New Trailer for 4K Restoration of Luis Bunuel’s ‘Él’ – Re-Release Soon

New Trailer for 4K Restoration of Luis Bunuel’s ‘Él’ – Re-Release Soon

by Alex Billington
March 3, 2025
Source: YouTube

“My God, they all know!” Janus Films has revealed a brand new official trailer + new poster for Él, master filmmaker Luis Bunuel’s 1953 film set in Mexico. The film has been restored in 4K and will be playing in art house theaters around the US this spring – check your local listings. The film also went under the title This Strange Passion (aka Tourments) in English. A husband’s suave exterior unravels after his marriage, and he unleashes his paranoid & volatile temper on his wife, which escalates to more dangerous, unpredictable tantrums. This 4K version was scanned from a dupe positive preserved by Películas y Vídeos Internacionales at the Filmoteca de la UNAM. Color grading was supervised by Gabriel Figueroa Flores. The 4K restoration work was completed at L’Immagine Ritrovata in 2022. The Film Foundation also extends special thanks to Guillermo del Toro and Daniela Michel. In making the film, Buñuel added personal memories of his sister Conchita’s paranoid husband who once mistakenly thought he saw Buñuel making vulgar faces at him on the street and went home to get his gun. He was stopped when Buñuel’s family finally convinced him Buñuel was living in Zaragoza at the time. Starring Arturo de Córdova, Delia Garcés, & Luis Beristáin. Enjoy.

Here’s the official trailer (+ poster) for the 4K restoration of Luis Buñuel’s 1953 film Él, from YouTube:

Among the strangest & most perturbing films of his overlooked Mexican period, Él is Luis Buñuel’s incisive portrait of paranoia, jealousy, sexual obsession—a nightmarish tale of love gone wrong that prefigures the major themes of his ’60s & ’70s work. Incorporating his personal demons into an adaptation of Pinto’s autobiographical novel, Buñuel tells the story of Francisco Galván de Montemayor (Arturo de Córdova), a devout middle-aged bachelor who falls into amour fou with Gloria. After breaking her engagement with another man, Gloria realizes something is terribly off about Francisco, whose sophisticated facade masks deep insecurities and an explosive, violent temper. Descending into madness, Francisco drives Gloria to fear for her life—with no refuge offered by either her family or the church. One of Luis Buñuel’s rawest, angriest indictments of religious and social hypocrisy, Él stands as the surrealist master’s great excursion into dark melodrama, where civilization can find no answer to the raging urges of the irrational id. 🇲🇽 🎞

Él is directed by master Spanish-Mexican filmmaker Luis Buñuel, his 10th feature film at the time in his career – just after making El bruto (also in 1953), and before La ilusión viaja en tranvía (1954) and other 1954 films. The screenplay is written by Luis Buñuel and his Mexican writer companion Luis Alcoriza. Based on the story Pensamientos by Mercedes Pinto. Produced by Óscar Dancigers. The film originally premiered at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival before opening later that year in Europe. Janus Films will re-release the 4K restoration of Bunuel’s El in select US theaters starting March 14th, 2025. For details visit the official site.

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