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Luis Buñuel |
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Director / Screenwriter /
Editor |
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1900 - 1983 |
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Born February 22,
Calanda, Teruel, Aragón, Spain |
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Key
Production Countries: Mexico, France, Spain |
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Key Genres:
Satire, Drama, Black Comedy, Surrealist Film, Comedy,
Avant-garde/Experimental, Comedy Drama, Religious Comedy,
Short Film |
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Key
Collaborators:
Carlos Savage (Editor), Jean-Claude
Carriere (Screenwriter), Gabriel Figueroa (Cinematographer), Edward
Fitzgerald (Production Designer), Serge Silberman (Producer), Oscar
Dancigers (Producer), Luis Alcoriza (Screenwriter), Julio Alejandro
(Screenwriter), Michel Piccoli
(Leading Character Player), Fernando Rey (Leading Player) |
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Highly
Recommended:
L'Âge d'or (1930)*, Los Olvidados (1950)*,
El (1952)*, The Young One (1960), Viridiana
(1961)*, The Exterminating Angel (1962)*, Tristana
(1970)*, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)*, The Phantom of
Liberty (1974)* |
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Recommended:
Land Without Bread
(1932)*, The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955)*, Diary of a Chambermaid (1964),
Simon of the Desert (1965), Belle de jour (1967)*, That Obscure Object of Desire (1977)* |
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Worth a Look: Un
Chien andalou (1928)*, The Great Madcap (1949)**, Adventures of Robinson
Crusoe (1952), Illusion Travels by Streetcar (1953), Wuthering Heights
(1954), Nazarín (1958)*, La Fièvre monte à El Pao (1959)**, The Milky Way (1970) |
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* Listed in TSPDT's
1,000 Greatest Films
section; **
Listed in TSPDT's
Ain't Nobody's Blues But My Own
section. |
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Links: [
Amazon
] [
IMDB ] [
TCMDB ] [
All-Movie
Guide ]
[
Senses
of Cinema: Great Directors ]
[
Film Reference ] [
Spanish
Buñuel Site ] [
Wikipedia ] [
Strictly
Film School ] [
kamera
Feature ] [
Flickhead
Article ] [
Telegraph Article (2006) ] [
MUBI ] [
Baseline Biography
] |
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Books:
[
An Unspeakable Betrayal: Selected Writings of Luis
Buñuel ] [
A Companion to Luis Buñuel ] [
Bunuel (John Baxter) ] [
Luis Bunuel: New Readings ] [
The
Films of Luis Buñuel: Subjectivity and Desire ] [
Luis
Buñuel: A Critical Biography ] [
Objects
of Desire: Conversations with Luis Buñuel ] [
My
Last Sigh ] [
Luis Buñuel ] |
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"Perhaps the easiest way
to deal with Buñuel's career is to suggest that certain avatars
of Luis Buñuel may be identified at different historical
periods. The first Luis Buñuel is the Surrealist. The second
Luis Buñuel is the all-but-anonymous journeyman film
professional. The third is the Mexican director. The fourth is
the Luis Buñuel who gradually made his way back to Europe by
way of a few French films made in alternation with films in
Mexico. The last Luis Buñuel, following his emergence in the
mid-1960s, was the past master, at once awesome and beloved." -
E.
Rubinstein (International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers,
1991) |
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"Though
the Church and bourgeoisie were his prime targets, beggars might
be thieves and rapists, blind men paedophiles, virginal cripples
harridans, and housewives afternoon whores; all were calmly and
coolly examined as if insects under the microscope, with the
fascinated, bemused Buñuel never
hammering home a moral sermon, but merely revealing, in a
strange spirit of sympathy, the fundamental comedy of the human
condition. He was, in short, one of cinema's greatest, most
unassertive masters." -
Geoff
Andrew (The Director's Vision, 1999) |
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"Although
Buñuel made some haunting films in the
early 1950s - most notably El Bruto and El, the
richest period of his work runs from 1958 to 1970, years in
which Buñuel produced a series of shattering works that could
almost claim to be considered masterpieces of the cinema." -
David
Quinlan (Quinlan's Film Directors, 1999) |
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"Surreal comedies laced with complex psychology are
representative of Bunuel's talents." -
William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978) |
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"Fortunately,
somewhere between chance and mystery lies imagination, the only
thing that protects our freedom, despite the fact that people
keep trying to reduce it or kill it off altogether." -
Luis Buñuel |
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Please
note that the rating given for this director (see top-right) is based
only on the films we have seen (listed above). Films by this director that we
haven't seen include Gran Casino (1947), Daughter of Deceit
(1951), Susana (1951), El Bruto (1952), and Death in the Garden (1956). |
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"In
short, Buñuel’s work, far from merely entertaining
audiences, grappled with issues that were and are to do with
how to live one’s life in the face of pressures that, in his
view, seek to deny life. His career as a film-maker was one
of uncompromising commitment, and this undoubtedly accounts
for the lasting vitality of his films."
-
Gwynne Edwards, A Companion to Luis
Buñuel |
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●
Top 250 Directors |
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●
Fringe
Benefits |
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100 Essential Directors (Pop
Matters) |
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The
24th Most Influential Director of All Time (2002 MovieMaker
Poll) |
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Survey
of Filmmakers: Top 25 Directors (2005 poll by The Film
Journal) |
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The Wild Bunch... 50 of the Movies' Maddest Visionaries |
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501 Movie Directors: A
Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers |
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See Also |
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●
Pedro
Almodóvar |
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Robert
Bresson |
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Jean Cocteau |
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Manoel de Oliveira |
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Maya Deren |
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Rainer Werner Fassbinder |
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Jean-Luc
Godard |
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Joseph
Losey |
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David
Lynch |
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Nagisa Oshima |
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Jean
Renoir |
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Jean
Vigo |
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Luis Buñuel's Favourites |
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L'Âge d'or (1930)
Luis Buñuel,
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Sergei Eisenstein,
Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Vittorio De Sica,
Cavalcade (1933)
Frank Lloyd,
Dead of Night (1945)
Alberto Cavalcanti/Basil
Dearden/Robert
Hamer/Charles
Crichton, The Gold Rush (1925)
Charles Chaplin,
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Mervyn LeRoy,
Portrait of Jennie (1948)
William Dieterle,
Underworld (1927) Josef
von Sternberg,
White Shadows in the South Seas (1928)
W.S. Van Dyke.
Source: Cinematheque Belgique (1952) |
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