Simon of the Desert

Buy This Item Simon of the Desert by Henstooth Video  Available from Amazon  $29.95  on 11-25-2008     "Simon of the Desert" impressed me as a comment on the relativity of piety to the depravation of one's surrounding. We see a very pious man who willfully sacrifices all worldly comforts in order to reach his "people" with his message of the challenges of faith. There are a lot of satirical quips here and there along with a variety of characters. One can get to enjoy Bunuel's farcical approach. However, I was absorbed in what I understood his message to be. When Simon finds himself transported to the modern day world, he becomes a different man; one who is above all the crassness of his surroundings yet far more involved in worldly pleasures than the man in the desert. Thus I hear Bunuel saying that it's not so much to sacrifice worldly pleasures when one has so few to give up. True reverence is when one has such a large tonnage of temptations to overcome. It may seem blasphemous to many but I believe Bunuel is also suggesting a greater appreciation for the modern-day religious zealots who seem to have such higher mountains to climb. Could this be a statement of his own struggle with Christianity as a younger man? Is he saying that the Simon at the end is just as pious as the Simon at the beginng?.relatively speaking, that is. Reader Reviews This 1965 film is not even a metaphor, certainly not a parody, but a full denunciation of religious medieval asceticism. We will pass the allusions to Jesus and his forty days in the desert. We will pass the hypocrisy of all those who come to the foot of the column to get the force Simon is supposed to conquer by his personal sacrifice that does not cost much to these hypocrites. The morbidity of this long description of years in the desert and temptations from Satan are finally ridiculed by projecting this ascetic monster into the younger generation of 1965 dancing the twist or some other crazy dance. He is the one who sits at a table, smokes his cigarette but does not dance. In other words he is the Fool who will never get the Fun and will Fancy he is Free and Famous if not Funny whereas he is nothing but F***D up. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

Simon of the Desert Available from Amazon Price: $29.95 Updated on 11-25-2008.

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