The entire "Robinson Crusoe" film is on YouTube. I ran into it on the Criterion Channel, but here's the whole thing, and I'll just clip out the one 4-minute section that I think is most distinctive, which happens when he's been alone for a very long time and before he has any thought that he'll ever see anyone again. His dog Rex has just died. "Now, truly alone, starved for the sound of a voice, any voice":
Here's the full text of the book. Have you read it? Recently? I don't think I have, though I do remember reading 2 of Daniel Defoe's novels: "A Journal of the Plague Year" and "Moll Flanders." From his Wikipedia page:
Defoe was a prolific and versatile writer, producing more than three hundred works—books, pamphlets, and journals — on diverse topics, including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology, and the supernatural. He was also a pioneer of business journalism and economic journalism.... In Defoe's early childhood, he experienced some of the most unusual occurrences in English history: in 1665, 70,000 were killed by the Great Plague of London, and the next year, the Great Fire of London left only Defoe's and two other houses standing in his neighbourhood.... Defoe died on 24 April 1731, probably while in hiding from his creditors. He was often in debtors' prison. The cause of his death was labelled as lethargy....
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Great voice.
Did he ever meet the Robinson's?
Friday looks like a surfer dude with shoe polish.
Lethargy will be the end of me someday, too.
Ooh, if you like The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, you will love The Phantom of Liberty. It's also whimsical, and I like it even more than Discreet Charm.
There's a scene in it when several people sit down around a table and use the toilets together, but each person goes to a separate room to eat alone.
It's a brilliant film.
Could never understand the reasoning (beyond punishment) behind debtors prisons. Guy doesn't pay, claiming no money. So creditor gets to lock him up until he does pay though being locked up sorta cuts down on debtor's ability to come up with some plan for repaying. While in prison the debtor is forced to work for which he gets some compensation (probably quite meager) against which is deducted the cost of his confinement and the amount owed to the creditor.
Seems more vengeful than helpful.
"There's a scene in it when several people sit down around a table and use the toilets together, but each person goes to a separate room to eat alone."
Yeah, I saw that at the time. Memorable! But I don't remember anything else about that movie.
For some odd reason Dan O'Herlihy got an AA nomination for this role. I remember seeing it, and thinking well its OK. Three stars.
I later found out that Bunuel was a great director. If he was great, he hid it here.
Robinson Crusoe is well worth reading or re-reading as a child or adult though the account of the hero's trek across the Alps at the end was odd. It's probably off the list for curriculums because of Friday's subservience and its Christian outlook but Moll Flanders is probably required in high school by now instead of banned. I went to college with someone who claimed that the person it was based on was one of his great-great-great grandmothers.
I have read Robinson Crusoe a few times. Or at least I think I have. What Defoe wrote is likely almost incomprehensible to us today. English has changed a great deal since he wrote. So what I read are modern editions with modernization and standardized texts. Maybe abridged some too.
So have I read Robinson Crusoe? I…. don’t actually know.
Regardless I am sure I have read an approximation which is far more than most people coming out of college today that is for sure.
Hasn’t this book been canceled because of the stereotypes and “racism” yet?
It was striking that as Crusoe named himself 'Master' and the poor fellow in blackface 'Friday', he went on immediately to declare that they were 'friends': imagine the transports of self-righteous indignation in the English or film departments when that scene is taught.
I don't remember much about The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie except the giant talking mouth and a short conversation about Napoleon's hat. Seeing it was a class trip of the ninth-grade French students. "It's subtitled, but try to follow the movies without them", said our teacher, who probably had no idea what to expect. I do remember being titillated by the prospect of seeing an R-rated film and being utterly depressed by the reality -- the bus trip to the art house cinema was typically raucous and returned atypically subdued. Quel ennui.
I've watched several Bunuel movies on the Criterion Channel, but not "Robinson Crusoe." The one I enjoyed the most was "That Obscure Object of Desire" (not currently available there). As with "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie," it finds humor in others' frustration, in this case, the sexual frustration of the male character played by Fernando Rey. It does this at the hands of the female character, who is portrayed by 2 different actresses. How audacious, and fun. Unlike the Fernando Rey character, the viewer always knows which side of this woman he is dealing with.
I read both Journal, a great book, and Crusoe in college (I'm the same age as AA), and can remember feeling horribly let down when he spent so much time hollowing out a fallen log to make a canoe...only to realize there was no way to get the heavy thing all the way to the water.
His "R.C." is very good. Also loved "Simon of the Desert" but was confused about the ending til I learned he didn't have enough $$ to finish it.
I saw Bunuel's Robinson Crusoe in the '60s, when a black-and-white print circulated the art houses. I'll have to give the Criterion color version a look. Thanks for putting the idea in my head.
My favorite Bunuel films are from his Mexican period, the black comedy Criminal Life of Archibaldo Cruz, about a sensually obsessed bachelor's attempts to commit a murder to inaugurate his upcoming wedding; and Nazarin, a drama about what befalls a priest who tries to live the gospel of compassion.
1. The idea of debtor's prison was not being helpful, or rehabilitating, but as a deterrent to others who might choose to feed their family over paying their debts.
2. I read Robinson Crusoe in high school and was quite taken with it. I really do not remember the movie very well, but I am sure I watched it at some point.
Moll Flanders is a great novel in my opinion, with a sympathetic heroine who tells it like it was. Hard to believe it was written by a male.
I read Robinson Crusoe as a teenager and took it as a story about a guy who overcame adversity. Are you saying that's NOT what it's about?
I was surprised to learn that Defoe may have been at least partly inspired by Alexander Selkirk's experience on an island off the coast of Chile.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alejandro_Selkirk_Island
Crusoe was, of course, based on the real-life marooned sailor Alexander Selkirk, who was put ashore (at his own request) on the Juan Fernandez Islands off the coast of Chile. Selkirk was a misanthropic Scotsman who didn't get along with his ship's captain (it was a privateering voyage in search of Spanish gold/the Manila Galleon) and so, when the ship stopped at the Juan Fernandez archipelago for water, Selkirk was put ashore, where he remained for several years until picked up by another British privateer. One of his pastimes not usually mentioned in historical accounts was his penchant for buggering the island's many goats, which he would run down on foot and capture bare-handed. He had a primitive knowledge of the germ theory of disease and so would only bugger each goat once, notching the goat's ear with a knife to mark it as...um...deflowered. (see the book Selkirk's Island : the true and strange adventures of the real Robinson Crusoe by Diana Souhami).
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