PAC Postscript Smith: Buels Improbable Cast 1

Buuels Improbable Cast of Female Characters in The Milky Way

Alison Smith

The Citadel

Cmo nos hubiese gustado tener una hija! Aunque me temo que con un padre tan
celoso como Luis hubiera resultado o puta o monja (How much it would have pleased
us to have had a daughter! However, I fear that with a man as jealous as Luis was, she
would have become either a prostitute or a nun; Rucar de Buuel 69-70 ; my trans.).

As an avant-garde surrealist film director, Luis Buuel was known for subversive

cinematography and scathing attacks on bourgeois society. His early career was defined

by an association with the surrealist group that flourished in Paris in the 1920s and

1930s. Buuels first two films, Un Chien andalou and Lge dor, made in

collaboration with Salvador Dal, served as manifestos for a complete rejection of

societal norms. From the opening sequence that climaxes with an eyeball being sliced by

a razor blade in his first film to the culminating sequence suggesting parallels between

Jesus Christ and the Marquis de Sade in his second film, Buuels work leads the

spectator to believe s/he will not be constrained by established mores.

How disappointing, therefore, that Buuels films offer such tired clichs of

women and the roles available to us in society. If we are to believe his wife, Jeanne

Rucar de Buuel, the revolutionary filmmaker was the typical macho Spaniard of his

generation in their home life:

. . . Luis fue un macho celoso. Su mujer deba ser una especie de nia-

mujer sin madurar. Nunca me habl de sus proyectos, sueos o guiones, de

cmo manejar el dinero, de poltica, de religin. No tuvimos ni ideas ni

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responsabilidades compartidas. l decida de todo : a dnde vivir, las horas

de comer, nuestras salidas, la educacin de los hijos, mis aficiones, mis

amistades. (130)

. . . Luis was a jealous macho. His wife had to be a sort of child-woman

who didnt grow up. He never spoke to me about his projects, his dreams,

or his screenplays, of how to manage money, of politics, of religion. We

shared neither ideas nor responsibilities. He decided everything: where to

live, when to eat, our outings, our childrens education, my hobbies, my

friendships. (my trans.)

In some notable Buuel films, actor Fernando Rey ostensibly incarnates aspects of

Buuels private life on screen; he has been referred to as Buuels alter-ego for his

portrayal of sophisticated Spanish men torn by forbidden passions (Yakir). In the 1961

film Viridiana, Rey plays the widowed uncle of a lovely young novice who is just about

to take her vows. He has provided for Viridiana financially throughout her novitiate; he

now longs to seduce her and goes so far as to persuade her to put on his dead wifes

bridal gown, and then he drugs her. In Buuels final film, That Obscure Object of

Desire, Rey again plays the older man passionately obsessed with a seemingly innocent

younger woman; in this film his character is prone to the extreme jealousy of which

Buuel himself was capable in real life, according to his wife and others.

The contradictory views of women held by the surrealists in the early years of that

movement have been the subject of significant discussion and analysis. In a review of

Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement by Whitney Chadwick, Janet Kaplan notes
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the cruel irony that lies in the surrealist concept of womans nature. She cites Andre

Bretons view of woman as . . . inspirational muse, visionary goddess, beguiling

seductress, and most significantly as femme-enfant, the woman-child whose nave and

spontaneous innocence, uncorrupted by logic or reason, brings her into closer contact

with the intuitive realm of the unconscious so crucial to Surrealism. Kaplan notes

additionally that . . . these roles were predicated on the idea of Woman as object of

male definition and catalyst to male creativity and left little room for the independent

creative identities of the women associated with the Surrealist group (47). The title of

Jeanne Rucar de Buuels memoires lends support to Kaplans statement; in Memoirs of

a Woman without a Piano, Rucar de Buuel recalls several instances in which her

husband interfered with her desire to study music, first insisting that she cancel her

lessons when he became jealous of the teacher (38) and later trading her piano outright in

a bet (106).

With Jeanne Rucar de Buuel occupying the role of woman-child at home, Buuel

was free to explore woman as muse, goddess and seductress on the screen. These roles

were predominant in the early films, and while they permeate Buuels entire cinematic

opus, his portrayal of women becomes more nuanced in later works. Nevertheless,

Buuels female protagonists rarely break with societal stereotypes, even though they

display some surprising attributes within those established stereotypes. In all of his films

in which the main character is female, that character typically exercises power via her

ability to seduce men of authority and within the context of a large degree of conformity

to traditional societal roles for women.

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Some of Buuels most important films of the 1960s and 1970sViridiana,

Diary of a Chambermaid, Belle de Jour, Tristana, That Obscure Object of Desireall

have visually striking and intriguing female protagonists played by iconic film stars of

Mexico and Europe including Silvia Pinal, Jeanne Moreau, Catherine Deneuve, Angela

Molina and Carole Bouquet. These great actors of the silver screen play enigmatic

characters that still operate within the clich: the innocent novice, the seductive

chambermaid, the bored housewife, the sultry flamenco dancer, the icy and aloof maiden.

While aspects of their characters surprisesuch as when the bored housewife played by

Catherine Deneuve decides to become a prostitute during the day while her husband is at

work in Belle de Jourthese female characters still remain stuck in dichotomies. They

break away from one stereotype only to fall into its opposite.

The Milky Way, released in 1969, stands apart from other Buuel films of the 60s

and 70s in several notable ways. Filmed in between his two works starring the

incomparable Catherine DeneuveBelle de Jour in 1967 and Tristana in 1970The

Milky Ways protagonists are two rather average men played by marginally known actors.

The main characters, named simply Pierre and Jean, are indigent wanderers who have

decided to follow the pilgrim route from Paris to Santiago de Compostela. In some ways

they are not unlike pilgrims of the Middle Ages, when pilgrimage was one of the few

available outlets for those who longed to travel. Whereas many undertook the historic

route from Paris to Santiago in search of religious blessings, others went for adventure, to

seek their fortune, or simply because they could. Pierre and Jean fall into this latter

group. While some films of this time period featuring two male protagonists earned the
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label buddy filmButch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid and Midnight Cowboy come

to mindThe Milky Way is in fact more difficult to categorize. Buuel himself describes

the film as an examination of Catholic heresies, implying that the pilgrimage to Santiago

was simply a convenient backdrop for this theme in that it freed the protagonists from the

constraints of time and place (Buuel 302). And yet one knows better than to take any

explanation by Buuel at face value, particularly given his frequent assertion that none of

his films mean anything. Another possible explanation for the choice of a pilgrimage to

Santiago as setting is offered by Julie Jones in her article The Saint and the General:

Buuel cocks a snook at authority on the Road to Santiago. Spanish dictator Francisco

Franco was attempting to revive interest in the Camino in an effort to bolster support for

his regime; he encouraged an association between himself and Saint James as two saviors

of Spain and went so far as to create images of himself using the iconography associated

with Saint James to solidify such associations in the minds of the Spanish people.

Buuels irreverent presentation of both Catholicism and the Camino certainly stood in

stark contrast to Francos idea of the pilgrimage to the site of Saint James relics, and a

criticism of one can be read as an attack on the other in this time frame.

Despite having no major roles for women, the variety of roles occupied by women

in The Milky Way displays greater diversity than Buuels other films that feature female

protagonists. The stereotypes are still present, but there are also new, interesting

performances. Often the same actor is used to play a variety of roles, which in itself

suggests that no woman can be reduced to a single stereotype. One actor who had been

cast as a type character in her role as a servant in previous Buuel films breaks out of that
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mold in The Milky Way; she plays a leader in an heretical religious cult in one scene and a

Mother Superior in another. This recasting of a character actor is an important indication

of Buuels willingness to stretch boundaries for female roles in this film. Additionally,

the Virgin Mary appears as a character several times throughout the film, demonstrating

widely varied attributes on each occasion. The Holy Virgin who performs miracles is

also seen as the doting but concerned mother and the conscientious hostess, for example.

When we first meet Jean and Pierre, they are unsuccessfully hitchhiking on a rural

road between Paris and Fontainebleau. After a few cars pass and fail to stop, a

mysterious figure appears, walking towards them on the highway. Against the backdrop

of a blue sky filled with large, ominous clouds, we see a man dressed in black complete

with a black hat and a black cape. He approaches them and asks if they are going on a

pilgrimage to Santiago, and they are surprised that he knows this. When Pierre and Jean

ask for alms, he answers paraphrasing Mark 4:25 For whoever has, to him more shall be

given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. He

then gives some money to Pierre, who said he had a little cash, but not to Jean, who said

he had none.

The man in the cape, who might be identified as a prophet, as God the Father, or

as Saint James, then offers an insight to Pierre and Jean. He tells them, Go, take a

prostitute and have children of prostitution. You will name the first you are not my

people and the second no more mercy. Though these lines seem nonsensical, this was

in fact a command that God gave to the prophet Hosea in Hosea 1:2. Although she is not

named, the woman in question is Gomer. Biblical scholars have debated whether or not
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Gomer was an actual prostitute or merely a licentious woman, but Hoseas love for

Gomer and his ultimate forgiveness of his wifes infidelity have been read as a metaphor

representing Gods love for Israel. Gomer is an uneasy figure; she lives as Hoseas wife

for many years and has three children with him before leaving him. Hosea ultimately

goes to find her, forgives her, and brings her back to their marital union.

According to Gale A. Yee, if Gomer were merely a prostitute, she would be less

dangerous. She writes:

For Hosea, Gomer is a wife of whoredom, not because she is a

prostitute, but because, according to the mores of Israel, she is blatantly

licentious and wanton. In her sexual activity, Gomer is condemned as being

like a whore, although she is not a prostitute by profession. As a

promiscuous wife, Gomer is much more threatening to the social order than

a prostitutea woman marginalized but still tolerated in Israel. An

adulterous woman could never be permitted in a patrilineal society based

on the principle of male descent and inheritance through legitimate sons.

The reference to Gomer may provide a context for the first scene in which we

observe a significant number of female characters. Pierre and Jean make their way

towards Spain using any means of transportation available: walking, hitch-hiking,

jumping on and off trains. They also seem to wander through history as they move

through space, jumping back and forth from the contemporary era to Biblical times, with

stops in the Middle Ages, the Inquisition, and the Enlightenment along the way. Pierre

and Jean remain completely unaffected as figures from the past appear and ask them to
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judge duels, hold their donkey, and invite them to gatherings. They are camping by a fire

when a fourth century shepherd approaches them and invites them to a ceremony. As he

addresses them in Latin, they dont understand and decide to go to sleep instead. We

leave Pierre and Jean and follow the shepherd and his goat through the woods to a strange

religious ceremony that is taking place. We learn that Priscillian (who in fact was

beheaded for heresy in 385 AD) is being reinstated as Bishop of Avila. All who are

present at this nighttime ceremony are told that what happens there must remain a secret.

From historians who were contemporaries of Priscillian (and who also judged him

unfavorably as he was a heretic), we learn that one of his early mentors was a woman

named Agape, who had been a student of an Egyptian Gnostic (Wagner 89). We learn

from Priscillians own defense of his beliefs that he held Bible readings in which laymen

and women actively took part (Wagner 91).

Novelist Tracy Saunders, author of a book imagining the real life of Priscillian, also

affirms, The Priscillianists included many women among them, who were welcomed as

equals of men.

Ana Maria Jorge writes:

Sulpicius Severuss chronicle leads us to believe that Priscillians

effectiveness was due to his exceptional and ascetic personality. This is

what gave him such religious authority and secured the support and

partnership of some of his colleagues in the episcopate. The chronicler also

says that Priscillian drew "multos nobilium pluresque populares" to him.

The gradation in this Latin expression covers a real diversity of social

PAC Postscript Smith: Buels Improbable Cast 9

groups, and his entourage included women as well as men (Sulpicius

Severus 1866: 99).

It was this inclusion of women and the large numbers of women who followed Priscillian

that probably lead to charges from his critics that orgies and sorcery were taking place.

In this filmic scene from an imagined past, Priscillian and his female and male

followers chant verses in Latin describing the need to humiliate the flesh in order to free

the soul. Prior to the ceremony, groups of women are observed dressing in elegant robes,

putting on jewelry, combing their hair and looking in mirrors. They help each other in

this elaborate preparation by holding mirrors for one another or assisting others as they

dress. Both Priscillian and laymen speak in the opening moments of the ceremony,

which serves as a rededication of Priscillian as Bishop of Avila. The women, however,

occupy the largest part of the ceremony; several of them recite verses in Latin, faces stoic

and with arms crossed over their chests. When the ceremony has finished with all

chanting in unison, what appears to be the start of an orgy ensues. People pair up

randomly, usually one woman with one man, but there is at least one threesome of

women that slip off together. The women seem to be as engaged in selecting partners as

the men, and everyone participates willingly in the erotic activities that unfold. We leave

this enticing scene and follow the Bishop and two others, who engage in a ceremonial

breaking of bread before the Bishop puts his arms around two female worshippers and

exits the screen.

The Priscillian cult is the first of three scenes in which women predominate by

sheer numbers. The other large groupings of female characters include scenes taking
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place at a school picnic and another at a convent of cloistered nuns. After an

unsuccessful attempt to obtain food and charity at a fancy Bordeaux restaurant, Pierre and

Jean come across an annual school picnic and performance at what is obviously a private

Catholic girls school bearing the name, Institut Lamartine. Guests at the picnic

welcome Pierre and Jean, sharing some chicken and wine with them. It is in this scene

that we observe the most dramatic departure from Buuels typical portrayal of women

with the armed revolutionary, who appears to Jean in a daydream. One unusual aspect of

Jeans daydream is that others around him can hear noises, such as gunshots, from the

dream. In the dream, revolutionaries march through the streets and ultimately form a

firing squad that intends to execute the pope, who is played in a cameo by Buuel

himself. The apparent leader of the revolutionaries is the only woman in the group; she

carries an anarchist flag and a pistol, and it is she who calls out the order to fire on the

pope, aiming her pistol and firing with the others. The filming of The Milky Way was in

fact delayed by actual student rebellions in Paris in May 1968, and this brief scene may

pay homage to that occurrence (Buuel 151).

Meanwhile, the Headmistress of the Institut Lamartine has appeared on stage

above the crowd and begins to announce the performance program. Described by Carlos

Fuentes as a wildly stiff schoolmarm and her robotic little pupils reciting anathemas,

the Headmistress is indeed imposing, and the audience listens in rapt silence as her pupils

obediently follow her every directive. The young girls and the Headmistress have a

powerful effect on their audience; as each girl steps forward to recite an act considered to

be heretical, the crowd enthusiastically repeats, quil soit anathme or may he be

PAC Postscript Smith: Buels Improbable Cast 11

excommunicated. As the crowd chants in unison, we cut to the image of the pope being

fired upon at the command of the female revolutionary. The montage suggests a

connection between the young girls pronouncements and the execution of the very

symbol of patriarchy in the Christian world.

In a subsequent scene, Pierre and Jean try to enter a chapel and are told that it is

closed. Inside, a group of nuns is worshipping as one of their sisters is being nailed to a

cross. The Mother Superior, played by the same actress we had previously seen

performing rites as a Priscillian heretic, attempts to dissuade the young nun from

continuing. She refuses, insisting that she wants to suffer as Christ himself suffered. The

only male present is the convents benefactor, a Count, who ostensibly has come to deter

the young nun from her actions. The nun insists, and when both of her hands have been

nailed, she asks everyone to leave her there. There is no opposition to her request; a

woman has now replaced Christ on the cross. With the execution of the Pope and a

woman in the role of Messiah, the patriarchal leadership of the Church has been removed.

The women worship as they choose, and the only male figure present, the Count, is

incapable of halting these developments.

Pierre and Jean ultimately cross the border into Spain, and when they finally see

Santiago de Compostela in the distance, they express their relief that the journey is

coming to an end. Upon reaching the edge of town, however, they are waylaid by an

attractive young woman who calls to them from her car on the other side of the road. She

tells them they shouldnt be in such a hurry to get to Santiago because the place is totally

empty. She invites them to go have some fun in the grass, and when they enthusiastically
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agree, she asks if they have money. The bargain is made, and the trio is heading through

the woods when she stops them abruptly and tells Jean that she wants to have a child with

him. She will name it You are not my people. Pierre then asks, And if we have a

child together? She replies I will name it No more mercy. Pierre and Jean pause

reflectively, recalling the prophecy of the man in the cape at the beginning of the film.

The three then head deeper into the woods, disappearing as the camera pans left to two

blind men dressed in modern clothing who are searching for Jesus to heal them. This is

the last we see of Pierre and Jean; the film ends with the blind men, Jesus, and his

followers walking towards Santiago. Though Jesus ostensibly has healed the blind men,

they still use their canes and have trouble crossing a ditch. The final image of the film is

of one mans cane probing the ditch that he is unable to cross.

While The Milky Way cannot be read as a platform for feminism, the film does

represent a departure from Buuels typical depiction of women in his films as the

objects of male desire. Though aspects of the muse, goddess, seductress and woman-

child are present, there are many female characters that depart from this surrealist female

prototype delineated by Andr Breton and frequently incarnated on the screen by Buuel.

Of particular interest are the armed revolutionary leader and the worshippers in the

Priscillian cult. The woman at the end of the film, who seems to be a prostitute but is

called dame in the screenplay, explains to the pilgrims that Santiago is empty because

there are rumors that it is in fact Priscillian and not Saint James who is buried there. A

modern incarnation of Gomer who recalls the female-centric Priscillian cult thus
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punctuates the culmination of the film, offering the spectator a perspective on women that

departs from representations offered in Buuels more celebrated films.

PAC Postscript Smith: Buels Improbable Cast 14

Works cited

Ashley, Kathleen and Marilyn Deegan. Being a Pilgrim: Art and Ritual on the Medieval
Routes to Santiago. Farnham, Surrey, UK: Lund Humphries, 2009. Print.

Buuel, Luis. Mon dernier soupir. Paris: ditions Robert Laffont, 1982. Print.

De la Colina, Jos and Toms Prez Turrent. Objects of Desire : Conversations with Luis
Buuel. Ed. and trans. Paul Lenti. New York: Marsilio Publishers, 1992. Print.

Fuentes, Carlos. The Milky Way: The Heretics Progress. The Criterion Collection,
2007. Web. 22 March 2015.

The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982. Kindle
ebook file.

Jones, Julie. Above all... don't perform!: Playing to the Camera of Luis Buuel.
Cinaste. 33.3 (2008): 22-26. Print.

Jones, Julie. The saint and the general: Buuel cocks a snook at authority on the Road
to Santiago. Studies in Hispanic Cinemas 6.1 (2009): 19-30. Web. 22 March 2015.

Jorge, Ana Maria C.M. The Lusitanian Episcopate In The 4th Century: Priscilian Of
vila and the Tensions Between Bishops. e-JPH 4.2 (2006). Web. 4 April 2015.

Kaplan, Janet. Rev. of Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement, by Whitney
Chadwick. Woman's Art Journal 9.2 (1988 - 1989): 47-49. Web. 22 March 2015.

The Milky Way (La Voie Lacte). Screenplay by Jean-Claude Carrire. Dir. Luis Buuel.
1969. Web. 22 March 2015.

Oms, Marcel. Don Luis Buuel. Paris, Les ditions du Cerf, 1985. Print.

Polizzotti, Mark. The Milky Way: Easy Striders. The Criterion Collection, 2007. Web.
22 March 2015.

Rucar de Buuel, Jeanne. Memorias de una mujer sin piano. Madrid : Alianza Editorial,
1991. Print.

Saunders, Tracy. Pilgrimage to Heresy. Pilgrimage to Heresy. Web. 4 Apr. 2015.

La Voie Lacte. Dir. Luis Buuel. 1969. Zima Entertainment, 2007. DVD.
PAC Postscript Smith: Buels Improbable Cast 15

Wagner, Brian. Priscillian of Avila, Heretic or Early Reformer? CTS Journal 12.
(2006). Web 4 April 2015.

Williams, Linda. Figures of Desire: A Theory and Analysis of Surrealist Film. Berkeley,
University of California Press. 1981. Print.

Yakir, Dan. Two Old Masters: Luis Buuel. filmcomment. Film Comment,
September/October issue, 1983. Web. 22 March 2015.

Yee, Gale A. "Gomer: Bible." Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical

Encyclopedia. 1 March 2009. Jewish Women's Archive. Web. 30 March 2015.