Woman Without Love (1951)

Based on the Guy de Maupassant novel "Pierre et Jean", Luis Bunuel's A WOMAN WITHOUT LOVE tells the story of a woman married to an ailing antiques dealer who has an affair with a young engineer, but refuses to leave her husband even after finding out she is pregnant by the engineer. A quarter of a century after the tryst, one of the woman's sons inherits the riches of a mysterious & wealthy Argentinian. The seemingly happy bequeathing marks the beginning of the family's disintegration. Product Description

I don't agree with Don Luis

Luis Buñuel thought that "Woman Without Love" was the worst movie he ever made and he wrote about it in his autobiography, "I'd been told to set up a screen on the set and just copy André Cayatte's movie (1943 film version of Guy de Maupassant's Pierre et Jean) scene by scene. Not surprisingly, I made it my own way, but it was still a disaster". I don't agree with him. I believe that he never made a bad film - he simply could not. Even if it lacks in his trademark surrealism, it still has his intelligence, his craft, and the ability to make a rather forgettable melodrama interesting and insightful. I am sure many directors would be proud of Woman Without Love. With changing the title of the movie and Maupassant's novella from Pierre et Jean to Woman Without Love, Buñuel, focuses on one of his favorite subjects - couple in love longing for each other and their inability to fulfill their desire due to all types of obstacles, social and religious. is evidently present in the film and elevates it above countless soap-operas. The film is above countless soap-operas. It is beautiful; it moves well, it is based on the writings by a talented writer. I like the acting, and the finale was not disappointing. "A woman without Love" may not be the best Luis Buñuel's film but as his devoted fan, I could not skip it and I am glad that I saw it.

P.S. The quality of DVD leaves a lot to desire. June 28, 2008

The picture quality of the Bunuel DVDs from Cinemateca

Woman Without Love (Ws Sub B&W)As a couple of the movies of Bunuel from Mexico have got a bad treatment referring to the transfer to DVD+, I would like to know about the picture quality of the Cinemateca's DVD version of A Woman Without Love. Of course this is also very important to know because of the upcoming Cinemateca-DVDs of Bunuels The Brute and Susana.

+ VCI Entertainments 50th Anniversary Edition of Adventures of Robinson Crusoe was a great disappointment to me, because of the poor picture quality (I have seen a much better version of this movie on televison (on ARTE Canal in Germany/France) and also WCL/Yume Pictures' transfer to DVD of Ascent to Heaven was a great disappointment also referring to the poor picture quality (this movie I have also seen in a much better version on the televisoon canal ARTE)

October 10, 2007

There is a mistake. Beware !

The film is good as a story or drama and as a technical release but
there is a mistake in the names list of the artists.
On this film there is no participation of Pedro Armendariz, Columba Dominguez and Dolores del Río. They made "La Malquerida".
The true artists were Tito Junco and Rosario Granados. Director: L. Buñuel October 7, 2007

A labor of 'Love' by film genius Luis Buñuel.

"Mine was not a shameful affair, only an impossible union."

Viewers may have considered this film controversial when it was first released nearly sixty years ago. Based on the Guy de Maupassant novel Pierre et Jean, Luis Buñuel's (1900-1983) minor film from his Mexican period, A Woman Without Love (Una mujer sin amor ) (1952), tells the story of a love affair between a married woman, Rosario (Rosario Granados), and a forestry engineer, Julio Mistral (Tito Junco), which ends when she refuses to run away with her lover to Brazil. When the engineer dies a quarter of a century later, he leaves his fortune to the woman's younger son, Miguel (Cordero Loya), who is likely his own son. Because the inheritance threatens the bourgeois values of the woman's boorish husband, Don Carlos Montero (Julio Villarreal), it ultimately causes the disintegration of her family. Buñuel is better known for his classic films including That Obscure Object of Desire, Diary of a Chambermaid, Viridiana, and The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie. In his autobiography, Buñuel called this "quite simply the worst movie I ever made," but it is arguably much better than most other films in this genre.

G. Merritt September 25, 2007

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