Leave it to Luis Buñuel, a man who once took comfort from the fact that he was "still an atheist, thank God", to provide such an entertaining analysis of Catholicism at its most absurd. In the middle film of an otherwise unrelated stylistic trilogy (along with 'The Phantom of Liberty' and 'The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie') the master surrealist takes us on a guided tour of heretical Catholic doctrine through the ages, following two modern day pilgrims across southern France, where they encounter a bewildering assortment of fanatics, prophets, and true believers. The various digressions are as weird as they are well-documented, but because of its dry wit and detached presentation the film is (perversely) more instructive than it is shocking, except perhaps to the Vatican. Buñuel makes his observations without malice; his aim is to simply illustrate how the One True Faith is, in fact, a motley collection of often contradictory ideas and bizarre rituals.
Review of The Milky Way
