The Films of Luis Buñuel: Subjectivity and Desire

This is a major new study of the films of Luis Buñuel, Surrealist scourge of the bourgeoisie and enduring influence on European cinema. Uniquely, the book offers an extended analysis of Buñuel’s films in the context of contemporary debates in film studies, focusing in particular on questions of subjectivity and desire. Throughout, Buñuel’s films are viewed as both the brilliant, subversive expressions of the director’s fantasies and obsessions and as reflections of wider cultural norms and preoccupations. Making use of psychoanalysis and gender theory, Peter William Evans explores Buñuel’s characteristic thematics of transgression and his status as exile or outsider. The whole range of his work is discussed, from the critically neglected ‘bread and butter’ Mexican melodramas of the 1950s to such classics of European cinema as The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, That Obscure Object of Desire, and Belle de Jour. Accessible, lively, and compelling, The Films of Luis Buñuel provides a much needed revaluation of one of the world’s greatest filmmakers.