L’âge d’or

What begins as a nature film about scorpions quickly leads into precisely composed and increasingly radical sequences of images and scenes, some of which are still shocking today. The passion of two lovers, which first arouses the anger and then the resistance of society, church, and police, forms a starting point for this central work of cinematic surrealism. Skeletons clad in bishop’s regalia, savage insults by passers-by, a cow in bed, children who have been shot and crucified toupees are just some of the subversive metaphors and symbols that Buñuel and his co-writer Salvador Dali found for the repressive social order and rigid sexual morals. The censors were provoked, and the film wasn’t shown in France for decades. (mg)