L'illusione viaggia in tranvai

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.

I looked for this movie all over a few years ago when I finally watched it. Another masterpiece by Luis Buñuel even though he had very little freedom, time and budget when making it. There are a few good reviews on this movie in English (unfortunately, I don't speak Spanish). This masterpiece touches on several crucial subjects: transition of the Mexican society to "modernity" from several angles, perhaps most important ones being separating the workforce from what they make (refer to alienation by Karl Marx), aleniating people from their past, their traditions and heritage, in one word their lives, criticizing the stupid bureaucracy in the modernization process (and the upcoming modern life), showing the real aspects of the ordinary people in a surrealist movie, and the list goes on. There scene where the slaughter house workers get on the train (Min 30:59 ) is perhaps the most famous and effective scene of this not so well known Buñuel's masterpiece.

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.

A streetcar is to be dismantled and two pals are not prepared to accept it.

Bunuel's touch can be felt in the scenes dealing with religion: -The show that takes Genesis to the stage ;the grotesque actors play God,Lucifer,Adam and Eve and more ...Certainly ,the director had much fun directing these scenes -which have little to do with the main plot- -The two ladies and their Virgin Mary statuette ;while people are giving raw meat for free (even heart!)in the streetcar,they are puzzled because "normally" you've got to pay for everything.They forget that Christ gave bread and fish to His people as reported by the Gospels.

Apart from these sequences,it is a simple comedy,and in Bunuel's great filmography,it is nothing by a curio.

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.