''La mort en ce jardin'' ("''Death in the Garden''") is a 1956 adventure film by director

Luis Buñuel Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish-Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and ...

, based on a novel by José-André Lacour, that stars

Simone Signoret Simone Signoret (; born Simone Henriette Charlotte Kaminker; 25 March 1921 – 30 September 1985) was a French actress. She received various accolades, including an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, a César Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a ...

Charles Vanel Charles-Marie Vanel (21 August 1892 – 15 April 1989) was a French actor and director. During his 76-year film career, which began in 1912, he appeared in more than 200 films and worked with many prominent directors, including Alfred Hitchcock ...

and

Michel Piccoli Jacques Daniel Michel Piccoli (27 December 1925 – 12 May 2020) was a French actor, producer and film director with a career spanning 70 years. He was lauded as one of the greatest French character actors of his generation who played a wide vari ...

, with additional dialogue by

Raymond Queneau Raymond Queneau (; 21 February 1903 – 25 October 1976) was a French novelist, poet, critic, editor and co-founder and president of Oulipo ('' Ouvroir de littérature potentielle''), notable for his wit and cynical humour. Biography Queneau w ...

. Set in an unidentified South American country, it recounts the bloody suppression by the corrupt governing regime of an insurrection by illegal diamond miners, after which five disparate fugitives take to the jungle in search of safety.

Plot

When a settlement of illegal diamond miners is broken up by soldiers, in revenge they attack and burn down the army headquarters in the nearest town. Next day, when reinforcements arrive, most of the surviving miners are rounded up to be shot. On a river boat, five people escape the carnage: a pacifist miner, his deaf-mute daughter, the local madame he wants to marry, a Catholic priest, and a wanted adventurer. When pursued by the army, they take to the jungle. There, the struggle for survival starts eroding their identities and in most cases their will to live. The adventurer becomes the resourceful leader, while the miner goes out of his mind and kills both the madame and the priest. After killing the miner, only the adventurer and the girl are left to find freedom together.

Cast

- Djin, the madame *

- Castin, the miner *

Georges Marchal Georges Marchal (10 January 1920 – 28 November 1997) was a French actor. Born Georges Louis Lucot in Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France, the strikingly handsome Marchal was discovered in the early-1940s by director Jean Grémillon. By the ear ...

- Shark, the adventurer *

- Father Lizardi, the priest *

Michèle Girardon Michèle Girardon (9 August 1938 – 25 March 1975), sometimes credited as Michele Girardon, was a French actress. Career Born in Lyon, France, Girardon began acting as early as 1956, and had a small but noticeable role as a deaf-mute bea ...

- María Castin, the deaf-mute * Tito Junco - Chenko *

Raúl Ramírez Raúl Ramírez (born 20 June 1953) is a Mexican retired professional tennis player. He was active during the 1970s and 1980s. Ramírez was the first player to finish first in both singles and doubles Grand Prix point standings, accomplishing th ...

- Álvaro (as Raul Ramirez) * Luis Aceves Castañeda - Alberto (as Luis-Aceves Castañeda) *

Jorge Martínez de Hoyos Jorge Martínez de Hoyos (September 25, 1920 – May 6, 1997) was a Mexican actor whose career spanned five decades from the 1940s till his death. He appeared in both American and Mexican films and television, with prominent roles in ''The Magn ...

- Captain Ferrero (as Jorge Martinez de Hoyos) * Alberto Pedret - Second Lieutenant Jiménez * Marc Lambert - Miner * Stefani - Miner

Analysis

''Death in the Garden'' proposes a sort of psychological mirror-image of Franco's Spain from which Buñuel exiled himself, with rebellions and oppressors galore.

References

External links

* *
Death in the Garden
' at

Eurochannel Eurochannel is a world television channel focused on European culture and lifestyle through movies, series and other programs dedicated to European culture. Eurochannel broadcasts in original audio with subtitles in English, Spanish and Portugu ...

1956 films 1950s adventure drama films 1950s French-language films French adventure drama films Films about capital punishment Films directed by Luis Buñuel Films set in South America Films set in jungles Films about mining Mexican adventure drama films 1956 drama films 1950s French films 1950s Mexican films {{1950s-drama-film-stub