An Andalusian Dog
1929
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Luis Buñuel Portolés (Spanish: [ˈlwis βuˈɲwel poɾtoˈles]; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. [8]
- Filmmaker
- Luis Buñuel Portolés, 22 February 1900, Calanda, Aragon, Spain
- University of Madrid
- 29 July 1983 (aged 83), Mexico City, Mexico
IMDb provides an extensive overview of the life and work of Luis Buñuel, the father of cinematic Surrealism and one of the most original directors in film history. Learn about his early influences, his collaborations, his controversies, his masterpieces and his legacy.
- January 1, 1
- Calanda, Aragon, Spain
- January 1, 1
- Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
- 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.
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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
Nov 2, 2018 · Born in 1900, Luis Buñuel was truly a child of the 20th Century. But his radical films that negotiated class struggle and sexual politics are still relevant today. Luis Buñuel was the...
- Lead List Editor & Writer
- 'Los Olvidados' (1950) Los Olvidados is arguably Buñuel's best film. The plot follows Pedro, a young boy who becomes entangled with El Jaibo, a young man recently released from prison, and his gang.
- 'The Exterminating Angel' (1962) Surrealist cinema peaked with Buñuel's 1962 Mexican masterpiece The Exterminating Angel. An ensemble including Silvia Pinal, Jacqueline Andere, and Enrique Rambal stars in the story of a group of wealthy guests unable to leave after a lavish party.
- 'Un Chien Andalou' (1929) Un Chien Andalou is possibly the film most people will think of when thinking of Luis Buñuel. The 1929 French silent short film is a triumph of surrealism and a defining entry that helped build the genre.
- 'L'Age d'Or' (1930) When talking about the all-time great surreal comedies, those rare and disruptive efforts that have left an indelible mark on world cinema, Buñuel's L'Age d'Or has a place of honor.
Learn about the life and career of Luis Buñuel, the father of cinematic Surrealism and one of the most original directors in film history. Explore his early works, his collaborations with Dalí and Carrière, his controversies, his awards and his quotes.
Luis Buñuel Portolés ( Spanish: [ ˈlwis βuˈɲwel poɾtoˈles]; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish and Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time.
