Simon of the Desert (1965)

This is a 43-minute black-and white short film written and directed by Luis Buñuel in his 60s at this point already. It is about a very religious and humble almost prophet-like man who looks apparently a lot older than he actually is because of his long beard and also than the actor who plays him.. When we see him transformed near the end, he looks entirely different and much younger. Anyway, we witness this man's (Claudio Brook's) interactions with all kinds pf people, including the devil in the human form of a blonde woman who exposes herself repeatedly in order to lure the man into sin. Brook was a fairly prolific actor and this can also be said about several of the other actors in here, even if they are probably completely unknown outside the Spanish-speaking parts of America. Oh yeah, with regard to that, you will also need subtitles to understand what's going on if you are not fluent in the language. Finally, I felt that this movie looks even older than from 50 years ago. All in all, I did not enjoy it too much. It had its moments, but all in all I found it underwhelming. Not recommended.

Simon del Desiert is a very religious based movie with a new meaning to keeping the faith, because in this film you follow a man named Simon who is a top a pillar proving his loyalty to the lord, claiming that he has been full of sin all his life and wants to be forgiven to be good servant of the lord. Throughout Simon's journey to becoming a man of free sin life, he is faced with a few challenges. Such challenges are that of trying not to eat or drink much water, only drink and eat when it is necessary and of what he can eat, is the "plants of life", no meat or dairy. Another challenge that Simon will cross, is a women who is claimed as the "devil" this woman tries to seduce Simon into giving into his male needs, Simon stays strong the women tries to undress and everything, but Simon will stay strong even after all her attempts to seduce him. Simon will remaining strong standing atop his pillar, gets betrayed by one of his fellow worshipers, because they stuck dairy products and meat inside of his food supply to make it look like he has been sneaking around with extra food. Simon refuses to have taken part in that and says the man can be forgiven for sins, until the man bursts into foaming out the mouth and falling over dead where he stood, with a bag of golden landing on the ground out of his robe. Although this movie has a very twisted ending, as we follow Simon he is talking about being free and sinful, but then we the movie takes us for a spin and shows the real Simon with the girl who kept appearing as the devil, they were in a nightclub, drinking and smoking. Therefore, this movie kind of shows two sides the "true" way to follow the religion or the hypocritical way.

Luis Buñuel's 1965 film named Simon del Desiert is a strongly religious film that involves a man who preaches to God for over 39 years on the top of a column. Was the winner of the FIPRESCI Prize as well as the Special Jury Prize, and nominated for the Golden Lion award all in the Venice Film Festival. Tis film is about a very deeply religious man, named Simon, who wants to be closer to God, so he climbs on top of a column and preaches there. But the Devil spends her time trying to get him to stop and get him to go back down to earth and try to seduce him. She goes to him with many different disguises such as an old witch, or a young teenager, or many other different disguises including God himself. And he always retaliated and kept preaching, and at the end the devil takes him to the future at a club and the movie ends that way. This movie is a Dramatic comedy with history in it. The movie is filmed in black and white and the characters speak in Spanish. The movie's setting is in a desert somewhere that isn't specified at all. Buñuel uses this film to criticize the Catholic Church for what he views are hypocritical teachings and practices that are done by Catholics. Actually the entire film can be and will be considered a mockery of the Catholic Church and those who carelessly follow it teachings for no reason. This shouldn't be confused with him criticizing religion in general as Simon is presented as a virtuous man whose attempts at reparation seems to not be fully understood by those who follow him. This film is directed pretty well and for the most part has a clear message. This film overall was fairly decent and was bizarre mostly.

When this film started I had no idea where it was going, but I became quickly sucked into its fascinating plot line. It is truly a unique film, and I almost didn't even know what to think of it. Extremely surreal in its subtle religious message, it held my attention for its sadly short time span. It comes across something of a parable to me. You have a man who insists on being extremely sacrificial for God, and then you have the devil who continually comes to tempt him. He is almost a Jesus figure. Then, of course, things get very surreal and mixed up and he is lost to a world that he cannot control. It's almost as though Luis Bunuel is saying no one can stay truly pure in a society that constantly bombards its public with sin. He was obviously rather pessimistic about the state of the 60's. But it's very ingenious how he does about this. Simon is up on a pedestal for the entire film. He seemingly can't be touched. But what he doesn't realize is that just because he places himself out of the reach of the devil doesn't mean that "she" can't simply follow him up there. He separates himself physically but it's not enough to separate him emotionally. Personally I have more hope for human kind and the power that god has over us, but I certainly must respect how this director can translate a message on film into a true artistic statement. An idea like that takes true guts to go about making. It's a film that was destined from the start to make no money and fade quickly from the public eye. But it is also a gem of a film that will someday hopefully be rediscovered for a man of genius. One willing to go against the norm.