The Milky Way

Alain Curry in The Milky Way

Luis Bunuel's The Milky Way, from 1969, is regarded as a minor work in the master's canon and was received indifferently by American critics when it trickled into release in the states in early 1970. Even a Bunuel booster like Andrew Sarris chided him for the film's lack of structure and rated it below masterpieces such as Viridiana and Belle de Jour.👓Pauline Kael was even less enamored with it, though she praised the grace of its execution, and wrote that it was "a trifle wearisome."⏰ Tristana released later that year garnered more spots on year's end best lists than The Milky Way. The lack of a central figure, particularly a beauteous actress like Catherine Deneuve, makes The Milky Way a hard sell, as does its exploration and burlesque of Catholic doctrine. 

The film's two impoverished protagonists Pierre (Paul Frankeur) and Jean (Laurent Terzieff) are on a pilgrimage from Paris to Santiago de Compostela. The action alternating between the revelation of Christian mysteries and debates about heresy is not centered on the two, but ping pongs around them. Similarly, the film is not set in one era, but bounces back and forth between the epoch of Christ, Medieval times, the Enlightenment, and modern times. We, and sometimes the protagonists, encounter a gaggle of disparate figures: including Jesus (Bernard Verley), the Virgin Mary (Edith Scob), the Devil (Alain Curry), the Marquise de Sade (Michel Piccoli), and a prostitute (Delphine Seyrig). Jean-Claude Carriere, the co-scenarist and collaborator with Bunuel on all his films made in France, stated that they were attempting a film in a picaresque style and this explains the shambolic narrative form of the film.

Carriere, in an enlightening interview with Lawrence French, traces the genesis of the film to Bunuel overhearing a group of waiters discussing football in a Madrid bar. Bunuel, with his typical perversity, thought it would be amusing if he made a film in which everyday people would debate Catholic doctrine with the fervor they use when discussing sports. On the surface level, the debates about doctrine in The Milky Way lampoon the circular logic of Catholic dogma. As a recovering Catholic, I found this amusing, but recognize it is not going to mean much to those not hip to the intricacies of Jansenism and Priscillianism. However, the tone of this film is much more serene than Bunuel's earlier jibes against the Church. There is a love for the loonies and rigid clerics no matter what arcane jargon they spout that was not present in the work of the younger Bunuel. Part of this is the mellowing of Bunuel in his dotage. Part of this is due to Carriere's Buddhism. Buddhism posits itself as against belief, a point of view somewhat akin to Bunuel's nihilism. If all beliefs are illusory, then all are equal in the eyes of man and God. The acceptance of this makes The Milky Way, as Sarris put it, "...a cacophonous symphony of spiritual pluralism."

The grace and serenity of The Milky Way is exemplified by the luscious color photography of Christian Matras, which is unfortunately not apparent in the washed out print streaming on Tubi, and the luxe, for Bunuel, production values of the film. The commercial success of Belle de Jour enabled Bunuel to leave behind the ramshackle production values of his Mexican films. The Milky Way is Bunuel's most handsome picture and feels out of step with the mod cinema of the era, to its credit. This is not to say that the spirit of 1968 is absent entirely from the film. The two pilgrims, one older and one younger, could be taken as stand-ins for Bunuel and Carriere. It is significant that it is the younger of the two that dreams of revolution in a sequence that climaxes with the execution of the Pope, played by Bunuel himself. The alpha is one with the omega, the lion has laid down with the lamb, and the old revolutionary firebrand can now identify with the forces of power he hoped to upend. The Milky Way is in a minor key, but it is not a minor film. It contains multitudes.

👓The Village Voice, 1/29/1970, pg. 51

⏰Deeper Into Movies, pgs. 128-9