Death in the Garden

La mort en ce jardin ("Death in the Garden") is a 1956 adventure film by director Luis Buñuel, based on a novel by José-André Lacour, that stars Simone Signoret, Charles Vanel and Michel Piccoli, with additional dialogue by Raymond Queneau. Set in an unidentified South American country, it recounts the bloody suppression by the corrupt governing regime of an insurrection by illegal diamond miners, after which five disparate fugitives take to the jungle in search of safety.

La mort en ce jardin
Death in the Garden
La mort en ce jardin Spanish poster
Directed byLuis Buñuel
Written byLuis Alcoriza
Luis Buñuel
Gabriel Arout
Produced byÓscar Dancigers
David Mage
StarringSimone Signoret
Charles Vanel
Georges Marchal
Michel Piccoli
Michèle Girardon
Music byPaul Misraki
Production
companies
Producciones Tepeyac
Films Dismage
Distributed byCinédis (France)
Películas Nacionales (Mexico)
Release dates
21 September 1956 (France)
9 June 1960 (Mexico)
Running time
97 minutes
CountriesFrance, Mexico
LanguagesFrench
Spanish
Budget$600,000[1]

Plot

When a settlement of illegal diamond miners is broken up by soldiers, in revenge they attack and burn down the army headquarters in the nearest town. Next day, when reinforcements arrive, most of the surviving miners are rounded up to be shot. On a river boat, five people escape the carnage: a pacifist miner, his deaf-mute daughter, the local madame he wants to marry, a Catholic priest, and a wanted adventurer. When pursued by the army, they take to the jungle. There, the struggle for survival starts eroding their identities and in most cases their will to live. The adventurer becomes the resourceful leader, while the miner goes out of his mind and kills both the madame and the priest. After killing the miner, only the adventurer and the girl are left to find freedom together.

Cast

Analysis

Death in the Garden proposes a sort of psychological mirror-image of Franco's Spain from which Buñuel exiled himself, with rebellions and oppressors galore.[2]

References
  1. "Mage Estimates Dubbing Costs". Variety. 25 April 1956. p. 20.
  2. Eurochannel. "Death in the Garden - Luis Buñuel - France - Eurochannel". Retrieved 2016-08-29.


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