Death in the Garden is a kind of halfway house for the film genius, made when he had yet to receive the acclaim that would give him full control of his movies, but after he had been taken seriously enough by the money men.

Signoret's frenzy becomes her character's, enervating an otherwise humdrum melodrama.

No masterpiece, but a prime example of subversive cinema.

the film still demonstrates themes Buñuel would perfect in his later work, namely the reemergence of humanities’ subconscious desires and self-destructive tendencies when removed from the constraints of social order.