Simon of the Desert
| Simon of the Desert | |
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| Directed by | Luis Buñuel |
| Produced by | Gustavo Alatriste |
| Screenplay by |
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| Story by | Luis Buñuel |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Raul Lavista |
| Cinematography | Gabriel Figueora |
| Edited by | Carlos Savage, Jnr. |
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Production
company |
Gustavo Alatriste
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Release date
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Running time
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45 minutes |
| Country | Mexico |
| Language | Spanish Latin |
Simon of the Desert (Spanish: Simón del desierto) is a 1965 film directed by Luis Buñuel. It is loosely based on the story of the ascetic 5th-century Syrian saint Simeon Stylites, who lived for 39 years on top of a column.
Simon of the Desert is the third (after Viridiana and The Exterminating Angel) of three movies that Buñuel had made starring Claudio Brook and Silvia Pinal and produced by her then-husband Gustavo Alatriste. Today it is generally acclaimed by film critics.
Simón, the son of Simeon Stylites, has lived for 6 years, 6 weeks and 6 days atop an eight-meter pillar in the middle of the desert, praying for spiritual purification. A congregation of priests and peasants salute him and offer him a brand new pillar to stand on and carry on his mission. He comes down from the pillar and is offered the priesthood, but refuses because he considers himself unworthy, and forsakes his aging mother for the love of God before climbing up his new pillar. He heals an amputee missing both hands, whose first use of them is to slap his child. But the congregation quickly departs unimpressed, leaving Simón alone.
Time goes by and Simón meets a number of regular characters – a handsome priest whom he condemns on grounds of vanity, a dwarf herder, and his mother, who comes to live close to him but remains neglected of his attention. A woman (Silvia Pinal), Satan, visits him three times: first as an innocent girl chanting curses in Latin, second disguised as Jesus. She constantly tries to make Simón give up his task and climb down from the pillar, but he refuses every time. She even possesses one of the priests that visit him, who is consequently exorcised by the other priests.
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Wikipedia