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The Milky Way
(La voie lactée)

Screening on Film
Directed by Luis Buñuel.
With Laurent Terzieff, Paul Frankeur, Delphine Seyrig.
France/Italy, 1968, 35mm, color, 102 min.
French with English subtitles.

One of Buñuel’s most vigorous critiques of Catholic doctrine, The Milky Way is a picaresque tale about a pair of tramps who set off from Paris on the classic European pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. During the course of their journey, they traverse not only space but time, traveling back in history to bear witness to Jesus’ speech at the wedding in Cana, remarks by the Virgin Mary about her son’s grooming habits, and even an appearance by the Devil himself. More corrosive are the discussions of the articles of faith by less vaunted figures such as a rural police inspector whose skepticism about the nature of the Eucharist leads him to conclude, "You’ll never convince me that the body of Christ can be enclosed in a piece of bread!"

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