Screened the delirious SIMON OF THE DESERT for students this week, in a double-bill with Lindsay Anderson’s THE WHITE BUS, two films deprived of wide distribution due to their unconventional running times (the Bunuel film ran out of money so wound up half feature-length, the Anderson was part of a compendium film that didn’t come together). Lots of good laughs, and I’m intrigued by the mainly female hysteria produced by Sylvia Pinal’s first appearance as the Devil. Women seem to enjoy the way she outrageously torments Simon atop his lonely column, and then they LOVE the transformation —
Now these are young women. Perhaps they’ll feel differently in a few years or decades. But on the other hand, both Pinal and her elderly alter ego are rather refreshingly shameless, vigorous and enthusiastic about their work, and there’s something very positive about that.
shadowplay 