There are several of these Susana-uses-her-sex-as-a-weapon scenes in the movie. My favorite is when Susana is cleaning the panes on the glass doors of the bookcase, bosom heaving, while Don Fernando Soler polishes the barrel of his shotgun.bunuelian wrote:Susana does have some wonderfully humorous moments, however. One shot in particular stands out in my mind, when we watch Susana bending over doing some scrubbing, with her tits giggling, and she looks up sharply at the manboy she's seducing. It's one of the sexiest moments in all of Bunuel's work - her look goes right to the hearts/dicks of the men watching the film for the titty payoff.
I disagree about this being minor Bunuel. Perhaps I'm biased -- I actually enjoy Bunuel's Mexican output as a whole much more than his earliest and latest works. But Susana is a film I can watch endlessly. It's charming and, I think, note-perfect in its portrayal of the reform school girl come to wreck the peaceful rancho by seducing anyone with a scrotum. I think it's a great doublefeature with El Bruto, as Susana and Katy Jurado's character in that film share certain affinities as lustful creatures. Also, I think it's interesting to see Bunuel's characterizations of the elderly in both films -- the slumlord's practically diapered dad in Bruto, and the dicho-spouting housekeeper in Susana. This film is especially about the subversion of order and even when order is seemingly restored, there's more subversion in the subtext.
Again, I highly recommend it to fans of epoca de oro Mexican cinema, Bunuelophiles and Russ Meyer fans. Ok, maybe they'll find it tame. But I dig it.
