Death in the Garden (La mort en ce jardin)
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Written by Luis Alcoriza, Luis Buñuel, and Raymond Queneau from a novel by José-André LaCour
1956/France/Mexico
Dismage/Producciones Tepeyac
“If I can’t dance to it, it’s not my revolution.” ― Emma Goldman
The combination of Luis Buñuel, Simone Signoret, and Charles Vanel sounded irresistible. I couldn’t get into this though.
The setting is an unnamed South American country bordering on Brazil. Prospectors have been mining for diamonds near a village. The provincial government’s men come in and announce that the land belongs to the government and the miners have one day to pull out. This sparks a revolt that is brutally surpressed.
In the meantime, Shark (Georges Marchal), a handsome crook, comes to town looking for a room with a bed. Someone points him to a room which he finds unoccupied so he settles in. It turns out that this is the home of prostitute Djin (Signoret). When he wakes up he finds her in his bed. But relations don’t stay cordial for long as she turns him in to the police for a bank robbery in another town.
The other story in the background is that of Castin (Vanel). He is an elderly saloon keeper with a crippled daughter. He has been mining on the side to get money to return to France. He is innocently in love with Djin and asks her to marry him. She thinks this is hilarious until she finds out about his money. The final important character is priest Father Lizzardi (Michel Piccoli) who tries to keep everyone on the straight and narrow without much success.
All these people end up fleeing for their lives down the river to Brazil. They become trapped in the jungle with no food. The rest of the film follows their adventures.
This sounded good to me and still sounds like it should be good. But I could not get involved in the story, nor did it amuse me in true Buñuelean fashion. There’s nothing actually wrong with it though.
