Death in the Garden

In a South American diamond-mining region, the military crushes a miners’ uprising. Five fugitives then wander through the jungle—first by boat, then on foot: the prostitute Djin (Simone Signoret), the adventurer Shark, the elderly Castin (Charles Vanel), his deaf-mute daughter, and a missionary (Michel Piccoli). At the site of a plane wreck, the last vestiges of civilization finally fall away... This film by Luis Buñuel (“An Andalusian Dog”) is one of the French-Mexican star-studded productions that heralded his return to Europe. It follows on from “Robinson Crusoe” (1954) and foreshadows “Nazarín” and “The Exterminating Angel.” The world-famous Surrealist Buñuel thus hollows out this superficial genre material from within: The first half of “The Plague of the Jungle” remains conventional adventure cinema. It is only in the jungle that the film becomes truly Buñuel: ants devour a snake, the priest burns his breviary, and Djin puts on an evening gown and jewelry in the wreckage. Nature appears merciless, while religion and possessions prove to be hollow conventions.