Luis Buñuel has said: “every object obscures another”. In Death in the Garden (1956) the dwellings of illegal diamond-hunters is surrounded by rainforest. As the army arrives to demand their rights, the first part of the film develops into a jungle of political and social contradictions. In the second part, five people have ended up in the roadless rainforest, whose density with all its flora and fauna is almost too much for the five fugitives with no outdoor skills.. The atmosphere is defined by meteorology. Heat, humidity and solar altitude are finely connected with despair and approaching insanity. The soundtrack features no music. It is filled with natural sounds – in the night, a curious cry resembling a loon is heard. A river runs through the forest, as it should in a jungle film. Buñuel does not let his admirers down. The camera trains in on shoes, hands are shown manipulating objects as if they were relics, one member of the party is a missionary, a visit is paid to a church, an eye is punctured, and the ants. No film by Buñuel ended up in the top-100 of Sight and Sound’s 2022 poll of greatest films. Interesting, but first and foremost curious! (Timo Vesala)
Language: French, subtitles: English