Death in the Garden (La mort en ce jardin). Luis Buñuel, 1956.
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Edition screened: Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #167, released 2017. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 104 minutes.
Summary: Killing of a python.
Details:
1) A python hangs in a tree at eye level, seen well in advance by the party and posing no particular threat. So of coarse Georges Marchal hacks it with his machete, 1:13:47-1:13:55. We soon learn that they intend to consume the snake when we see Marchal butchering it and explaining that it will be good eats, 1:14:11 - 1:14:25. While the killing and butchering could have been much more gruesome and violent, this poor snake absolutely was hacked to death in the making of the film.
2) The poor snake’s hacked-up carcass is tossed to the ground and forgotten while everyone joins in the panic about not being able to start a fire in the wet environment. Fire started, Michel Piccoli looks at the snake’s body to see it engulfed by fire ants and writhing as if alive, 1:15:27-1:15:35.
Death in the Garden is not the torrent of surrealist wit and challenges that denote Buñuel’s more famous films. It is more of a masculine adventure movie, typical of the mid-1950s in some ways but leaning toward the Wages of Fear echelon in quality and theme, and intentionally evoking that exact film occasionally. But Buñuel’s intellect and political acumen are evident, and there are several scenes that would hold their own against any of his color films. One of these is the horrifying image of the dead snake brought back to life by ants, which cuts abruptly to a nighttime scene of cars driving around Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile. This tourist fantasy scene grinds to a stop as though the film projector has broken, parallel to Charles Vanel realizing he never will reach Paris. Excellent.