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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
funny, brilliant attack on hypocritical church & society, July 24, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Nazarin [VHS] (VHS Tape)
i love some of the obscure films of Bunuel's mexican period. This one's hilariously sardonic, as a sincere, long-suffering ("nazarene") do-gooder priest in a small village is accused of crimes, de-frocked, and forced to roam the countryside with a failed suicide, a whore, and a lascivious dwarf. I won't say more....Buy the film! If you loved Viridiana or Simon of the Desert, you'll love this one too!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
How to live a perfect life in a corrupted world?, February 2, 2007
This review is from: Nazarin [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Octavio Paz, Mexican poet, writer, and diplomat, who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990, said about "Nazarin": "Nazarin follows the great tradition of mad Spaniards originated by Cervantes. His madness consists in taking seriously great ideas and trying to live accordingly". A humble and spiritual priest (Francisco Rabal in a wonderful performance) attempts to live by the principles of Christianity but is cast out of his church for helping a local prostitute by giving her a shelter after she had committed a murder. Nazarin wanders the country roads of the turn of the 20th-century Mexico, offering help to poor and begging for food. His two followers, a murderous prostitute Andara and her sister Beatriz who is a failed suicide desperately searching for love, consider him saint but it does not prevent him from hatred and humiliation from both the church and the people he meets on the road. He ends up beaten in prison and begins to question his faith for not be able to forgive his attacker.
Bunuel tells the story in a manner of a Christian parable masterfully and uniquely combining admiration and irony for the main character and strong criticism of formal religion and hypocrisy. The film is simple and profound as well as beautiful, ironic, and heartbreaking.
I consider Bunuel one of the best filmmakers ever. I've only seen fourteen of his films and they all belong to the different periods of his life but they have in common his magic touch, the masterful combination of gritty realism and surrealism, his curiosity, his inquisitive mind, his sense of humor, and his dark and shining fantasies. With great pleasure I am adding little seen and almost unknown but amazingly candid and touching surrealistic tragic-comedy "Nazarin" to the list of my favorite films.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Are you sure about the veracity of the rumors?, January 30, 2005
This review is from: Nazarin [VHS] (VHS Tape)
The astonishing mind of Luis Buñuel created this implacable and merciless story about a priest who is condemned for people's ineffable rumors when he decides to host a prostitute in his home.
And this decision will become his biggest mistake due the people's double moral will spread till the highest power's spheres.
The priest's attitude will be Buñuel's hidden Ace.
One of my top favorites films of this irreverent and overwhelming Spanish filmmaker.
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The half of the sin is the scandal!
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