Interpreting Reality: and the Documentary Mode Author(s): JULIE JONES Source: Journal of Film and Video, Vol. 57, No. 4 (WINTER 2005), pp. 18-31 Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of the University Film & Video Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20688502 . Accessed: 14/04/2013 15:46

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This content downloaded from 128.95.104.66 on Sun, 14 Apr 2013 15:46:15 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions InterpretingReality: Los olvidados and the DocumentaryMode

JULIE JONES

LUIS BUNUEL NOURISHED AN AFFECTION FOR The followingstudy, dedicated to Los olvida THE DOCUMENTARYMODE throughouthiS dos, concerns those elements inthe filmitself career, even claimingat one point that the thatalign itwith documentarypractice, but the nonfktionfilm had become his main concern studygives equal weight to Bunuel's presenta ("Autobiography"256). Recently,his most tionof the film(mainly through interviews) and clearlydocumentary film, Las Hurdes [Land to contemporaryreviews inthe press, both of without Bread] (1933), has been the object of which stressed the film'sserious social pur much debate regardinghis sources, funding, pose and therebyreinforced an interpretation and political agenda, as well as the degree of thework as nonfiction.It is importanthere towhich he manipulated hismaterial and the to consider Bunuel's conception of documen effects the filmhas had on itssubject, the tary,which makes roomfor parody, social Hurdanos.1Although it is likelythat this height satire, and surrealism. The study is not con ened interestin the expositorydimension of cernedwith any finalclassification of the film Bunuel's work will extend to other films, so far (as we know, the boundary between fiction littlehas been done inthis direction.2 and nonfictionfilms isblurred), but ratherwith A number of Bunuel's other works reveal an examinationof those elementswithin and his interestin a filmpractice thatforegrounds without?or behind?Los olvidados that make issues?Los olvidados [TheYoung and the a documentaryreading fruitful and provide a Damned] (1950), El [ThisStrange Passion] deeper and more nuanced understandingof (1953),Ens ayo de un crimen [TheCriminal Life the work and its context. ofArchibaldo de laCruz] (1953), and La Voie Lactee are a fewthat [TheMilky Way] (1969) Bunuel and the Documentary springto mind?but Los olvidados is the only one thatBunuel himselfactually presented as a Bunuel's conceptionof the documentarywas documentary.3For this reason, it isa criticalfilm heavily influencedby his experiences of surre to consider ina discussion of thedirector's con alism and of communism. The surrealists' inter tinued involvementwith the expositoryform. est indocumentary was an extensionof their belief inthe powers of photography.Andre

julie jones is professor of Spanish at the Univer Bazin, followingtheir lineof reasoning,writes sity of New Orleans and has published numerous (naively)that "The photographic image is the articles on narrative and the work of Luis Bunuel object itself,the object freedfrom the condi inCinema the Film and Journal, Journal of Video, tionsof timeand space thatgovern if (What and Comparative Literature. She is the author of 1:14).Hence Breton's inclusionof photographs A Common Place: The Representation of Paris in inNadja. He treatsthem as "the object itself," Spanish-American Fiction (Bucknell, 1988) and as incontrovertible ofwhat he is supplied the running commentary to the Miramax proof trying DVDof Bunuel's Belle de Jour(1967; 2002). less successfullyto express throughlanguage,

18 JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO 57.4 / WINTER 2005 ?2005 BY THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

This content downloaded from 128.95.104.66 on Sun, 14 Apr 2013 15:46:15 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions and he clearlybelieves thatthey offer a direct? istpractice; it isas marked by black humor i.e., unmediated?access to the reality that lies and bitingsatire as isL'Age d'Or, and nothing beyond appearances. Beyond photography, could be more fantasticthan some of its"real surrealistssaw thatethnographic films record ity"sequences.7 But he did see the potential ingthe customs of exotic tribesalso afforded of documentaryas an armof political (rather an outlook onto a differentreality (no matter than cultural)propaganda. He infuriatedDali howmuch that"reality" was manipulated) and by producingan edited version of L'Aged'Or therebygave them themeans, once again, to in1932 thatwas to serve as a proletarianshort contest the assumptions ofWestern culture.4 (Dans les eauxglacees du calcul ego'fste),and BufiuePs firstthree films, his freestbecause when he sonarized Las Hurdes threeyears theywere financedprivately, give a good indi afterfilming it, he dropped itsattack on the cation of his preferences.The third(Las Hurdes) bourgeois liberalgovernment in inorder isa straight-updocumentary (although not to followthe Party'snew Popular Frontpolicy particularly"straight," since italso parodies (Fernandez Ib?nez 166). InParis duringthe the conventionsof the formand, incidentally, Spanish CivilWar, hewas incharge of film pokes funat the surrealists'enthusiasm forex propaganda forthe Republic.He supervised otic cultures)and the other two have a marked the editingof Espana leal en armas (1937) and documentaryinterest. Dalf called Un chien an facilitatedthe making of filmssuch as Andre dalou [AnAndalusian Dog] (1929) a documen Malraux's L'Espoir/Sierrade Teruel (1945) and taryof themind (Fernandez Ib?nez 163); and JorisIvens's The Spanish Earth (1937).8 L'Aged'Or [TheGolden Age] (1930),which kicks DuringWorld War II,the Museum ofModern offwith footageon the lifeof scorpions lifted Art inNew Yorkhired Bunuel, who was already froma nonfktionshort and includesa pseudo inthe US, to edit and dub 16mmnontheatrical newsreel, isbasically an indictmentof Western films,on topics rangingfrom defense produc civilization.(In an edited version, itwould be tionto science and health, fordistribution in used forCommunist propaganda.) BufiuePs Latin America. Bunuel worked as the museum's firstbiographer, Francisco Aranda, argues that chiefeditor from January 1941 to June1943, this triptychshows an "evolution towardpure when an outcryabout his leftistleanings?by documentary"(116).5 this timehe had quietlydropped hismember These filmsset the tone forthe restof ship inthe Communist Party (Gubern and Ham BufiuePs cinematicpractice. The characteristics mond 63-64)?forced him to resign.He had we see distributedacross the threefilms?the had some hopes ofmaking his own documen dramatizationof the unconscious, the stripping tarieswhile atMoMA. The formattracted him in away of convention,the bitingsocial satire,the part because its relatively low cost made exper black humorand the parodyof other forms, imentationpossible at a timewhen indepen alongwith the attentionto historic,social, and dent featureshad been priced out of existence economic detail?will be a constant inhis films, ("Autobiography"255-56). Sadly, Bunuel's whether theyare works of fictionor, as he in work atMoMA was largelybureaucratic, and his sisted about Los olvidados, fact.For him, fol project formaking a filmon schizophreniawith lowingthe surrealists,elements ofmystery or a disciple of Freud's inChicago came to nothing the fantasticare essential ifa filmis to convey (Miultimo suspiro 277). However,even though a sense of reality("Cine" 185). he himselfwas not directing,his work forboth Bunuel joined theCommunist Party of Spain MoMA and theSpanish Republic kept him in sometime betweenMay 1931 and January1932 touchwith documentaryfilmmakers and aware and, alongwith a numberof other comrades, ofwhat theywere producingduring a period leftthe surrealistgroup in1932.6 His decision when the formwas flourishing. to filma documentary,Las Hurdes, the next Bunuel's interestin documentary persisted year did not involvea renunciationof surreal throughouthis longcareer, but itoften sur

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This content downloaded from 128.95.104.66 on Sun, 14 Apr 2013 15:46:15 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions faced in unexpected ways. La Voie Lactee, fessional actors to take a hard lookat how the forexample, isan irreverentillustration of workingclass and peasants were affectedby A Historyof Spanish Heterodoxy,Marcelino Italianwar and postwar reality.It must have Menendez Pelayo's examinationof Christian seemed a propitiousmoment, then, tomake a heresies. Virtuallyall Bunuel's films,even filmlike Los olvidados. themost playful,are grounded ina concrete AlthoughBunuel took pains to distance economic, social, and historical reality. Aranda himselffrom the Italians, it is clear that the emphasizes this point inhis biography,and he inceptionof this filmowed much to the huge also argues thatthe frustrateddocumentary success ofVittorio De Sica's Scuiscia [Shoe on schizophrenia foundnew formsyears later shine](i947), with itsdepiction of abandoned inEi and The CriminalLife ofArchibaldo de la youths inan impoverishedsociety.10 Federico Cruz (116). However, as we have seen, Bunuel Amerigo, the head of production forLos olvi actually referredonly to Las Hurdes and Los dados, says thatproducers Oscar Dancigers olvidados as documentaries. and JaimeMenasce came upwith the idea of a tough filmabout Mexican urchinsafter seeing Shoeshine thendecided to offer TheRight Urne together;they itto Bunuel.11Not surprisingly,Bunuel makes Bunuel shot Los olvidados inearly 1950, at a no referenceto Shoeshine inhis version of pointwhen the distinctionbetween documen the story. Instead,he says, he and JuanLarrea taryand realisticfiction film, never entirely were playingaround with the idea of a bur clear, was more muddled than usual. In the lesque melodrama about a ragamuffin under days before a lightweightsynchronous-sound theworking titleSu huerfanito,jefe; Dancigers apparatus would allow them to filmwith mini told him tomake what he wanted but tomake mal interventionin the street,filmmakers had itworthwhile (Aub 118). come to relyincreasingly on reconstructions. These involved events that had actu stagings Disarming the Critics ally happened and events thatcould have hap pened (i.e., typicalmoments and syntheses Bunuel's insistence on the documentary value of actual incidents;the termreconstruction of Los olvidados stemmed, inpart, fromhis was used, no matter how inappropriately, to need to anticipate and disarm any reaction cover the hypotheticalas well as the actual). to the spectacle of povertyand violence that The resultanttendency toward fictionalization could easily have been construedas a slightto coincidedwith the advent of Italianneorealism , his adopted country.12He argued that and NorthAmerican docudrama: fictionfilms he only filmedwhat he had witnessed inper thataspired to a documentarystatus, both in son or had found inthe recordshe consulted, styleand subject (Winston120,122), and that at the same time asserting, in the voice-over were oftendescribed as documentaries (Bar prologue, thatthe problems shown inthe film nouw 185). plague all great cities?New York,London, NorthAmerican productionssuch as Call Paris,Mexico. Inan interviewin La Prensa, he Northside777 (1948), directedby HenryHatha says, "I've takena slice of lifeas it's livedhere, way, and Boomerang (1947), directedby Elia or inLondon or inParis. Ifit's hard towatch, Kazan, were based on actual events, filmed as that's notmy fault. Ihaven't shown anything much as possible in locations associated with Ididn't see, and I've actually held back a lot" those incidents, and made, at least in part, (qtd. inMontes).13 Years laterBunuel toldDe la with nonprofessionalactors.9 They performed Colina and Perez Turrentthat he had included stronglyat the box office,as did thework of the voice-over prologue, with its reference to the Italianneorealists, who reliedto an even first-worldcapitals, so thatthe censorswould greater extent on location shots and nonpro pass the film(61).

20 JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO 57-4 / WINTER 2005 ?2005 BY THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

This content downloaded from 128.95.104.66 on Sun, 14 Apr 2013 15:46:15 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Infact, the outcryagainst Los olvidados a linehe had begun inhis youth ("Bunuel esti was not so vociferous as has been alleged. ma"); in other words, he really saw itas a docu Although initiallyit failed at the box office, mentary.The followingpages studythe filmin thatfailure apparently had more to do with the that light,focusing on twoelements itshares general public's preferencefor Hollywood-style with Las Hurdes and with other representations entertainmentthan with indignation(Perucho; of the documentarymode: itsserious social Su?rez del Solar). One criticcommented that purpose and itsclaim to authenticity. the filmwas a success among the poor inspite In contemporary interviews, Bunuel differ of the ratherdaunting ticket prices (Montes). entiated Los olvidados fromhis "poetic" works Bunuel blamed the film'sweak performance ("jTiene un suefio realista!") and fromhis other at the box officeon insufficientpublicity and Mexican ventures: "The rest are melodrama, a bad choice of theater("Bunuel estima") for fiction with actors. This is a documentary..." itsfirst run. Inspite of itscommercial failure, (qtd. inRass?n). He insistedon the film'sso Los olvidados garneredfavorable publicity in cial dimension. In1954, he called it"a social Mexico even beforewinning the JuryPrize at protestfilm" and continued, "I had tomake a Cannes. After the prize, which focused interna filmthat was socially conscious. That's the di tionalattention on theMexican film industry, rection I'mgoing in" ("Testimonio"7). He told the filmreceived fresh accolades inthe press, theRevista de America criticthat the filmowed was given a new run, and garnered ten Arieles, itssuccess to the factthat "it's not a private Mexico's highestawards, includingbest film, story_The problems of private individuals best director,and best screenplay (Novedades). ... are just not very interesting any more. You One criticeven accused theMexican filmworld have to see yourselfas partof mankind" (qtd. of sufferingfrom "olvidaditis" Ouan Dieguito). inCliment 25). The reviewersdefended Bunuel fromcharges of The tone here isconsistent with Bunuel's Mexico bashing; his strategyhad worked. politicalsympathies. He always insistedon his admiration for the Communist cause even

he refused, for reasons, to A Documentary inMind though pragmatic acknowledge his onetimemembership inthe Fortactical reasons, then,the directorpitched Party.His filmswould continueto be rooted in Los olvidados as a documentary,but he did so a deep-seated awareness of the class structure as well because he saw thefilm as continuing and itseffects (for him, of course, thesewould

Photo i: Location photo graph of a market on the outskirts of Mexico City, taken by Bunuel. Cour tesy of Archivos Docu mentales (AB 1108.684), Filmoteca Espanola, Madrid.

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This content downloaded from 128.95.104.66 on Sun, 14 Apr 2013 15:46:15 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions includethe psychological).This emphasis on troduction22). InLos olvidados, as elsewhere, the individualas representinga largerbody the referenceto institutionssignals the kindof accordswell with documentarypractice, which film we will see, and the voice-over in the open is concernedprimarily with thegroup, however ing sequence reinforces that orientation. defined.As Winston pointsout, "Parts need to Bunuel's insistenceon the film's institutional stand forwhole classes ifa claimof social rel credentialsand on the amountof researchthat evance is to be sustained" (134). Documentary went intoit are partof his effortto validate its titlesoften point to this concernfor the group: take on the subject at hand. Followingclassic Workersand Jobs (1935),Tenants inRevolt documentarypractice, he also insistson his (1934), ThePeople of theCumberland (1937), personal experienceof the conditionshe films. Nightcleaners (1975), TheRevolt of theFisher This assertion thatthe filmmakerhas spent time men (1934), and TheForgotten Ones? Los olvi on site and knowswhereof he speaks (nomat dados. terhow slightthe actual exposuremay be) has Bunuelwas clearlyfamiliar with documen formedpart of documentarydiscourse since the tarydiscourse. In interviews,he made the kind making ofNanook of theNorth (1922) because it of appeal to science thatwas widely used to bolsters the form'sclaims to authorityand also legitimatedocumentaries: "My filmdoesn't assures the spectators?this assumption un appeal primarilyto our emotions,but rather derlies all documentarypractice?that the film to our sense of reason." He even went so far opens a window onto a segmentof the preexist as to say at one point, "Iwas inspiredby psy ingworld.16 Although Bunuel doesn't include chopedagogy" (qtd. inMontes).14 He insisted, himselfand his crew inthe film,as he did inLas too, on the amount of research involvedin the Hurdes?or rather,he does so onlyobliquely film:"I startedgoing to the JuvenileCourt, to inthe scene inwhich Pedro throwsan egg at the women's prison, that Mana Luisa Ricaud di the camera17?he stakes his claim to firsthand rected.She letme see the reportsof?what do knowledge repeatedlyin interviewsand com you call them??social workers. Iwent to clinics mentaries: "I spent almost six months getting to forthe retarded,I saw the reportson individual know those poor neighborhoods. I'dhead out beggars" (qtd. inAub 118; see also "Diario earlyby bus and wander throughthe alleyways, del Arte" 2 and Montes). The film'sbleak end making friends,seeing what people looked like, ing also comes from a documented source: a visiting houses_I walked around Nonoalco, newspaper account of the discoveryof a dead the Plaza de Romita,a lostcity inTacubaya" twelve-year-old boy on a garbage dump. (qtd. inDe la Colina and Perez Turrent56). He Documentary films turn on questions of evi sees himselfas bearingwitness to a reality dence and testimony?documentation?to sup thathe has experienced intimatelyand thathis port the contentionthat they provide insight detractors,Mexican as well as foreign,simply intoactual phenomena. (Althoughthis claim do not know: "Inmy incursionsinto the poor ishighly problematic, it is partof the scientific neighborhoodsof the capital, Isaw thingsmany longing that characterizes the form).15 Its narra journalistsknew nothingabout, thingsthat are tivestructure doesn't admit the talkingheads now being shown forthe first time" (qtd. in"Dia thatpeople so many examples of themode, riodel arte" 2, emphasis added). but Los olvidados does cite the supportof Inhis commentaryon the problemsof pov expertsand institutions?theBehavioral Clinic erty,broken families,and delinquency,Bunuel of theMinistry of Public Education, theSocial avoids easy answers. The voice-over with which Services Department, the Farm School?in a Los olvidados opens states baldly that"the prominentlydisplayed note of thanksfollowing filmis notoptimistic; it leaves solutions up to the credits.These mentions providewhat Bill the progressiveforces of society" (19). This is Nichols calls "the institutionalframework" that considerablytoned down?probably with the helps us recognizea documentaryas such (In censors inmind?from the contention inthe

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This content downloaded from 128.95.104.66 on Sun, 14 Apr 2013 15:46:15 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions originalscreenplay thatthe problemwould be withouta livelihoodbecause laborwas dis dealtwith onlyby "a more justsociety" (5). In placed bymachinery. At the same time, invest any event, the filmitself presents no answer, ment insocial programsdropped precipitously and thisabsence lefta numberof reviewers, (Acevedo-Munoz 60). In ever increasing num evidentlyaccustomed to the problem-solution bers, peasants fledfrom poverty in the country structure common in the documentary, at a side to povertyin the capital. loss.18Bunuel, as usual, refusedto spell out In1949, JesusSilva Herzog published an es the film'smeaning?"I haven't triedto moralize say in Cuadernos Americanos announcing that inLos olvidados, eh? The moral effect,if there the Revolution was dead. Ernesto Acevedo-Mu isone, will be experienced by the spectator in fiozcites Silva's piece as partof an ongoing de his contactwith the film"(qtd. inMontes)?but bate occasioned by theAlernan government's themessage of the filmis felteven more force conservativeturn, its outright renunciation of fullyfor being implicit:the only real solution Revolutionaryvalues, and itspromotion of ac to the problemof delinquency among the poor celeratedmodernization: the crisis inMexican lies ina massive social change, the kind that identity.He argues, further,that Los olvidados would, as the directorof the FarmSchool re also formspart of thisnational interrogation markswryly, "lock up povertyfor good" (105). (57-79). Bunuel's refusalto provideLos olvidados The filmshows Mexican cultureat this with the sortof obvious thesis favoredby most transitionalpoint between a traditionaland a documentarians stems, then, from his prefer modern culture.But italso makes clear thatfor ence formaking viewers come to themeaning most peasants trapped inslums outside the of a filmon theirown, but it isalso partof his cityproper modernity does notmean educa concernwith givingLos olvidados a sense of tionand a chance of advancement; instead, it's lifelived, rather than analyzed (a point thatwill represented by street smarts or crime. Mean be takenup later).His proximityto thematerial while, the traditionalis reduced to superstition validates the treatment,suggesting that Bunuel and the hypocriticallamentations of the Blind has somehow accessed the realwhen others man. The huge frameworkof a skyscraperin have failed,an assertion that is thevery stuff of constructionhovering over a wasteland has not documentary, as we have seen. Appropriately, just a metaphoric but also an indexical value. then, included inthe creditsof Los olvidados The camera heremeticulously documents the isa notice to the effectthat "This filmis based vestiges of theold order,the avatars of the entirely on real events, and all the characters new, and the disorderentailed by the shiftfrom are authentic." one to the other.19

To beginwith, Los olvidados concernsa In fact, Bunuel made a huge effort?apart specificplace and a definitetime. Ittakes fromhis (and LuisAlcoriza's) research intothe place duringthe presidencyof Miguel Alernan records?to make his representation of Mexican (1946-52), a period of economic development slum lifeas trustworthyas possible. As lateas and modernization that"forgot" the peasants My LastBreath (1982), he defended the film's by abandoning the programof landdistribution veracityin things largeand small.A Mexican instigatedunder L?zaro Cardenas (1934-40). motherwould neveract likePedro's? But he'd UnderCardenas, a thirdof the populationwas read a story inthe newspaper about a woman awarded a parcel of land,and itseemed that who tossed her littleson out of a moving train. the promiseof the Revolution(1910-17) was You'd never findthree brass beds ina wooden finallybeing fulfilled.Succeeding governments, shack? But Bunuel himselfhad actuallybeen in however, refused to support subsistence farm such a shack and seen the beds (243-44). He ing,opting insteadfor the creationof modern took Edward Fitzgerald, the set-designer, with factoryfarms that benefited the wealthy and himon countless foraysinto the slums and got foreigncorporations but leftpeasant farmers Pedro Urdimales to "Mexicanize" the dialogue.

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This content downloaded from 128.95.104.66 on Sun, 14 Apr 2013 15:46:15 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions (Theoriginal script inthe FilmotecaEspanola agreeable aesthetic impressions,"but thathe shows the extentofthat reworking.)He used could not entirelyhold back Figueroa,who gave mostly nonprofessionalsas actors and shot the filma richpalette of greys insteadof the extensively on location?primarily Nonoalco?in harsh contraststhe directordesired (138). a stylethat imitatedthe newsreel,much to the Like the neorealists,Bunuel made a point dismay of his cameraman, of not using professionalactors inthe film. (Baxter211). The cast includedsome students fromthe FarmSchool, but the requirementof a grade school education excluded most slum Neorealist Techniques probably kids?although the childwho played Ojitos Ingiving Los olvidados itsfeeling of actuality, apparentlyhad a storymuch likehis character's Bunuel used techniques learned, in largepart, (De laColina and Perez Turrent56-57). Bunuel, fromthe Italianneorealists, although he never however,chose the cast verycarefully for the admitted the debt and excoriated themfor a physical typeshe wanted to represent,and he tendencyto fall intosentimental cliches. He used the fewprofessional actors (Miguel Incl?n shares theirconcern with showinga specific and Stella Indawere the only twogenerally time and place and their awareness of an actu recognized) in an understated way.21 This cast alitythat impingeson?is, infact, the very stuff ingmeant thatthe screenwas peopled largely of?the action at hand. Much ofthat feeling is with unfamiliarfaces chosen not fortheir "star" conveyed throughcamera styleand the use of qualitybut fortheir credibility. The juvenile location shooting. actorswere extensivelyrehearsed (Aranda139), Bunuel planned carefullyto give the shoot but allowed to ad-lib inbackground dialogues ingof Los olvidados the hit-or-missquality of and engage freelyin horseplay, contributing news coverage. Inmany sequences, the estab once again to the sense thatthe camera is spy lishingshot comes late,or notat all. The com ing on spontaneous behavior.22 position seems haphazard. In one scene, the are cut off at the knees. In boys' legs another, Documentary with a Twist one of the boyswalks straightinto the camera, momentarilydarkening the screen. Inthe scene When Bunuel claims thatwhat De Sica and Ros when the gang attacks the Blindman, the cam sellini did had already been done inthe novel, era apparentlyhas a hard timefollowing the he is less than candid (Climent25). He owed action, which is off-center or even off-screen. more than he cared to admit to the neorealists, In the numerous market scenes, a constant who, as we have seen, had already worked out streamof customersand vendors passes in techniques forgiving their films the lookof ac frontof the lens; there is no sense of remove: tualityfootage. Los olvidados, however,differs viewers feel theyare inthe middle of the actual fromtheir work insignificant ways. marketas people go about theirbusiness. The One of themost obvious differencesis camera at times followsrandom figures that Bufiuel's insistenceon providinghis characters have no relationto the drama except as partof with an innerlife that isprojected on screen. the generalmilieu thatgenerates it.20Transi His insistence(see above) thatthe filmowes tions between scenes are functionalbut not everythingto science and nothingto poetry overlysmooth, since prompts (likedialogue was justpart of his strategyfor subverting criti hooks and establishing shots) are kept to a cism. Ina 1958 address, he complains thatthe minimum.Throughout Los olvidados, Bunuel neorealists' attemptsto representreality fail avoids imagesof superficialbeauty, creating preciselybecause they lackpoetry and a sense insteadan effectof dirtiness.Aranda argues ofmystery ("Cine" 185). The neorealists focus that"Bunuel did everythingwithin his power on thematerial circumstancesthat define a to preventthe audience fromexperiencing any character:the BicycleThief isa man who needs

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This content downloaded from 128.95.104.66 on Sun, 14 Apr 2013 15:46:15 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions a bicycle,period. ForBunuel, the innerlife is reviewers agape, and an astringent Spanish partof the equation; it isaffected by circum humorthat escaped many (especially among stances, but italso spills over intothese cir the Englishand NorthAmericans). cumstances in strange and sometimes perverse This ferocitymay have been motivated in ways. RobertK?lker calls him "the neo-realist partby a need to set himselfoff from De Sica of the unconscious" (95). Thinkof themoment (whomhe admired) and Rossellini (whom when Jaibo,driven not only by lustbut also by he did not). Italso suited Bufiuel's taste in a vague memory of his mother's face, seduces filmmaking.Certain scenes inL'Age d'Or and Pedro's mother; or of Pedro's deadly attackon almost all of Las Hurdes are notable fortheir the hens,which he associates with thatmother brutality.Los olvidados, infact, opens with an and herbetrayal. These tangledemotions allusion to Las Hurdes: the close-up of a child might justpossibly be perceptible to an atten of frighteningugliness, who isplaying the bull tiveobserver, but this isnot the case with the and who looksmore animal than human,much dream sequence that revolvesaround a hunkof likethe cretinoushurdanos who were treated meat and the uncanny images thataccompany with the same unforgivingclose-ups.24 The Jaibo'sdeath. Bunuelwould argue, infact did harshness doesn't preclude a compassion that argue, thatthese imaginativeprojections offer encompasses the bad lotsas well as thegood, glimpses intoan expanded reality(the compre but itdoes forestallthe kindof easy pathos that hensive realityof surrealism?"Cine" 185), but underminesmany of the Italianproductions. "I it isa realitynot to be found inthe documents wanted to protestthe sad conditionof the poor on which the filmis based. withoutbeautifying it," Bunuel commented, There isalso an eccentricityabout many "because Idetest the saccharine treatmentso of Bunuel's characters (hereand elsewhere) oftengiven to the characterof the poor" (qtd. in thatsets themoff from most of the figuresthat S?nchez-Vidal 119). populate neorealistdrama. The latterconform Bunuel, then,took what he could use from to type,but Bunuel's charactershave an almost the neorealistsand molded itto his own ends. Dickensian quality,with quirkytraits that can He saw the filmas a returnto the self,picking notbe explained by the constraintsof the situ upwhere he leftoff inLas Hurdes ("Bunuel ation. The Blindman,for example, is not just estima"), that is,with his own verypersonal avaricious, wicked, a "Porfirista," and a pedo take on documentarypractice, which, as we phile; he's also a witch-doctor and a one-man have seen, includes elements of surrealism, band. Ojitos, the lostchild, isalso a storehouse social satire, and parody. Commercial consid of folkwisdom regardinggood luckcharms and erations and the need to negotiate themaze beauty tips.Characters likethese represent of state censorship forcedhim to curbsome of social and economic groups, yes, but beyond his impulses:"I toned down the surrealistside thatthey are fiercelyindividual. so thatthe audience... could followthe film, Bunuel criticizedthe neorealistsmost and ... Itried to terrifythe bourgeoisie a little severelyfor a tendencyto the literarycliche, less" (qtd. inDiaz Ruanova). Apart fromPedro's which, as he saw it,vitiated theirclaim to real dream and Jaibo'sdying vision, the surrealistic ism.23Their cultivation of the pathos of thevic elements here are limitedto the sortof bizarre tim? alreadyan established traditionin docu juxtapositionsdaily lifesupplies ina society mentary?may be due inpart to the experience intransition. The attackon the bourgeoisie of filmingin a war-torncountry; nevertheless, it is implicitrather than overt, but it'sstill hard engenders just thatsentimentality the directors to miss. Consider, for example, the merry-go had sought to avoid intechnical terms. Bunuel roundscene, inwhich a nattilyattired littlegirl stripsaway the sentimentalityand treatshis sails around on her ride,happily indifferentto characters,villains and victims (and villainous the raggedurchins her age who are pushing the victims),with a ferocitythat leftcontemporary contraption.25

JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO 57-4 / WINTER 2005 25 ?2005 BY THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

This content downloaded from 128.95.104.66 on Sun, 14 Apr 2013 15:46:15 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Las Hurdes functionssimultaneously as a dados does not so obviously fit; ithas a point documentaryand as a parodyof documentary to make, yes, but it's driven by narrative. practice,much of the parody located inthe titles and the voice-over commentary?tech Narrative niques practicallysynonymous with documen tary?whichcarry objectivity to the pointof Documentary is neverentirely free of narrative cruel indifference.In Los olvidados, Bunuel also (in Las Hurdes it involvesthe filmcrew's explo playswith thevoice-of-god commentary, but rationof the region),but many commentators here?apart from the opening sequence?the insistthat the formalways gives rhetoricprece voice of god isdisplaced onto the Blindman, dence over narrative.Bill Nichols, forexample, an archconservative and pedophile, who pro argues thatthe neorealistworks are not quite vides a runningcritique of modern life:"When documentaries because theymove towarda PorfirioDiaz was incharge, people behaved, "congruencewith the real thatdocumentary and women stayed at home" (25). Unlike the must avoid, ultimately,if it is to constitutea voice-over in the first sequence, which presum representation or argument about the real" ably speaks forthe directorand which admits {Representing169), and Steven Lipkinpoints havingno easy answer to the problemof juve out that"even a documentarydependent upon nile delinquency, the Blindman has a veryneat re-creationplaces subject over story"(x). solution: "Theyshould hang all these criminals Winston, on the other hand, insiststhat, up by theirfeet" (Los olvidados 114). Finally,he although documentaries tend to privilegean goes beyond commentaryand actuallyputs his argumentative over a narrative structure, there recommendationinto effect; inother words, he are enough exceptions to negate the rule (253). plays God. He informson Jaiboand then tells Thinkingalong similar lines,William Guynn the policewhere theycan findhim. When he writes that "what distinguishes documentary hears the shots ringout thatwill bringabout fromfiction film is not the simple presence or the boy's death, he intones prophetically: absence of narrative" since narrative is an es "One down! One down! Soon they'llall meet sential component of all documentaries, and theirends (he looksat the skyand shakes his he adds that there is no particularnarrative fists).They should all be killedbefore they're mode associated with documentary: "Certain born!"(/.osolvidados 125). Inthis terriblepar documentaries closely resemble the fiction ody, thevoice of god is taken literally.It's the filmin that theydeploy itsbasic signifying voice of theOld Testamentdeity embodied ina structures at many textual levels" (154). Carl blind man who has no heart.26 Platinga, too, argues that, because of reen The parodic element thatdistinguishes actment?long considered an essential part Las Hurdes resurfacesobliquely, then, inLos of documentary practice?it's not any formal olvidados. Like the earlier film,Los olvidados quality thatdetermines how the audience makes no effortto evoke pathos in itstreat sees a film,but ratherthe context inwhich ment of themarginalized population and the the filmis seen (38). Nichols himselfadmits very realproblems on which itfocuses?just the at one point thatthe realdifference between contrary.Both films intendto shock viewersout documentaryand fictionfilm lies not inconsid of theircomplacency ratherthan lullthem with erations of formbut in"what we make of the easy tears.Their wake-up call isall the louder documentary's representationof the evidence forbeing unstated.Yet thereare obvious differ itpresents" (Representing125); laterhe refers ences as well. Las Hurdes is a parody. It closely to the importance of context?specifically a followsthe conventionsof the formin order film's institutional credentials?in establish

to subvert them; narrative, therefore, takes a ing an audience's expectations (Introduction back seat to exposition. Ultimatelythere is little 22-23). This suggests thataudience reception question that itbelongs to thegenre. Los olvi plays a?the??critical role. Winston concludes,

26 JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO 57-4 / WINTER 2005 ?2005 BY THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

This content downloaded from 128.95.104.66 on Sun, 14 Apr 2013 15:46:15 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions %3iilHl(|fl Photo2: Slumson the nijijfB edge ofMexico City, with ^gj^S^HB^Bj^^Bm^^^^^^^S^S^^^H^t^^^^^^U themodern cityand the sHHHH^^^HgraH skeleton a

Btftj^j^^^ en by Courtesy ^Bjj^fcl^^^^^^^^^^^Blj^^^^^^JB^^^^^^^^B ofArchivo Documentales (AB1108.686), Filmoteca Espafiola, Madrid.

simply,that "The difference[between docu considerations probably influencedthe critics' mentaryand fiction]is to be found inthe mind response. of the audience" (253). The receptionof the filmas a documentary was particularlymarked inGreat Britainand the UnitedStates, both ofwhich in1950 had strong Contemporary Reactions traditionsof factualfilmmaking.27 Mexico did No matterhow we view itnow, at the time it not have an established tradition. Reviewers

was released, Los olvidados was accepted by there referred repeatedly to the film's realism? a great number of reviewers as a documentary. "people say it'sthe most realisticfilm pro As we have seen, Bunuel carefully orches duced inMexico" (Rassan)?and to the social tratedhis presentationof the filmto elicit problems explored therein,without considering this response. The filmspoke to a problem its claims to documentary status. There were thataffected many nations inthe 1940s. In some exceptions. Efram Huerta described itas postwar Europe, destitute children,many of "an authentic document about the belt of gar whom had lostone or both parents, joined bage dumps thatsurrounds the cityof Mexico" youthgangs and turnedto pettycrime to avert (ElNacionaT). El Universal referredto itstreat hunger (Covey61). With the dissolution of the ment of "a serious social problem"and cited its Empire,waves of immigrantsmoved to Britain "civic courage," and Mercedes Pinto called it "a fromthe colonies, and theytoo formedyouth sociological film"(El Avance). Octavio Paz, in gangs (Covey61). Throughoutthe Americas the essay he distributed inCannes, speaks of it as well, postwar emigrationto the big cities as "a social film" but then goes on to state cat led to a huge jump in juvenilegang violence, egorically that "it is not a documentary," argu whether inNew York or inMexico City.Critics ingthat instead itbelongs to the "passionate saw then thatLos olvidados involvedthe seri and ferocious" tradition of Goya and Posada, ous considerationof an issue (or set of issues, butwithout explaining exactly why thatheritage since the filmalso implicatedthe familyand precludes documentarystatus (10). the social structure)that was ofmuch concern On theother hand, although some English to theirsocieties and was much discussed by and North American reviewers described itas academic and government bodies. All these a pseudo- or semidocumentary, most tended

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This content downloaded from 128.95.104.66 on Sun, 14 Apr 2013 15:46:15 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions to accept itas partof thegenre. The headline declarations?and thathe simplywanted to tell inthe Manchester Post read "Originof Crime a story(see above). His commentsshow a real Exposed inMexican Film."Maude Miller interestin representingas faithfullyas possible compared itto theGriersonian documentary the social conditionsof childrenwho had been and wondered "where filmsof this nature, leftbehind by progress,but Bunuel obviously weightedwith so much sociological purpose, believed Los olvidados had to tella compelling fitin cinema entertainment"(Manchester Daily story ifits message was to reacha wide public. Dispatch). KennethTynan described itas a The message here is the same one we find in "sociological film"(Sight and Sound). Dilys all hismajor films:we do not live inthe best Powell saw itas "a filmdrawn not fromthe sub ofworlds; youmust at thevery least recognize conscious but fromthe police files" (Sunday this ("Cine" 186). Times). TheObserver noted that"its purpose is Michael Renovwrites thatthe domains of deadly serious." TheDaily Graphic called it"a fictionand nonfiction"inhabit one another" factual film," and Empire News, "a social docu (Theorizing3). This studyhas not attempted ment." DorothyWalker wrote thatafter seeing it to position Los olvidados on one or the other "people are sure to understand better the forc side of a divide, but ratherhas suggested that es thatbreed selfishness, brutalityand crime" a readingthat expands questions of genre to and called itan "expertlydone documentary" includethe social and cinematicmoments, (San FranciscoNews). The New Orleans States inMexico and the largerworld, when the film argued that"Every parent, every school teach was made and releasedwill provide us with a er, every social worker or welfare agency em deeper understandingand greaterappreciation ployee should see thispicture." Other reviews of this controversial work. gave the filma similar reading.Finally, the NOTES NationalMedical CorrectionalAssociation (US) held a special showingof the filmat itsannual 1. Up fordiscussion have been Bufiuel's sources, and of mate congress in 1951. The Secretary, Ralph S. Banay, funding, political agenda, manipulation rial, as well as the film's effect on its subject, the Hur commented inhis presentationthat the story danos. Recent studies include the collection of essays "has all the essentials of the film documentary that accompanied the 1999 exhibition on the film at a without ponderous editorialization." the InstitutValencia d'ArtModern (Tierra sin pan: Luis As we have seen, Bunuel himselfcreated Bunuel y los nuevos caminos de las vanguardias), 'Tierra the contextthat elicited this criticalresponse Merce Ibarz's Bunuel documental: sin pan'ysu tiempo, and Juan Carlos Ibanez Fernandez's "Elemen by repeatedlydescribing the filmas a docu tes para la contextualizacion historica de 'Tierra sin to the amount of research mentary,by referring pan': El documentalismo au service de la Revolution." intopolice reportsand reformatoryrecords that 2. The writer is using documentary, expository, and had gone into it,by insisting(both insideand nonfiction here quite loosely to indicate a film that that at least to some outside the film)"that it isall merely true,"28by foregrounds issues; is, extent, grounded on actual events; and that has a serious prominentlydisplaying the film's"institutional social purpose. In a few paragraphs appended to credentials" afterthe and it credits, by starting his "Autobiography" when he was looking forwork offwith thevoice-over thatsignals a nonfiction at the Museum of Modern Art, Bunuel spoke of his film.He also made a pointof hiringamateur or interest indocumentary. He divided the form into two the and the little-knownactors and of filmingextensively types: "descriptive" "psychological," which, "while both descriptive and objective, tries to on location. interpret reality." This type can express "love, sorrow, That this insistenceon the documentary and humor" and "it ismuch more complete, because natureof the filmwas partof a strategyfor besides illustrating, it ismoving" (256). This, too, is a a gettingLos olvidados past the censors and definition that leaves lotof latitude. Like Grierson, who defined his practice as "the creative treatment of into theaters is clear. Years later, Bunuel told actuality" (qtd. inWinston 11), Bunuel was unaware, De laColina and Perez Turrentthat he had no or indifferentto, the contradiction. interestin psychopedagogy?in spite of earlier

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This content downloaded from 128.95.104.66 on Sun, 14 Apr 2013 15:46:15 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 3. Aranda makes a forceful case for the documenta Pedro is sent on an outside errand, Jaibo seizes the ry interest of a wide range of Bunuel's films (116-18). money. Humiliated and infuriated by this loss, Pedro 4. See Clifford 121-27 and 145-46 fora discussion returns to his neighborhood and denounces his erst of surrealist ethnography. while friend. That night, Jaibo murders him, and a little 5. Unless otherwise indicated, all translations are later the police shoot down Jaibo. In the film's final mine. image, Pedro's body is tipped onto a garbage dump by 6. Roman Guburn and Paul Hammond fix the date people who are afraid of being involved. between May 1931 and June 1932 (63-64), but a letter 13. The majority of the interviews, reviews, and from Pierre Unikto Maurice Thorez, dated 30 January publicity notices cited here come from three folios of 1932, describes Bunuel as a member of the Spanish press clippings related to Los olvidados that are part Communist Party (Bibliotheque National, Paris, Nouv of the Archivo Bunuel, which JavierHerrera kindly Acq Fr 25094, Folios 33-35) made available to me at the Filmoteca Nacional Es 7.1 use quotation marks because a number of panola. I include as much information as is available these sequences were rigged. The death of the goat on the clippings, but inmany cases date and page (it tumbles dramatically off a cliff,not because of a number are missing. misstep, as the narrator suggests, but because itwas 14. Some of this was just showmanship. Years later, shot) is a case in point. when Bunuel was talking about researching the juve 8. As head of propaganda at the Republican em nile court files, Tomas Perez Turrent asked ifhe were bassy in Paris, he arranged a safe-conduct for Ivens interested in treating the reeducation of minors in the (Mi ultimo suspiro 194) and government financing for film, and he answered, "No. Iwas interested in find Malraux's film (De la Colina and Pe>ez Turrent 44). He ing characters and stories" (56). always insisted that his role inmaking Espaha leal en 15. For discussions of the very questionable claims armas was very limited (De la Colina and Perez Turrent to scientific truth that are part of the discourse of the 44). form, see especially Winston 127-249 and Renov 9. Similar in style and intentwere Hathaway's The "Introduction" and "Toward a Poetics." JavierHerrera House on 92nd Street (1945) and 13 Rue Madeleine and Breixo Viejo very generously provided me with (1946) ,which synthesize different actual incidents copies of some of the original location shots taken by into one story, and Kazan's Gentleman's Agreement Bunuel himself and held in the Archivo Bunuel at the (1947) ,which originated in fiction. Daryl F. Zanuck, Filmoteca. who produced all of these films forTwentieth Cen 16. For the effect of Flaherty's experiential stance, turyFox, had worked as a documentarist during the see Warren 4. There are numerous discussions of the war and was familiarwith location shooting (Lipkin assumption (both on the part of filmmakers and spec 14-15). tators) that documentary is transparent, that it is not a 10. As Marvin D'Lugo pointed out to me, the suc construction but a privileged view of the real. Roscoe cess of David Lean's Oliver Twist (1948) may also have 8-12 and Renov "Introduction" are particularly inter played a part in the decision to make a film about a esting. Arthur argues that even the most recent and gang of destitute children. self-conscious documentaries "manage to obviate the 11. This portion of Max Aub's interviewwith Ameri most self-contradictory tensions in the opposition of go is not included inConversaciones con Luis Bunuel, lived reality and tropes of presentation" (133) while but it's part of the taped interview and the transcript, they "continue to pivot on historically specific legiti which are both at the Fundaci?n MaxAub (Segorbe). mations of authenticity" (134). 12. The film concerns a gang of impoverished chil 17. This self-conscious gesture brings up the is dren livingon the outskirts of Mexico City. The leader, sue of mediation, only to suggest, deceptively, that Jaibo, has just escaped from the reformatory.With the the camera has caught a spontaneous, rather than help of Pedro, he lures Julian,whom he suspects of scripted, event. being a stool pigeon, to a deserted area and then mur 18. Bosley Crowther of the New York Times, for ders him. Pedro is horrified by the murder but does not example, complained "nor is any social solution even betray his friend. Jaibo is an orphan, and Pedro's only hinted." known parent, his mother, treats him harshly because 19. Both are combined in the figure of Pedro's he is the result of a rape. Inan effort to get in the good mother, who treats her other children with "tradi graces of his mother, Pedro findswork with a knife tional" motherly love and Pedro, the child of rape, sharpener, but Jaibo steals a knife from the shop, with a modern coldness, the product of fragmented and Pedro is accused of theft.Again he remains silent social circumstances. Her clothing?a rebozo and high about his friend's crime. His mother, overworked and heels?also speaks of this transitional moment. When angry, urges the police to punish Pedro. Instead, he is one critic attacked the high heels as unlikely, Bunuel taken to the Farm School, where he is treated kindly defended them as he did the brass beds. Again, the and an effort ismade to educate him. However, Jaibo, idea is that these touches are real rather than (or in fearful that Pedro may betray him, lies inwait. When addition to) metaphoric.

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This content downloaded from 128.95.104.66 on Sun, 14 Apr 2013 15:46:15 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 20. Bunuel would exploit this technique fully in Le REFERENCES Fantdme de la Liberte (1974), where apparently ca Acevedo Escobedo, Antonio. El Nacional. AB 12613. sual encounters lead to abrupt changes in narrative Filmoteca Madrid. direction. Espanola, Acevedo-Munoz, Ernesto R. Bunuel and Mexico: The 21. Miguel Incl?n (the Blindman) had a success Crisis National Cinema. U of California ful career. Stella Inda (the mother) had had leading of Berkeley: P, 2003. roles in numerous films but had disappeared from Aldecoa, Manuel. Interview. En torno a Bunuel. Ed the screen at the time of Los olvidados. Alfonso MejTa Marisol Carnicero and Daniel Sanchez Salas. (Manuel Aldecoa), who played Pedro, was greeted as Madrid: Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cin a new discovery, but he had several films behind him ematografkas de Espana, 2000.35-46. (Aldecoa 37-38). Alma Delia Fuentes (Meche) had Amerigo, Federico. Tape and transcript of interview by appeared in a number of films but had had only one Max Aub. 13 Mar. 1969. Bunuel material. Fundacion starring role, inGuardian, el perro Salvador (1950). Max Aub, Segorbe, Spain. Roberto Cobos (el jaibo) had a career as a nightclub Francisco. Luis Bunuel. Trans. David Robin dancer known as "Calambres." Aranda, J. son. London: Seeker and Warburg, 1975. 22. Numerous contemporary reviewers commented Arthur, Paul. "Jargons of Authenticity (Three American on the film's feeling of authenticity. The following is Moments)." Theorizing Documentary. Ed. Michael a sample. The critic for the New YorkWorld Telegram Renov. New York: and Sun wrote that the filmwas "so well directed that Routledge, 1993.108-34. Aub, Max. Conversaciones con Luis Bunuel. Madrid: you never suspect the director's hand. Itseems to Aguilar, 1985. be life itself directing." JohnMaddison inSight and Banay, Ralph S. Film presentation. Annual conference Sound comments on the pleasure of seeing young ac of National Medical Correctional Association. Bi tors behave as though theyweren't aware of the cam loxi,MS, 24 Oct. 1951. AB i2ioo:ioa,b,c. Filmoteca era and concludes that "Nothing here is synthetic or Madrid. coy or studio-bound." ForAntonio Acevedo Escobedo Espanola, Baxter, John.Bunuel. London: Fourth Estate, 1995. of El Nacional, "Life itselfbursts out on the screen." Bazin, Andre. What Is Cinema? 2 vols. Trans. Hugh 23. Inan interview, he alleged that "The best Ital Gray. Berkeley: U of California P, 1971. ian film, the most ambitious French production, has -. "Luis Bunuel." The Cinema of Cruelty. Ed. Fran a littlemoment when itbetrays pure realism. It's cois Truffaut.Trans. Sabine d'Estree. New York: because the opposite of Realism is Literature, the Seaver, commonplace that's taken forgranted, that no longer 1982.49-100. Bunuel, Luis. "Autobiography." An Unspeakable Be smells of life" ("jTiene un sueno realista!"). See also trayal. Trans. GarrettWhite. Berkeley: U of Califor "Cannes lo premio" and "Luis Bunuel y su obra." nia P, 2000. 245-57. 24. The script calls fora "close-up of the boy, who -. "Bunuel estima que 'Los olvidados' no tuvieron acts like a mad beast (his grimace shows a broken exito economico por haber sido lanzada equivoca tooth), and throws himself into the attack, lowering his damente." Interview by L.V.AB 12221:66. Filmoteca head and pointing his index fingers like horns" (19). Espanola, Madrid. 25. This is analogous to the pizzeria scene in The -. "Cannes lo premi?: Bunuel habla de su carrera Bicycle Thief(1948), but without the poignant tone. y su estetica." Interview by Juan B. Climent. Revista Bunuel combines outrage and humor. de America 24-25. AB i222i:83a,b. Filmoteca Es 26. Years later, in La Voie Lactee, another voice of panola, Madrid. god?this time Bunuel's actual voice?will sound on -. "El cine, instrumento de poesia." Luis Bunuel: the radio of a wrecked car, threatening evildoers with Obra literaria. Ed. Agustfn Sanchez Vidal. Zaragoza: hellfire and damnation. Heraldo de Aragon, 1982.181-86. 27. For some reason, there are no French reviews -. Los olvidados. Mexico: Ediciones Era, 1980. among the three folders of clippings related to Los -. "Los olvidados" (original typescript with hand olvidados thatwere part of Bunuel's personal collec written emendations). Archivo Bunuel. Filmoteca tion and that are now housed in the Filmoteca Nacio Espanola, Madrid. nal Espanola. Antonio Castro Leal, the Mexican rep -. "Luis Bunuel y su estrujante film." Interview by resentative to UNESCO, commented in an interview Rass?n. Novedades de la Pantalla 4 Oct. 1950. AB that social workers in France saw the film as "bearing 12221:8. Filmoteca Espanola, Madrid. witness to a French problem." -. "Luis Bunuel y su obra." Interview by Clara 28. Numerous English-language reviewers referred Montes. La Prensa (Mexico) 26 Nov. 1950. AB to this comment as part of the voice-over, although it 12613:20. Filmoteca Espanola, Madrid. does not appear inmore recent editions of the film. -. Mi ultimo suspiro. Trans. Ana Mana de la Fuente. Barcelona: Plaza y Janes, 1992.

30 JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO 57-4 / WINTER 2005 ?2005 BY THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

This content downloaded from 128.95.104.66 on Sun, 14 Apr 2013 15:46:15 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions -. Radio interview by Miguel Angel Mendoza. Tran Lejeune, C. J."Little Brutes." The Observer 5 May script of "Diario del Arte," Station XEB (Mexico). AB 1952. AB 12100:45. Filmoteca Espanola, Madrid. i26i3:73a,b,c. Filmoteca Espanola, Madrid. Lipkin, Steven N. Real Emotional Logic: Film and Tele -. "Sombnas declaraciones del discutido Bu vision Docudrama as Persuasive Practice. Carbon nuel." Interview by Diaz Ruanova. Claridades dale: Southern Illinois UP, 2002. 25 Feb. 1951. AB 12221:36. Filmoteca Espanola, Menendez Pelayo, Marcelino. Historia de los hetero Madrid. doxos espaholes. Mexico City: Porr?a, 1983.3 vols. -. "Testimonio." Los olvidados. By Luis Bunuel. Miller, Maud. "Where Will *X'Films Lead Us?" Man Mexico: Ediciones Era, 1980.7-8. chester Daily Dispatch 3 May 1952. AB 12100:66. -. "plene un sueno realista!" Interview. Esto Nichols, Bill. Introduction to Documentary. Blooming (Mexico) 4 Jan. 1951. AB 12613:61a. Filmoteca Espa ton: Indiana UP, 2001. nola, Madrid. -. Representing Reality. Bloomington: Indiana UP, Castro Leal, Antonio. "Nuestra m?sica y nuestro eine." 1991. Interview. 15 June 1952. AB 12221. Filmoteca Espa New Orleans States. 4 May 1952. AB 12100. Filmoteca nola, Madrid. Espanola, Madrid. Covey, Herbert C. Street Gangs throughout theWorld. Novedades. AB 12110:74. Filmoteca Espanola, Madrid. Springfield, IL:Charles C. Thomas, 2003. Paz, Octavio. "Testimonio." Los olvidados. By Luis Crowther, Bosley. "The Screen in Review." New York Bunuel. Mexico City: Ediciones Era, 1980.8-12. Times 25 Mar. 1952. AB 12100:21. Filmoteca Espa Perucho, Arturo. "'Los olvidados,' una pelfcula inov nola, Madrid. idable." El Nacional 21 Nov. 1950. AB 12613:49. Daily Graphic. "Ruthless Cruelty." 2 May 1952. AB Filmoteca Espanola, Madrid. 12100. Filmoteca Espanola, Madrid. Pinto, Mercedes. "Mercedes Pinto opina acerca de De la Colina, Jos? and Tom?s Perez Turrent. Luis 'Los olvidados.'" El Avance (Mexico) 23 Nov. 1950. Bunuel: Prohibido asomarse al interior.Mexico: J. AB 12221. Filmoteca Espanola, Madrid. Mortiz/Planeta, 1986. Platinga, Carl. Rhetoric and Representation in Nonfic Dieguito, Juan. "Gl?sas del cine." AB 1223:86. Filmo tion Film. New York: Cambridge UP, 1997. teca Espanola, Madrid. Powell, Dilys. "Horror and Pity." Sunday Times 6 May D'Lugo, Marvin. Conversation. May 2002. 1952. AB 12100. Filmoteca Espanola, Madrid. El Universal 9 Nov. 50. AB 12221. Filmoteca Espanola, Renov, Michael. "Rethinking Documentary: Toward a Madrid. Taxonomy of Mediation." Wide Angle 8.3-4 (1986): Empire News 6 May 1952. AB 12100. Filmoteca Espa 65-78. nola, Madrid. -, ed. Theorizing Documentary. New York: Rout Fernandez Ib?nez, Juan Carlos. "El documentalismo ledge, 1993. au service de la Revolution." Imogen, memoria y Roscoe, Jane. Faking It:Mock-Documentary and Its fascinaei?n: Notas sobre el documental en Espana. Subversion of Factionality. Manchester: Manchester Ed. Josep Mana Catal?, Josetxo Cerd?n, and Casi UP, 2001. mire Totteiro. Madrid: Ocho yMedio, 2001.155-66. Sanchez Vidal, Agustin. Luis Bunuel. Madrid: C?tedra, Gubern, Romln and Paul Hammond. "Bunuel, de 1994. l'Union libre au Front rouge." Positif 482 (April Tynan, Ken. "Movie Crazy." Sight and Sound May 2001): 63-67. 1951. AB 12100:10b. Filmoteca Espanola, Madrid. Guynn, William. A Cinema of Nonfiction. Rutherford: Unik, Pierre. Letter toMaurice Thorez. 30 Jan. 1932. Farleigh Dickinson P, 1990. Nouv. Acq. fr.25094, Folios 33-35. Bibliotheque Huerta, Efram. "Close-up de nuestro eine." Suple Nationale de France, Paris. mento de El Nacional 29 Apr. 1951. AB 12221:47. Valdes, Jaime. "Quienes obtuvieron los preciados 'Ari Filmoteca Espanola, Madrid. eles.'" AB 12221:65. Filmoteca Espanola, Madrid. Ibarz,Merce. Bunuel documental: "Tierra sin pan" Walker, Dorothy. "Delinquency Rim Realistic." San ysu tiempo. Zaragoza: Prensas Universitarias de Francisco News. AB 12100:66. Filmoteca Espanola, Zaragoza, 1999. Madrid. IVAM (InstitutValencia d'Art Modern). Tierra sin pan: Warren, Charles, ed. Beyond Document: Essays on Luis Bunuel y los nuevos caminos de las vanguar Nonfiction Film. Hanover: UP of New England, 1996. dias. Valencia: Generalit?t Valenciana, 1999. 3-15. Kolker, Robert Phillip. The Altering Eye: Contemporary Winston, Brian. Claiming the Real: The Documentary International Cinema. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1983. Film Revisited. London: BFI, 1995.

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