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L'Age d'Or

Director: Luis Buñuel
Year: 1930
Run-time: 1 hr 3 min
Source: Kanopy

Notable For: This is Buñuel's second film, also a collaboration with Dali.  It's also considerably longer than Un Chien Andalou, and while it's still dream-like in the surrealist tradition, it's more thematically coherent.  Specifically, it takes aim at Catholic and bourgeois values, specifically sexual mores.  It's very deliberately provocative, especially the ending, although as with the previous film it's difficult to decipher any particular message.  However, it was enough to get it attacked by right-wing mobs and eventually even banned.

Verdict: As with the last film, it's not easy to judge, since it evades any obvious analysis.  The two films are certainly enjoyable in their own way, and despite the greater length I had no trouble paying attention.  The second film lacks some of the stranger images that Un Chien Andalou conjures up, but it makes up for it by putting together a haphazard and bizarre story that makes a kind of sense.  As a satire, though, I honestly wouldn't say it has much in the way of teeth, just a total apathy towards the system.
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