The Legendary Master of Surrealist Cinema.
Features: DVD, Unrated, English, Subtitled, Spanish
Spanish auteur Luis Bunuel graced the world of cinema with his surrealist visuals and existential concepts throughout half of the twentieth conteury. This Luis Bunuel 2-Disc Collector's Edition contains two of his finest films: GRAN CASINO and LA JOVEN.GRAN CASINO: Set in the early 1900s, Bunuel's surprisingly mainstream and riveting romantic melodrama is the powerful tale of two escaped convicts, Gerardo (Jorge Negrete) and Demetrio (Julio Villarreal), who convince and Argentinean oil magnate to let them work on his rig. When he suddenly disappears, his sister (Libertad Lamarque) immediately suspects the two workers of foul play, but her attraction to Gerardo soon leads her to secretly team up with him to conduct their own murder investigation. LA JOVEN: One of only two films shot by Bunuel in English, this provocative film is a mesmerizing story of a power, deception and manipulation set on a remote island off the Carolina coast. Falsely accused of a crime and on the run, an African/American musician (Bernie Hamilton) crosses paths with the island's game warden, a prejudiced man (Zachary Scott) determined to win the love of a naive teenage girl who instead shows affection for the fugitive.
"[Casino] ...moves along at a brisk pace and has more oomph than the popular John Wayne or Roy Rogers or Gene Autry westerns of its time." Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Editor's Note
GRAN CASINO: A classic of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, GRAN CASINO was directed by legendary Spanish filmmaker Luis Bunuel, in one of his rare excursions into purely mainstream film. In the early 1900s, Gerardo (Jorge Negrete) and Demetrio convince an Argentinean oil magnate to hire them, despite being escaped convicts. However, their attempt to blend in and lead new lives is complicated when their employer disappears, only to be replaced by his beautiful sister Mercedes. Mercedes suspects Gerardo and Demetrio of wrongdoing, perhaps even murder, in connection to her brother's vanishing, but is distressed by her growing attraction to the handsome Gerardo. GRAN CASINO is romantic melodrama as only the Mexican classical cinema could do it. THE YOUNG ONE: A black New Orleans jazz musician flees to a remote coastal island in order to escape the wrath of a lynch mob. While hiding out on the island, he befriends a young white girl, much to the distrust of the island's sherriff, who is secretly involved with the girl. Once a search party from the mainland arrives to escort the musician back, the delicate veneer of trust which existed between the musician and the sherriff is shattered, and the sherriff must confront the truths about his crime, and more importantly, his own depraved nature.
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