The Milky Way

The first of what Luis Buñuel 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 lactee) 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 Buñuel's narrators for an anticlerical history of heresy, told with absurdity and filled with images that rank among Buñuel'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.

France
1969
101 minutes
Color
1.66:1
French
Spine #402

Special Features

New, restored high-definition digital transfer
Video introduction by screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière
New video interview with film scholar Ian Christie
Luis Bunuel: Atheist Thanks to God, a documentary featuring several of Bunuel's close friends and collaborators
New and improved English subtitle translation
Original theatrical trailer
PLUS: New essays by Carlos Fuentes and Mark Polizzotti, and an interview with Luis Bunuel

New cover by Gonzalo Garcia Barcha

DVD 1 Disc Out Of Print SRP: $29.95

Special Features

New, restored high-definition digital transfer
Video introduction by screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière
New video interview with film scholar Ian Christie
Luis Bunuel: Atheist Thanks to God, a documentary featuring several of Bunuel's close friends and collaborators
New and improved English subtitle translation
Original theatrical trailer
PLUS: New essays by Carlos Fuentes and Mark Polizzotti, and an interview with Luis Bunuel

New cover by Gonzalo Garcia Barcha

Cast & Credits

Cast

Paul Frankeur: Pierre
Laurent Terzieff: Jean
Bernard Verley: Jesus
Edith Scob: The Virgin Mary
Muni: Mother Superior
Julien Bertheau: Richard- "maitre d'hotel"
François Maistre: French priest
Alain Cuny: Man with cape
Michel Piccoli: Marquis de Sade
Pierre Clémenti: The devil
Jean Piat: The Jansenist
Delphine Seyrig: The prostitute
Jean-Claude Carrière: Priscillian

Credits

Director: Luis Buñuel
Screenplay: Luis Buñuel
Screenplay: Jean-Claude Carrière
Producer: Serge Silberman
Cinematography: Christian Matras
Editing: Louisette Hautecoeur
Production design: Pierre Guffroy
Costume design: Jacqueline Guvot

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Luis Buñuel

Writer, Director

As made clear in his seminal works Viridiana and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie—delirious screeds against, respectively, religion and social conformity—Luis Buñuel was one of cinema’s great subversives and mischief makers. He began his career as a member of the French surrealists—his first films, Un chien andalou and L’âge d’or, absurd and violently sexual scandals that met with censorship, were collaborations with Salvador Dalí. After years of working alternately in his native Spain (where the scintillating, shaming faux documentary Land Without Bread and, later, Viridiana were both banned), the United States, and Mexico, Buñuel made most of his late films in France, combining surrealist non sequiturs with attacks on the bourgeoisie, the church, and social hypocrisy in general in such masterpieces as The Milky Way, The Phantom of Liberty, and That Obscure Object of Desire.