Buñuel: The Essential Collection (Blu-ray Box Set)

A collection of seven films by Spanish director Luis Buñuel, presented in a beautiful, bonus-packed Blu-ray box set.

In The Diary of a Chambermaid (1964), Jeanne Moreau stars as Celestine, a beautiful and sharp-witted young maid from Paris who arrives to work on the rural Normandy estate of the wealthy Monsieur Rabour (Jean Ozenne). It's not long before Celestine clashes with her supervisor Joseph (Georges Géret), who rules the servants with intimidation and colludes with his bourgeois employers to serve his own interests.

In Belle De Jour (1967), bored doctor's wife Séverine Serizy (Catherine Deneuve) hears of a brothel operating near her home and, struck by a sudden desire, goes there to offer her services in the afternoons. While there she encounters a wide range of characters, only to eventually run into trouble with a gangster and a friend of her husband.

Tristana (1970) follows a young devout woman who goes to live with her male guardian after her mother's death. His intentions towards her are clearly more than fatherly, however, leading to an enforced marriage and Tristana (Deneuve) eventually fleeing to Madrid, where she falls in love with a young artist. Years later, afflicted with a life-threatening illness, she plots revenge against the man who had stripped her of her innocence.

In The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) well-to-do couple the Thévenots (Paul Frankeur and Delphine Seyrig) accompany friends Rafael Acosta (Fernando Rey) and Florence (Bulle Ogier) to the house of Henri and Alice Sénéchal (Jean-Pierre Cassel and Stéphane Audran), who are hosting a dinner party. So begins a series of increasingly bizarre episodes and surreal dream sequences as the diners, over the course of the following days, find themselves repeatedly frustrated in their attempts at eating out.

In That Obscure Object of Desire (1977), Mathieu (Rey), a widowed French businessman, becomes obsessed with a Spanish girl named Conchita (Carole Bouquet and Angela Molina). She claims to feel the same for him but nevertheless continually frustrates the realisation of his desire.

The Phantom of Liberty (1974) begins with a man who falls in love with a statue during the Napoleonic wars and then moves to the modern day, where we meet a man distributing pornographic postcards, a young girl who has disappeared but who nevertheless helps the police as they prepare to search for her, and a group of dinner party guests who sit on toilets around a large dining table and then politely excuse themselves when they need to go outside and eat.

Finally, The Milky Way (1969) follows two tramps as they undertake a pilgrimage from Paris to Compostello, Spain. Along the way they meet a prostitute (Seyrig), the Devil (Pierre Clémenti), the Virgin Mary (Edith Scob), the Marquis de Sade (Michel Piccoli) and Jesus (Bernard Verley).

That Obscure Object of Desire

• New: Jean-Claude Carriere interview
• New: Aesthetics of the Irrational: ICA Q&A with Jean-Claude Carriere and Diego Bunuel hosted by Tim Robey
• Interview with Carlos Saura
• The arbitrariness of desire by Jean-Claude Carriere
• Lady Doubles - interview with Carole Bouquet and Angela Molina
• Portrait of an impatient filmmaker, Luis Bunuel - Interview with Pierre Lady and Edmond Richard

Belle De Jour - New 50th Anniversary Restoration

• New: Jean-Claude Carriere interview
• New: Masterclass with Diego Bunuel and Jean-Claude Carriere (1 hour+)
• New: Trailer
• Commentary by professor Peter W. Evans
• The Last Script (1:34:33)
• A Story of Perversion or Emancipation? - Interview with Dr Sylvain Mimoun (29:39 in PAL)

Diary of a Chambermaid

• Extras:
• An Angel in the Marshes doc (26 minutes)

Phantom of Liberty

• New: Jean-Claude Carriere interview
• New: Critical Analysis by professor Peter W. Evans
• New: Bunuel, la transgression des reves -A new documentary by Pierre-Henri Gibert
• Photo Gallery

The Milky Way

• New: Jean-Claude Carriere interview
• New: Critical Analysis by professor Peter W. Evans
• Bunuel, athiest thanks to God doc (32 minutes)
• Trailer

Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

• New: Jean-Claude Carriere interview
• A Walk Amongst the Shadows doc (28 minutes)
• Critical analysis by professor Peter W.Evans
• Trailer

Tristana

• New Interview with Franco Nero
• Rituals documentary doc (20 minutes)
• Trailer