The Milky Way – Criterion OOP

Two tramps going on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, meet different christian heresies. They meet too the Marquis of Sade.


The first of what Luis Bunuel later proclaimed a trilogy (along with The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Phantom of Liberty) about "the search for truth," The Milky Way (La voie lactée) daringly deconstructs contemporary and traditional views on Catholicism with ribald, rambunctious surreality. Two French beggars, present-day pilgrims en route to Spain's holy city of Santiago de Compostela, serve as Bunuel's narrators for an anticlerical history of heresy, told with absurdity and filled with images that rank among Bunuel's most memorable (stigmatic children, crucified nuns) and hilarious (Jesus considering a good shave). A diabolically entertaining look at the mysteries of fanaticism, The Milky Way remains a hotly debated work from cinema's greatest skeptic


Overview
One of the less celebrated films of Luis Bunuel valedictory run of art-house hits from the Sixties and Seventies, La Voie Lactee (aka The Milky Way) has been one of the hardest titles from this period of Bunuel's career to see, but the Criterion Collection have come to the rescue with this fine DVD release of the movie. The Milky Way has been transferred to disc in its original European widescreen aspect ratio of 1.66:1, which is letterboxed on conventional televisions and enhanced for anamorphic playback on 16x9 monitors. The image is sharp and clean throughout, and Christian Matras's camerawork looks splendid on disc. The audio has been mastered in Dolby Digital Mono, preserving the original mix, and the film sounds fine, if not unusually strong. The dialogue is in French, with optional English subtitles but no multiple language options. This DVD has been augmented with plenty of relevant bonus features, including a short interview with co-screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere, an appreciation of the film by critic Ian Christie (who also discusses the theological and historical basis behind many of the sequences), the film's original European trailer, and a short documentary on Bunuel and The Milky Way, Luis Bunuel: Atheist Thanks To God. The accompanying booklet also includes short essays on the picture from Carlos Fuentes and Mark Polizzotti and excerpts from an interview from the mid-Seventies in which Bunuel talks about The Milky Way and his fascination with heretics. Criterion's release of The Milky Way proves once again that they're the leaders in definitive editions of classic European cinema, and Bunuel fans will love this set.