Michael_Elliott Nazarin (1958) *** (out of 4) Luis Bunuel's "religious" film about a good hearted priest (Francisco Rabal) who does anything he can to help sinners but this might cause his fall from grace. I don't normally mind Bunuel's overbearing religious stances but this film got on my nerves. Technically speaking it's well made and has a good performance by Rabal but it goes too over the top with its speeches about good and evil. The priest is just showed way too good and everyone else is just showed way too bad. The good vs. bad aspect just seems too false for me to take the film too serious.

birthdaynoodle I love the absurdity and biting humor of Buñuel's surrealist films (such as "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" and "The Exterminating Angel", to name two). Other, earlier works (like "The Forgotten Ones", about juvenile delinquents from a marginal neighborhood in Mexico) are more serious and provide a strong social message.However, I believe it is "Nazarin" which most successfully shoots for the heart of the viewer. While it's true that it's brimming with irony, it nevertheless reveals an aspect of Buñuel which would appear to be intrigued by the beauty and solemnity of the spiritual quest. Here, while the director (quite typically) throws countless jabs at the Catholic Church, he also appears to show, surprisingly, a sense of admiration for genuine Christian thought and its practice of selfless love."What?? Luis Buñuel unabashedly praising a Jesus-like figure??" I always thought of him as a completely cynical artist without a trace of faith in human virtue... that is, until I watched "Nazarin". My appreciation is that he satirically exposes the difficulty of following Christ's example in a society infested with meanness, ignorance and sin; but he also presents the hero, Father Nazario, as quite the beacon of light amidst a sea of darkness. Without a doubt, by the end of the film I was looking up to him and not down on him! Some would argue that Father Nazario's doubts regarding his faith point to the loss of his saintly values. (Alas, if he can't do good in this world, who can?) But I would say that this "flaw", his frustration, precisely makes his character all the more heroic, because it shows how human he is and how challenging his struggle within must be. And who says the priest couldn't eventually emerge from that "dark night" and regain his confidence? Perhaps we've only been presented with a difficult part of his spiritual journey. The elegant, open ending allows us to imagine ourselves what the final outcome of the story might be like.I recognize in Buñuel the aggressive, self-professed atheist endowed with brilliant wit and social awareness; but after having watched "Nazarin", I also sense from him a certain warmth, a depth and maturity that's not so evident in his other work.For the sake of contrast, I strongly recommend watching afterward his short film "Simon of the Desert" (also made in Mexico, several years later). It deals with a similar subject matter – the surrender of the ego in the face of temptation –, only it does so in a hysterically funny and totally irreverent style.

Andres Cardenas When you look at Mexico's best movies you will more than likely find that the Photography was performed by Gabriel Figueroa. He is recognized in the world as one of the best that have ever existed. His master control of the cameras gave an added asset to the movies he was part of. If added to his participation we add the direction of Luis Bunuel, you will never find such a pair of aces anywhere else in the world. This story, Nazarin, was written by Spain's greatest writer besides Miguel de Cervantes(Don Quijote de la Mancha). The story in itself is superb: Nazarin a priest that lives by his beliefs tries to live a very Christian life, but as always there are people that do not accept this. He wanders through many places preaching his Christianity but finding, most of the time, people that do not accept him. But besides the splendid story, it is always interesting to try to interpret the enigmatic messages that Bunuel sends us throughout the picture in scenes that make you shiver.

zetes Luis Bunuel has always been a filmmaker whose work was obscure to me. My first experience with him was The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeosie, often considered his greatest work, with which I became so frustrated and bored that I eventually shut the tape off. Likewise Belle de Jour, which is almost certainly his best known film and also generally considered one of his many masterpieces, didn't interest me very much at all. I didn't hate it like I did Discreet, but I didn't like it. Third, I saw L'Age d'Or. Finally, I had gotten somewhere. Fourth, Los Olvidados, also good. Still, neither L'Age d'Or nor Los Olvidados blew me away. Great films, but not masterpieces. Nazarin is my fifth Bunuel, and I like it just a tad more than those other two. It is about a priest from Spain now in Mexico who refuses to live in the kind of luxury most priests live in. He wants to be more like Jesus, leading the meekest life possible. He's also willing to forgive everyone for anything, and to suffer without protest. I'm pretty sure Bunuel does not sympathize with the character, and sees him as rather self-righteous. However, I only assume that because of my knowledge of the director, whose most famous quotation is "Thank God, I'm still an atheist," which he apparently said in an interview over this very film (I get this information from John Baxter's book about Bunuel, if you're interested). The interviewer who dragged those words from Bunuel's mouth must have been himself confused about Nazarin. One who was more predisposed to believe in religious conviction, who also knows nothing about Bunuel, might see the priest as a heroic figure. This is especially true if that viewer has his/her own criticisms of organized religion. The priest may be somewhat self-righteous, but he seems to be basically a good man. When he harbors a violent prostitute in his room in order to protect her (and, presumably, to save her soul), people begin to find out and assume that their relationship is sexual. His superiors assume the same and punish him for it. Later on, he suffers even worse punishments from clerics.