 03/01/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I'll review this in English since this is Amazon, but note that the films are not subtitled.
Flor Silvestre es a true classic of Mexican Cinema, and Subida Al Cielo is a classic if seldom seen film of Bunuel. So there is not much to say about the films themselves. Any fan of Mexcian Cinema will want these films.
The print and transfer quality s always an issue with Mexican films becuase the black market in DVDs makes it impossible for anyone to make a profit reissuing quality DVDs. I was pleasantly surprised by the transfer and print quality with these films. The quality wan't good, but it wasn't bad, and it wasn't distracting. The sound quality was generally ok as well.
Finally, the Spanish spoken in both of these films is more or less formal, and clearly spoken, so these are definitely films easily enjoyed by non-native Spanis speakers."

A Mexican Bus Ride thru Life & Death!

Maximiliano F Yofre | Buenos Aires, Argentina | 05/02/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This review is intended only for "Subida al Cielo".
Director Luis Buñuel (1900-1983) was the epitome of Surrealism in movies. All his pictures, even those underrated from his Mexican period, as the present one, are provoking.

In "Subida al Cielo" (1952) ("Ascent to Heaven" aka "Mexican Bus Ride") as in most of his films, characters are ambiguous. They shed light and cast shadows to each other. There are no "absolutes"; even the more despicable have some traits of "virtue" and vice versa.

The storyline is as follows: Oliverio and his bride Elisa are rowing to their honeymoon island, when they are intercepted by Oliverio's elder brother telling them his mother is in agony and they should immediately return.
Back at the village Oliverio talks to her dying mother and she charges him to fetch a Notary from a quite distant town and bring him back, so she is able to legate some valuable proprieties to her orphaned grandson. She fears her other two sons will fake her last will in their own profit.
Oliverio starts then an adventurous bus ride to his mother's hometown in search of the Attorney. Over this background, Buñuel constructs a "road movie", depicting archetypical charters with his critical and almost impious cynical regard.
This characters' gallery contains a politician, the bus driver, a decadent high-bourgeois, a spirited young girl, a hen breeder, a rural family including their goats amongst others, giving way to comical and tragic exchanges.

In the middle of the trip, Buñuel interpolates an oneiric sequence that is paradigmatically of his filmography. This sequence is more than enough reason to watch the film.

Even if it's not a great film is more than watchable and a "must see" for any Buñuel films fan!

Reviewed by Max Yofre.

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