Review: 'Three Films By Luis Buñuel' Packed with Extras, Looks Terrific on Criterion Blu-ray

There are a million reasons why Luis Bu�uel's work is taught in schools across the globe. The Mexican-Spanish filmmaker was firmly anti-establishment, dedicated to probing the core of inequality – both wealth and gender – and doing it with a wit and proud exhibitionist attitude that's modest at the same time. When we talk about the camera being used as a weapon to break down emotional and sociopolitical barriers, it was Bu�uel who led the charge for all filmmakers to follow. And when his career waned to a close, he constantly gave into his own fetishes not selfishly, but only when it served greater introspection by an audience and uncovered something trenchant about human desire and existence in general.

For those waiting years for proper Blu-ray releases in the United States of "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoise," "The Phantom of Liberty," and "That Obscure Object of Desire," your patience is more than rewarded with the arrival of a "Three Films by Luis Bu�uel" box set from the Criterion Collection. While it doesn't seem like brand new restorations have been undertaken on all three films, the Blu-rays included in this set offer crisp colors and deeper contrast over the previous DVDs and have maxed-out bitrates that help with overall picture quality. Criterion has also added a bevy of special features in addition to porting over previous features from their DVD editions, making this an incredibly comprehensive set with hours of entertainment, education, and, yes, Bu�uel at his horniest.

"The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoise" is probably the best-known film of this bunch, yet its slippery nature and finite details still enrich every single time you watch it. What's on the surface is a story of a bunch of rich people getting cheated out of a meal, but it exposes the power given to the upper class to abuse the proletariat. It's still very much a gleeful assault on the rich that gets off on delaying satisfaction to a sextet of assholes. There's a terrific 52-minute episode of French TV program "Once Upon a Time" that goes deep on the production and its place in history that's more than worthy of your attention, too.

As for both "The Phantom of Liberty" and "That Obscure Object of Desire," we see Bu�uel crawl deeper and deeper into his surrealist fetishes, only to find more absurdity amidst the darker side of humanity. "The Phantom of Liberty" is the director at his most playful, cutting between scenes that take place across decades to show more than just depravity, but the lengths the working class are willing to go to appease those more fortunate than them. Naturally, each vignette is laced with sexuality and the power that's inherent within it. "The Obscure Object of Desire," Bu�uel's last film, instead focuses on the travails of an older man and the younger woman he lusts after to poke and prod at the ugly, degrading forces within physical desire. The film is famous for using two different actresses for the lead female role after a tempestuous situation occurred between Bu�uel and Maria Schneider. The result is transfixing, and perfectly encapsulates the filmmaker's power to make the unreal feel concrete even when the most absurd things happen.

All in all, "Three Films by Luis Bu�uel" comes highly recommended, as it offers pleasing new high-definition presentations of some of Bu�uel's greatest works and comes backed with a ton of special features that enrich the viewing experience.

Special features include:

� "The Castaway of Providence Street," a 1971 homage to Luis Bu�uel made by his longtime friends and fellow filmmakers Arturo Ripstein and Rafael Castanedo
� "Speaking of Bu�uel," a documentary from 2000 on Bu�uel's life and work
� Once Upon a Time: "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie," a 2011 television program about the making of the film
� Interviews from 2000 with screenwriter Jean-Claude Carri�re on "The Phantom of Liberty" and "That Obscure Object of Desire"
� Archival interviews on all three films featuring Carri�re; actors St�phane Audran, Muni, Michel Piccoli, and Fernando Rey; and other key collaborators
� Documentary from 1985 about producer Serge Silberman, who worked with Bu�uel on five of his final seven films
� Analysis of "The Phantom of Liberty" from 2017 by film scholar Peter William Evans
� "Lady Doubles," a 2017 documentary featuring actors Carole Bouquet and �ngela Molina, who share the role of Conchita in That Obscure Object of Desire
� "Portrait of an Impatient Filmmaker, Luis Bu�uel," a 2012 short documentary featuring director of photography Edmond Richard and assistant director Pierre Lary
� Excerpts from Jacques de Baroncelli's 1929 silent film "La femme et le pantin," an adaptation of Pierre Lou�s's 1898 novel of the same name, on which "That Obscure Object of Desire" is also based
� Alternate English-dubbed soundtrack for "That Obscure Object of Desire"
� Trailers
� Essays by critic Adrian Martin and novelist and critic Gary Indiana, along with interviews with Bu�uel by critics Jos� de la Colina and Tom�s P�rez Turrent

"Three Films by Luis Bu�uel" is now available on Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection.