- Actors: Simone Signoret, Georges Marchal, Charles Vanel, Michel Piccoli, Tito Junco
- Directors: Luis Buñuel
- Writers: Luis Buñuel, Gabriel Arout, José-André Lacour, Luis Alcoriza, Raymond Queneau
- Producers: David Mage, Léon Carré
- Format: NTSC
- Language French
- Subtitles: English
- Region: All Regions
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 1.66:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Classification: Unrated (US MPAA rating. See details.)
- Studio: Microcinema
- DVD Release Date: 27 Oct 2009
- Run Time: 104 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B002IXBUE2
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 96,143 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
A very good movie of Bunuel's mexican period. This movie contains one of the early appereancies of Michel Piccoli in the role of a missionaire in a south american village. The last half hour where the fugitives wander into the jungle is pure surrealism, there are at least three classic scenes.
Two interviews (Michel Piccoli, Victor Fuentes) & audio commentary. Booklet
Audio: French & spanish with optional english subtitles
region 0 NTSC
Two interviews (Michel Piccoli, Victor Fuentes) & audio commentary. Booklet
Audio: French & spanish with optional english subtitles
region 0 NTSC
Format:DVD
In an unidentified South American country, the corrupt government confiscates all diamond mines from private ownership which causes a revolution. A small band of fugitives: an adventurer (Georges Marchal), a prostitute (Simone Signoret), a priest (Michel Piccoli), a miner (Charles Vanel) and his deaf mute daughter (Michele Girardon) escape down the river and into the jungle where they struggle to survive. One of the least seen and discussed of Luis Bunuel's films, it's easy to see why. Not that it's bad, quite the contrary, it's very good but it doesn't fit easily into the Bunuel canon. On the surface, it's a colorful (shot in Eastman color) jungle adventure seemingly not all that different from its Hollywood brethren. Quite different from the irreverently playful Bunuel that would dominate the 1960s art houses. But it's characters are all highly flawed, some physically and some morally and some psychologically. Bunuel's bleak ending and possible symbolism (I'm not sure but Piccoli's priest seems to be some kind of Christ figure) separate it from the glossy jungle adventures Hollywood was grinding out in the 1950s. A warning: there's actual animal cruelty (not simulated) in the film so be prepared.
The DVD courtesy of Transflux is a handsome, sharp and colorful transfer in its 1.33 aspect ratio.
The DVD courtesy of Transflux is a handsome, sharp and colorful transfer in its 1.33 aspect ratio.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
One of the ten greatest films ever made; WHERE'S THE dvD?
22 Jan 2001
I love most of Bunuel's films but "Death In the Garden" is definitely my absolute favorite, ahead of "Los Olvidados," and even "Viridiana." This film is as close to perfection as you can get, even though some critics like to call it a 'flawed' film. The 'flaws' in this film are further aspects of its pefection, if you ask me. It has its lunatic elements and a few supernatural angles like all Bunuel films, but it also showcases the 'romantic' side of the man too often labeled a pessimist. The totally 'amoral' yet not unadmirable Georges Marchal character "Shark" is the closest thing to an Yves Montand/Wages-of-Fear type 'hero' Bunuel ever got. What can I tell you? SEE THIS FILM, IT'S A MASTERPIECE. On the surface "Death in the GArden" is a "Wages of Fear" like adventure story (Charles Vanel from Clouzot's masterpiece is one of the main characters) where a bunch of people are put under pressure and forced to work together and survive. The people putting the pressure on are the military 'fascists' not the industrialist-fascists of "Wages of Fear." The story happens in a South American state, where a bunch of Diamond miners are being chased out by the corrupt military government. When a small-scale civil war breaks out, the leaders of the rebels become hunted men, and they have to escape by boat, ending up in a rain-soaked amazon jungle trying to get to Brazil. The characters have to cooperate and survive under an increasingly hopeless situation and reveal fascinating aspects of themselves in the process. There are no moral black and whites, of course, no steretypes either, but only a dynamically evolving morality shaded in different grays leaning toward the black here, toward the white there. You come to have a deep level of sympathy with almost every main character in the film, even Simone Signoret's avaricious Madame, but only after examining them as totally flawed human beings capable of many bizzare deeds, some admirable, others despicable, etc. The film has everything that makes greatness, layers and more layers: deep characters, adventure, action, pessimism, romanticism, eroticism, hilariously absurd farcical scenes, identification with religion while remaining anticlerical, a complete lack of sentimentality, fantastic color cinematography (very lush and colorful, almost Renoir-like, and unlike most of Bunuel's other color films), unbelievably great acting by Georeges Marchal, Simone Signoret, Charles Vanel, and a young Michel Piccoli, it even has a beautiful young deaf girl whose long hair gets stuck in a tree! What more could you want? Maltin must be out of his mind to give this film only 3 stars!
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
not a cheat
13 Jan 2010
Format:DVD
Just to correct another reviewer's error, this DVD is not a cheat, it's perfectly good. The film was shot in 1.37, not 1.66, and is presented properly.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Evil Eden
9 May 2010
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
A very good movie of Bunuel's mexican period. This movie contains one of the early appereancies of Michel Piccoli in the role of a missionaire in a south american village. The last half hour where the fugitives wander into the jungle is pure surrealism, there are at least three classic scenes.
Two interviews (Michel Piccoli, Victor Fuentes) & audio commentary. Booklet
Audio: French & spanish with optional english subtitles
region 0 NTSC
Two interviews (Michel Piccoli, Victor Fuentes) & audio commentary. Booklet
Audio: French & spanish with optional english subtitles
region 0 NTSC
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