Los Olvidados (1950)

 Luis Bunuel's "Los Olvidados"

After making the lauded "L'Age d'Or" in 1930, it would take another 20 years for Luis Bunuel to make his next film. He spent that 20 years doing various thing in various industries. In 1933, he made a documentary called "Land without Bread," which some consider to be the very first example of a 'mockumentary,' in which Bunuel matches scenes of deplorable social conditions with narration that resembles travelogue commentary delivered by a detached-sounding announcer. From 1933 to 1934, he worked in the Parisian dubbing department of Paramount Pictures. After getting married in 1934, he moved to Madrid, dubbing Warner Brothers films for Spanish audiences. When the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, he cataloged Republican propaganda films for the Spanish government. After travelling to the United States in 1938 to assist with films being made about the Spanish Civil War, he was unable to return to Spain after the Fascists had seized power. He stayed in the U.S. from 1938 to 1945, where he worked for the Museum of Modern Art on a production team for the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs. After being called out for formerly being a member of the Communist Party, he moved to Mexico, where he began to make his own films for the first time in many years. 

One of the films he made in Mexico, "Los Olvidados," became what many consider to be the greatest Mexican film of all time. It tells the story of impoverished teens living in Mexico City, who terrorize their neighborhood. These street urchins brutalize a blind man, assault a legless man, steal from everyone, and even one boy, el Jaibo, commits acts of murder. Bunuel showcases the slums of Mexico City unflinchingly, demonstrating a dog-eat-dog reality of impoverished life. Because of this, it is one of Bunuel's darkest films. The lead teen boy, Pedro, attempts to do better for himself, but is punished. Pedro ends up killed an thrown into a trash heap at the end of the film, which was inspired by a real life news story Bunuel encountered in his research of Mexico City's rural areas.

The filmmaking style of "Los Olvidados" was partially inspired by the Italian neo-realist movement, as it was marked by "outdoor locations, nonprofessional actors, low budget production, and a focus on the working classes." However, as Bunuel would later iterate, "Los Olvidados" is not a neo-realist film. Despite being mostly adherent to the neo-realist ideals, the film does contain many scenes of Bunuel-style surrealism. One of these notable scenes is Pedro's dream sequence in which his mother is moving slow-motion towards him in his bed. Underneath his bed lies the dead boy that Jaibo killed earlier in the film. Bunuel achieved the dreamlike effect of this scenes by filming the scene in reverse and switching it in post-production. My personal favorite surrealist occurrence in the film happens when Pedro is acting out against his rehabilitation program by smashing their eggs. He takes one of the eggs and looks straight into the camera, throwing the egg against the lens, leaving the gelatinous ooze on the lens for a few moments. These surrealist elements heighten the 'realism' to move elevated degrees of subjectivity and allows the film to match the irreverence of its teen characters.

Bunuel does not pull any punches in the film. The characters are not romanticized and commit horrible acts for no apparent reason. Even their victims are not romanticized, as they are often just as terrible as the children themselves. Bunuel demonstrates how these impoverished people live dog-eat-dog lives and their poverty only creates this inherent need. However, many Mexicans, including producer Oscar Dancigers, felt the film was an insult to Mexico and portraying Mexicans in a derogatory way. Dancigers even added an intro at the beginning of the film emphasizing that many cities, including New York and Paris, hide unruly and malnourished children and that Mexico City is no exception. The audience reaction was that of disgust. After the premiere, painter Frida Kahlo refused to speak to Bunuel and the wife of poet Leon Felipe had to be restrained from physically attacking Bunuel. The reception was so poor that Dancigers withdrew the film from theaters after only three days. However, after Bunuel won Best Director at the 1951 Cannes Film Festival, the film was recirculated in Mexico where it was perceived not as insult to Mexico, but rather as an artistic depiction of their harsh realities. The reception after this tilted newfound understanding was enthusiastic and Bunuel was skyrocketed to worldwide fame as the most important Spanish-speaking film director in the world.