A labor of 'Love' by film genius Luis Buñuel.
G. Merritt | Boulder, CO | 09/25/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
""Mine was not a shameful affair, only an impossible union."
Viewers may have considered this film controversial when it was first released nearly sixty years ago. Based on the Guy de Maupassant novel Pierre et Jean, Luis Buñuel's (1900-1983) minor film from his Mexican period, A Woman Without Love (Una mujer sin amor ) (1952), tells the story of a love affair between a married woman, Rosario (Rosario Granados), and a forestry engineer, Julio Mistral (Tito Junco), which ends when she refuses to run away with her lover to Brazil. When the engineer dies a quarter of a century later, he leaves his fortune to the woman's younger son, Miguel (Cordero Loya), who is likely his own son. Because the inheritance threatens the bourgeois values of the woman's boorish husband, Don Carlos Montero (Julio Villarreal), it ultimately causes the disintegration of her family. Buñuel is better known for his classic films including That Obscure Object of Desire, Diary of a Chambermaid, Viridiana, and The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie. In his autobiography, Buñuel called this "quite simply the worst movie I ever made," but it is arguably much better than most other films in this genre.
G. Merritt"
There is a mistake. Beware !
J. CALDERON | MEXICO CITY | 10/07/2007
(3 out of 5 stars)
"The film is good as a story or drama and as a technical release but
there is a mistake in the names list of the artists.
On this film there is no participation of Pedro Armendariz, Columba Dominguez and Dolores del Río. They made "La Malquerida".
The true artists were Tito Junco and Rosario Granados. Director: L. Buñuel"
I don't agree with Don Luis
Galina | Virginia, USA | 06/28/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Luis Buñuel thought that "Woman Without Love" was the worst movie he ever made and he wrote about it in his autobiography, "I'd been told to set up a screen on the set and just copy André Cayatte's movie (1943 film version of Guy de Maupassant's Pierre et Jean) scene by scene. Not surprisingly, I made it my own way, but it was still a disaster". I don't agree with him. I believe that he never made a bad film - he simply could not. Even if it lacks in his trademark surrealism, it still has his intelligence, his craft, and the ability to make a rather forgettable melodrama interesting and insightful. I am sure many directors would be proud of Woman Without Love. With changing the title of the movie and Maupassant's novella from Pierre et Jean to Woman Without Love, Buñuel, focuses on one of his favorite subjects - couple in love longing for each other and their inability to fulfill their desire due to all types of obstacles, social and religious. is evidently present in the film and elevates it above countless soap-operas. The film is above countless soap-operas. It is beautiful; it moves well, it is based on the writings by a talented writer. I like the acting, and the finale was not disappointing. "A woman without Love" may not be the best Luis Buñuel's film but as his devoted fan, I could not skip it and I am glad that I saw it.
P.S. The quality of DVD leaves a lot to desire."