Bunuel And King Solomon's Table
(Bunuel y la Mesa Del Rey Salomon)

TIFF [2001]

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(Spain, 2001, 105 minutes)
Directed by Carlos Saura
Written by Carlos Saura, Agustin Sanchez Vidal
Cast: Gram Wyoming, Pere Arquillue, Ernesto Alterio, Adria Collado, Veleria Marini

Movie Review

The title might conjure images of Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone in another bargain-basement Golan-Globus production, but while this well-nigh unclassifiable adventure romp takes its cues from old time movie serials, writer director Carlos Saura's love letter to three giants of Spanish 20th century art is anything but throwaway schlock.

Luis Bunuel

The nagging thing is, I'm not sure WHAT it is. From the marathon of sponsorships "presenting" the film during its opening credits, I can only assume that this is some major cultural celebration, sponsored in part by the European Union's MEDIA programme. In America, they'd make "Tall Tale" with Patrick Swayze as Pecos Bill. In my homeland, the dry and overtly sincere "Canada: A People's History". In Spain, they'd send a poet, a filmmaker, and a painter on an elliptical adventure to locate a piece of supernatural furniture. Viva la difference...

Completely baffling from start to finish, but consistently entertaining nonetheless, "Bunuel And King Solomon's Table" begins with an aged Luis Bunuel -- the godfather of cinematic Surrealism and director of the infamous short "Un Chien Andalou" --conceiving a new film project in which he, as a young man, is accompanied by friends Frederico Garcia Lorca and Salvador Dali to in a search for the missing table of King Solomon, brought to Spain by the Ottoman Empire. We see the film unfold as "Bunuel" conceives it, but are always reminded of the artifice of its creation, as the three young actors assigned to portray the men prepare their performances. They scour Toledo in the 1930s for the artifact, said to grant its owner the ability to see the past, present, and future.

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An "adventure" that refuses to play by any rules, "Bunuel" has moments of delightfully Pythonesque absurdity, and will likely resonate better to anyone familiar with the works (and lives) of executed poet Lorca, painter Dali, and filmmaker Bunuel (I caught the nods to his "Un Chien Andalou" and, I think, "The Milky Way", but most others went right past me). Director Carlos Saura was a friend and contemporary of Luis Bunuel, and delights in lampooning the filmmaker's reputation and persona, such as the moment in which a film critic shows up to condemn Bunuel's works as pretentious, only to be hauled offscreen by two asylum workers. No mere modest "art" film, it's also a lavish romp, offering imaginative CGI vistas right out of Dali's paintings, and a very cool giant robot that bears more than a passing resemblance to "Maria" from Fritz Lang's "Metropolis".

Again, it didn't make a stretch of sense, but maybe that's the point. I appreciated the opportunity to see a film that will be lucky to find a one-week Cinematheque run in North America -- which is why I frequent the TIFF in the first place...

- Robert L

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