Search - Luis Bunuel's L'Age d'Or on DVD

Content Advisory: Adult Situations, Not For Children Movie Release: 1930 DVD Release: 11/23/2004 Format: DVD - Black and White Audio Tracks: French Subtitles: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 3 mins Studio: Kino Members Wishing: 20 Genres: Avant-garde / Experimental, Satire, Surrealist Film, Religious Comedy

L'Âge d'Or begins as a documentary about the habits of scorpions, utilizing library footage and silent-style intertitles. Amid the rocks of an inlet, archbishops are seen chanting by a beggar-soldier (Max Ernst), who then makes a long journey back to his hideout. He informs his fellow beggar-soldiers that the "Mallorcans" have arrived and it is time to bear arms and fight. But this small group of soldiers is weak and exhausted through starvation, and only one of them survives the trip back. The Mallorcans, a caravan of wealthy dignitaries and their servants, arrive to lay a cornerstone commemorating the now skeletal archbishops. The ceremony is interrupted by the screams of lovemaking, and the couple is separated by gendarmes and led away. The man (Gaston Modot), whom we later learn is a government official of some standing, establishes his nasty and anti-social character through the kicking a dog. The ceremony continues; a title card identifies this as the foundation of Imperial Rome. The next sequence intercuts scenes of the girl (Lya Lys), who is the daughter of a wealthy marquis, lost in a world of erotic fantasy, with scenes of the man being led down the street by the gendarmes. The man finally produces diplomatic papers, and is released.

The marquis (Ibanez) and marquise (Germaine Noizet) throw a large party at their villa, where a number of strange events occur without the slightest notice from the guests. A momentary distraction is caused when the gamekeeper shoots his son over a minor incident. The government official arrives at the party and is soon in pursuit of the girl, although the social nature of the event, at first, keeps them apart. The marquise accidentally spills a little wine over the government official's hand, and he slaps her, exciting the girl. (Alfred Hitchcock would later echo this very scene in Strangers on a Train.) The girl and the government official are finally allowed to consummate their fetishistic desires to the strains of Wagner in an extended love scene in the garden. This is interrupted when the conductor (Duchange) of the concert nearby has a headache and walks off the podium, directly into the arms of the girl. The government official gets a phone call, where he is told that his actions have resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of the "women, children, and old people" he is sworn to protect. He curses the caller, and enraged, he goes to his apartment to rip apart pillows and to hurl several objects, including an archbishop, out the window. The final sequence begins with a series of lengthy, and increasingly agitated, intertitles announcing that the Duc de Blangis (Lionel Salem) and his henchmen are due to emerge from 120 days of debauchery inside a secluded castle. When the party does emerge, the duke is seen to be missing his beard. ~ David Lewis, All Movie Guide

Gaston Modot - The Man
Lya Lys - Young Girl
Max Ernst - Bandit Chief
Pierre Prevert - Peman
Lionel Salem
Jose Artigas

Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali's second and final film collaboration comes to DVD in a respectable presentation from Kino Video. L'Age d'Or has been transferred to disc in its original full-frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and while the print used for the transfer isn't quite pristine, it looks better than the copies which have been traveling on the archival circuits for years. The film is a part talkie; the dialogue in the sound sequences is in French, with burned-in English subtitles that also appear on the film's French-language title cards (and could stand to be a bit more readable, though they're not difficult to decipher in the dialogue sequences). The sound has been mastered in Dolby Digital Mono, with no audio options. As a bonus, this edition also includes a small gallery of still photos and a commentary track from author Robert Short; while the commentary is extremely intermittent, at least he covers the film's infamous history with accuracy and concision. If not perfect, this DVD of L'Age d'Or is certainly an improvement over the previous VHS edition, and is well worth a look for enthusiasts of the great surrealists or anyone interested in Buñuel's early work. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide