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Entomology as anthropology in the films of Luis Buñuel
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Abstract |
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Luis Buñuel's interest in entomology is well-known, from the death's head moth in Un chien andalou to the framed tarantula in Le Fantôme de la liberté; however, it is an aspect of Buñuel's oeuvre that has been largely ignored in scholarly criticism or treated uncritically as another one of the director's many ‘obsessions’. This article takes seriously the director's entomological penchant by exploring the way in which it becomes conjoined with a surrealist vision that translates into a distinct cinematic language. A thorough examination of L’Âge d'or and Las Hurdes through Buñuel's unique entomological lens reveals the progressive deployment of a philosophical outlook akin to Roger Caillois's ‘comparative biology’, which observes in the insect world an aperture for studying the human condition through ‘objective ideograms’. By substituting an entomological perspective for an anthropological approach, man's instinctual nature is allowed to surface from beneath the rubble of culture. It is an aspect of Buñuel's early films that is part and parcel of his views on ‘anti-artistic’ film, which, in filmic terms, produces a levelling effect among biological species and ultimately affirms the humanistic aims of surrealism.