Media Contact: Alondra Ponce, alondra.ponce.432@my.csun.edu, or Carmen Ramos Chandler, carmen.chandler@csun.edu, (818)-677-2130
California State University, Northridge’s Spring 2025 Cinematheque series is focusing on movies by Spanish and Mexican filmmaker Luìs Buñuel, known for leading the movement in surrealism in cinema. The series will run from Wednesday, Feb. 26, to Wednesday, April 23.
All screenings will be shown on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. in the Armer Screening Room located in Manzanita Hall on the southwest corner of CSUN’s campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge.
“We are focusing on the films Buñuel made in Mexico while in exile from the Spanish Civil War,” said cinema and televisions arts professor Dianah Wynter, the curator of CSUN’s Cinematheque series. “It is where his great surrealist creativity burst forth, so we are very excited to introduce our students to his work. In the Cinematheque, we really want to return to the ethos of classic filmmakers that launched the Cinematheque over 25 years ago.”
The series will be opening with “L’Age D’or,” which means the golden age.
“This is the film that established Buñuel as the innovator and generator of surrealism in cinema. It is a surrealist talking movie which premiered in 1930 but was banned in Paris for 50 years,” Wynter said. “It was banned because it mocked the hypocrisies of social morality and religious dogma. Nothing was off limits. Nothing was sacred.”
“L’Age D’or” will be followed by a screening of “Simon of the Desert,” a comedy film about a man who takes extreme measures to become closer to God.
Both films will be shown on Wednesday, Feb. 26, with a panel discussion to follow. The panelists include Debarati Byabartta, an expert and scholar in Latin American comedy, and Maria de las Carreras who often writes about cinema and Catholicism.
“Viridiana,” will be shown on March 3 and “Exterminating Angel,” will be shown on March 12.
“I’m excited about ‘Exterminating Angels,’ which carries forward the challenging and satirizing of the upper classes the way that ‘L’ Age D’or’ challenges religiosity,” said Wynter. “It is very funny, and I think that it is one of the greatest pieces that Buñuel uses comedy to challenge authority.”
The naturalistic film “Los Olvidados,” meaning the forgotten ones, is about what young men face when driven to crimes of poverty, Wynter said.
“I would like to raise people’s awareness of how and where certain cinematic movements began and who gave life to them,” she said. “I certainly want our students, as well as the community at large, to expand their awareness of foundational filmmakers.”
The film will be screened on Wednesday, April 4, followed by “Un Chien Andalou.”
The series will conclude with the French film “Belle de Jour,” which is about a young housewife who assumes a secret life under a different name.
“Buñuel was pushing the boundaries of what we think is acceptable to be seen on screen which now allows filmmakers that came after him to be more experimental and expressive in their own right,” Wynter said. “I hope people gain a great appreciation for Buñuel’s work and an understanding of surrealism and how it allows artists to approach difficult and controversial subjects in creative ways.”
The CSUN Cinematheque is a year-round film screening program housed in the Armer Screening Room. Screenings and events are open to the public.
For more information about the Cinematheque series, visit https://www.csun.edu/mike-curb-arts-media-communication/cinema-television-arts/cinematheque
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