La ilusión viaja en tranvía

Another of Bunuel's Mexican films wherein he tells the picaresque tale of two bumbling streetcar workers who, after swiftly repairing a streetcar that had been deemed obsolete (and a few beers), decide to steal it for one last spin. Their adventures take them across Mexico City and in contact with a solid cross-section of the public, including slaughterhouse workers who gleefully (and surreally) hang huge slabs of meat (and heads) from the roof of the tram. Perhaps there is a metaphor or a moral here – certainly Bunuel takes the opportunity to poke fun at corporate capitalism – but any message takes a back seat (ahem) to the overall good time on offer. I particularly enjoyed the staging of Lucifer's banishment from Heaven and Adam and Eve's departure from Eden at the local festival, not unlike the amateur theatrical performances in Renoir's The Rules of the Game in their wacky but creepy surrealism.

Two streetcar conductors whose streetcar is set to be dismantled sneak into the station late one night to take it for one last spin. They spend all night and most of the next day having small adventured throughout Mexico City. Agustin Isunza is the film's standout as an old man, Papa Pinillos, who worked for the streetcar company most of his life. He was laid off a while back, but he does little with his time besides get on random streetcars to see if their drivers are competent. When he jumps on the 133, he quickly realizes that it's stolen and he spends the rest of the film desperately trying to get the company to believe him. It's a fun movie and very charming. Not a necessary Bunuel film, but fans should certainly catch it. 8/10.

Illusion Travels by Streetcar is a wild ride of situations that little by little derail to make for a fascinating mess of ridiculous situations. The film manages to be both a celebration of life, a playful retelling of the Christian mythology in a Georges Méliès-esque manner, and a criticism of capitalist companies and their ineffective operation. While neither the most meaningful, nor the most coherent Luis Buñuel movie, it nevertheless is one of the most enjoyable.

Don't think this is a light film just because it's a comedy made with Mexican actors. There are many layers here and much clever satire not only on the Mexican society of that period but (as always with Bunuel) human behavior in general. The ironic detachment of the director is never so far as to render these characters unrealistic caricatures; far from it, they're as fully real as anything in 'Los Olvidados,' except here things are examined from a much less cynical angle. Comedy is, after all, the flipside of tragedy and if comedy sells better, you only run the risk of being misunderstood by most of the audience on a very superficial level; on a deeper level even the commonest comedy fan implicitly gets the message. This film is in many ways similar in its structure and tone (and on a deeper level even in subject matter) to Alexander Payne's 'Citizen Ruth' and 'Election' or Todd Solondz's 'Welcome to the Dollhouse.' Except here, Bunuel shows less 'cruelty' than in most of his other films; here he tries his hand at an homage to certain great American comedies of the '30s and '40s which managed to use comic misadventures to veil serious messages underneath. The difference is that Bunuel consciously planned and fully intended this result whereas the Americans may have just ended up there unexpectedly and unconsciously.

The newly born Servicio DE Transportes Eléctricos del D.F. had to do this film to demeaning the bad press caused by "La Venta" accident the previous year, the story and some actors come from Subida al Cielo, and show the company shops at Indianilla neighborhood in México City. Aside from Buñuel intention of a series of sit-coms, his surrealism becomes an every day fact in the Mexican way of life, such anecdotes still happen at STE, now mostly with trolleybuses and the Xochimilco LRV. When we got a VHS copy, we showed it at Tetepilco depot, amusingly the Transportation Dept. boss was also an Ingeniero Benítez, and our efforts to save rolling stock from the torch, have became a nice Traction Museum, without everyone around getting drunk, I'm the Union Historian and had to check it frame by frame to list appearing units: At the opening scene we see several types later succeeded by the first Westram trolley-coaches and a PCC in the Transfer-table, 133 real number was 378, a Brill 11 windows 2-trucker, many points of Mexico City to be checked, for example when they leave the school kids at a filming it was at Calzada de Tlalpan across the gates of CLASA-Films! and the Overhead-repair trolley that block the return to the depot is to be restored at Tetepilco Museum. must add more comments later---