Simon of the Desert () is a 1965 Mexican surrealist film directed by Luis Buñuel and starring Claudio Brook and Silvia Pinal. It is loosely based on the story of the ascetic 5th-century Syrian saint Simeon Stylites, who lived for 39 years on top of a pillar. The screenplay was co-written by Buñuel and his frequent collaborator Julio Alejandro.
Following Viridiana (1961) and The Exterminating Angel (1962), Simon of the Desert was the third, and last, of Buñuel's films to star Pinal and be produced by Gustavo Alatriste, Pinal's husband at the time. It was also the final film of Buñuel's Mexican period before he returned to Europe. Today, it is generally acclaimed by film critics, who consider it to be one of the director's most demonstrative works.
Plot
When the ascetic Simón has spent six years, six weeks, and six days on a small platform atop an approximately ten-foot-tall pillar in the middle of the desert, a crowd of monks and peasants gathers around him and invites him to move to a much taller pillar that has been erected by a wealthy family to thank him for healing one of them. Peasants call out for his help as he is led the short distance to the new pillar, and his aging mother approaches and says she wishes to be near him until her death. He allows her to stay, though he says he will not acknowledge her so she does not distract him from his prayers. The monks attempt to bestow holy orders on Simón, but he refuses, saying he is an unworthy sinner.
Once atop his new pillar, Simón leads the crowd below in the Lord's Prayer, but a woman interrupts to ask him to help her husband, whose hands were cut off for stealing. Simón prays and the man's hands reappear, but neither the man, nor anyone else, is very impressed by the miracle, and the peasants depart. The monks stay behind to pray with Simón, but leave after he chastises one of them for looking at a woman who walks by carrying a jug, leaving Simón and his mother alone in the desert.
Brother Matías, a young monk, delivers lettuce and water to Simón, interrupting his prayers. Simón becomes frustrated after Matías leaves, as he had managed to forget his body, but now he is hungry and thirsty and yearns to feel the earth and embrace his mother. Just then, The Devil, who was also the woman with the jug, appears to Simón dressed like a young girl from a future time. She tries to tempt him with her body and jabs him in the back, but he banishes her by appealing to Christ.
One day, while Simón is leading the gathered monks in a prayer about asceticism, Brother Trifón interrupts to say he has found cheese, bread, and wine in Simón's food sack. Simón refuses to defend himself, and Trifón swears he did not place the food in the bag, so the monks pray to the Holy Ghost to show them who is guilty. Trifón has a fit, during which he admits to planting the food and rants against Simón and the teachings of the Church, and Simón exorcises Satan from him. As the other monks are carrying Trifón back to the monastery, Simón tells them to send Matías away until he can grow a beard, as he is too young to be so near the temptations of the Devil.
When he has been atop the column for eight years, eight months, and eight days, Satan comes to Simón dressed as God. She flatters him, and he is initially fooled, but he sees through the ruse when she says she is saddened by his excessive sacrifices and tells him to come down and experience earthly pleasures if he wants to get close to God. He rejects her and she leaves, after which Simón decides that, as penance for mistaking the Devil for God, he will henceforth stand on one leg.
The monk who looked at the woman visits Simón for his forgiveness and blessing and to tell him that the Antichrist is approaching Rome with an army. He remarks that mankind will always be in conflict because of its ideas about ownership, and, when Simón cannot understand, says he fears Simón has become disconnected from and of little use to the outside world. Simon blesses the monk and he leaves.
A coffin slides across the desert toward Simón's pillar. Satan gets out and transports Simón to a crowded 1960s nightclub with a live instrumental rock band on stage. The pair are in modern dress and sitting at a table, and Simón, looking disinterested, asks Satan what dance the people are doing. She responds that the energetic dance is called "Radioactive Flesh". A man asks Satan to join him, and Simón gets up to return home, but Satan says he has to "stick it out till the end."