1929
Search results
Luis Buñuel. Luis Buñuel Portolés (Spanish: [ˈlwis βuˈɲwel poɾtoˈles]; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish and Mexican [2][3][4][5][6][7] filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. [8] He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and most influential ...
Luis Buñuel. Writer: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. The father of cinematic Surrealism and one of the most original directors in the history of the film medium, Luis Buñuel was given a strict Jesuit education (which sowed the seeds of his obsession with both religion and subversive behavior), and subsequently moved to Madrid to study at the university there, where his close friends ...
- January 1, 1
- Calanda, Aragon, Spain
- January 1, 1
- Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
Luis Buñuel. Buñuel en 1929. Luis Buñuel Portolés (Calanda, Teruel, 22 de febrero de 1900- Ciudad de México, 29 de julio de 1983) fue un director de cine hispanomexicano. 5 Ha sido ampliamente considerado por muchos críticos de cine, historiadores y directores como uno de los cineastas más grandes e influyentes de todos los tiempos. 6 .
- Overview
- Life and work
- Legacy
Luis Buñuel (born February 22, 1900, Calanda, Spain—died July 29, 1983, Mexico City, Mexico) Spanish filmmaker who was a leading figure in Surrealism, the tenets of which suffused both his life and his work. An unregenerate atheist and communist sympathizer who was preoccupied with themes of gratuitous cruelty, eroticism, and religious mania, he wo...
Buñuel was born in Calanda, in northeastern Spain, the eldest of seven children. His father, Leonardo, made a fortune in Havana selling hardware and firearms, and he subsequently returned to Spain, married a much younger woman, and settled down to the life of a country gentleman. “The fact of the matter,” Luis later said, “is that my father did absolutely nothing.” Influenced by his mother, Buñuel studied violin and contemplated a career as a composer. He graduated from the Jesuit school in Zaragoza, Spain, where the family moved shortly after his birth, but he rejected religion and became a lifelong atheist.
Entering the University of Madrid (later Complutense University of Madrid) in 1917, Buñuel took rooms in its Residencia des Estudiantes. A hotbed of liberal thought, the Residencia attracted young men interested in art, music, literature, and politics. Buñuel befriended two rising stars, poet and playwright Federico García Lorca and painter Salvador Dalí. Fascinated with the natural world, particularly insects, Buñuel initially hoped to become an entomologist. Instead, his father insisted that he study engineering, a profession useful for a landowner and, moreover, respectable. Ultimately, however, he studied philosophy.
In 1925 Buñuel moved to Paris in order to pursue a position with the emerging League of Nations. The job fell through, but he remained in France, reviewing movies for Madrid papers while acting as an extra and production assistant on such films as Carmen (1926; directed by Jacques Feyder), the Josephine Baker vehicle La Sirène des tropiques (1927; Siren of the Tropics), and La Chute de la maison Usher (1928; The Fall of the House of Usher), which he also cowrote. Friends made on those films, particularly actor Pierre Batcheff and cinematographer Albert Duverger, later became his collaborators.
Determined to make his mark, Buñuel asked his mother for a sum equal to the dowries allocated to each of his sisters. He invested it in Un Chien andalou (1929; An Andalusian Dog), a short film in Surrealist style. Using the free-association technique pioneered by André Breton and Philippe Soupault, Buñuel and Dalí wrote the film, which Buñuel directed and Duverger photographed; Batcheff played a major role. Dalí arrived from Spain only for the last days of shooting and, according to some reports, was surprised by Buñuel’s efficient management of the production and resented the evidence that he could function without him. Their friendship subsequently cooled.
Breton approved Un Chien andalou and admitted both Buñuel and Dalí to his tight-knit circle of Surrealists. Wealthy dilettantes Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles funded his second film, L’Age d’or (1930; The Golden Age), an assault on the repression of sex by organized religion. In one of its most-controversial scenes, Christ is seen leaving an orgy orchestrated by the Marquis de Sade. Before its release, MGM put both Buñuel and the film’s star, Lya Lys, under contract, shipping them to Hollywood. In their absence, right-wing protesters wrecked a cinema showing the film, the censor banned it, and the Noailleses fled Paris. Dalí also distanced himself from the film.
Students save 67%! Learn more about our special academic rate today.
The most controversial of filmmakers and the most reticent, Buñuel, almost uniquely among directors of his generation, pursued his vision in the face of commercial realities. Indifferent to profit, shunning possessions, he concerned himself solely with the act of creation. A surrealist to the last, his fidelity was to the unconscious and those impu...
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Oscar Nominee – Best Original Screenplay [2] BAFTA Film Award – Best Screenplay (with Jean-Claude Carrière) BAFTA Film Award nominee – Best Direction. BAFTA Film Award nominee – Best Soundtrack (with Guy Villette) French Syndicate of Cinema Critics – Prix Méliès. Golden Globe Award nominee – Best Foreign-Language Foreign Film.
YearOriginal TitleEnglish TitleDirector1928The Fall of the House of UsherNo1930The Golden AgeYes1947Magnificent CasinoYes1949The Great MadcapYesLuis Buñuel was the greatest of all Spanish film-makers. He is also known as the greatest of all Surrealist film-makers – someone who kept returning to dreams and the unconscious, all the way ...
Learn about the life and career of Luis Buñuel, the Spanish-born Mexican filmmaker who revolutionized cinema with his surreal and satirical style. Find out his achievements, influences, collaborations, quotes, and more on IMDb.
