Ask anyone about a Spanish film director, and most people will think of Almodóvar first. However, one of the best and most influential film directors of all time was Luis Buñuel. If you haven’t seen any of his movies yet, you don’t know what you’re missing.
Buñuel was born with the 20th century in Spain, but he also lived in France, Mexico, and the United States. As a young student in Madrid, he became very close friends with poet and playwright Federico García Lorca, and Salvador Dalí, the painter. They lived together at the student hall of residence while completing their univeristy studies.
Shortly after that, he moved to Paris, where he started his film career with a couple of striking, surrealistic films: Un chien andalou (1929), and L’Âge d’or (1930). At that time, Paris was the center of the avant-garde movements were taking over literature, painting, and even music, experimenting and pushing the boundaries of art to the extreme. Therefore, his first films were hugely successful amongst other artists, but also severely criticized by the more conservative branches of society.
He then went back to Spain and worked on a few documentaries and movies right before the Civil War started in 1936. After his friend Lorca was assassinated by the fascist authorities, it became clear to Buñuel that he had to leave the country, since being an atheist and a communist would have meant a death sentence for him too. He moved back to France, and then to the United States, where he worked for the Museum of Modern Arts and in the film industry, in various roles.
However, he didn’t direct any other movies until he moved to Mexico in 1947. He obtained Mexican citizenship, and achieved major success with Los olvidados (1950), which landed him the Best Director award at Cannes Festival. To this day, that is one of only two movies to be regarded by UNESCO as World Heritage works.
He continued his career in Mexico for a few years before returning to Spain to shoot Viridiana (1961), which also triumphed at Cannes, even though it was banned in Spain for many years due to its controversial treatment of religious faith and themes.
One year later he completed El ángel exterminador, a fascinating surrealistic movie about the behavior of a group of upper class people who believe they are trapped in a room. In my opinion, this is one of his best pieces of work.
In the 60s and 70s, most of his films were produced in France, and he continued winning awards and recognition as a director, for movies like Belle de jour (1967) or Tristana (1970) In 1972, he became the first Spanish one to win an Oscar with El discreto encanto de la burguesía.
Here is a video with some scenes taken from his movies:
If you have ever watched any of Buñuel’s works, we’d love to hear your comments or thoughts about it!
¡Hasta la próxima!
