underground cinema

This is called Dawn

3 september 20:30 - 22:00

CELA S'APPELLE L'AURORE 1956
(This is called Dawn)
Directed by Luis Buñuel
102 minutes
In French with English subtitles

An unexpected oddball flick from Spanish director Luis Buñuel, made after he left Europe and was then rejected in the United States, and he finally settled in Mexico. Although he made movies principally in Mexico during this period, he would often jump back to France to shoot one. Buñuel claimed that this was one of his favorite movies he ever made, despite the fact that it's rarely ever screened.

It's set in the Mediterranean island of Corsica and follows the path of a young doctor who lives on little money and prefers to help the people that need it most. In his character, we can see a kind of humanitarianism that the Dutch medical system had 40 years ago, but which now has shamelessly been lost. It was simple... If someone was injured, you helped them because they needed it. It didn't depend on documentation, money or legality. In any case when this young doctor meets an Italian widow, passion flares up. I won't say anything more about the story, but it takes us on a journey involving greed, sacrifice, fits of passion, learning to do the right thing, acts of murder, the injustice of class hierarchies, compassion, and the ignition of emotional and social-political activism.

Interestingly, this movie seems more melodramatic or neo-realist than his more celebrated trippy surrealist projects. This serves to show how diverse his filmmaking actually was... he was freely flowing between different genres and styles - he wasn't interested in getting stuck in any single corner. But just because the approach in this movie is more straightforward, it doesn't mean it isn't as subversive. Buñuel was anti-institutional and anti-authoritarian, and he was smart enough to know this applies to anyone with power. He had a disdain for clergy, the bourgeoisie, and the police force. Buñuel himself described this movie concisely as a "love-yes, police-no" film. Actually, in a way, it can be summed up as a nonconformist love story about choosing to follow your inner spirit rather than the status quo.