Surrealist film director. Luis Bu帽uel was born on February 22, 1900 in Calanda, a small town in the Arag贸n region of Spain. He was a visionary filmmaker and influential figure in the history of cinema, known for his distinctive style and bold exploration of themes such as surrealism, social criticism, and human nature.
His family was wealthy and devoutly Catholic, a conservative environment that would later provide rich material for his critical and often subversive works.
Bu帽uel's education began in Jesuit schools, where he developed a critical view of religion that would pervade much of his later work. He moved to Madrid in 1917 to study at the University of Madrid, where he became part of an intellectual circle that included future luminaries such as Salvador Dal铆 and Federico Garc铆a Lorca. This period marked the beginning of his engagement with avant-garde and surrealist ideas.
In the late 1920s, Bu帽uel moved to Paris, the epicenter of the surrealist movement. There, he collaborated with Salvador Dal铆 on his first film, "Un Chien Andalou" (1929), a 16-minute short that shocked audiences with its dreamlike imagery and disjointed narrative. The film, now considered a masterpiece of surrealist cinema, established Bu帽uel as a daring and original filmmaker.
Bu帽uel followed up with "L'脗ge d'Or" (1930), another collaboration with Dal铆, which further cemented his reputation. This film, with its provocative critique of the bourgeoisie and the Catholic Church, was met with outrage and censorship, solidifying Bu帽uel's position as a controversial and radical artist.
The political turmoil in Europe during the 1930s led Bu帽uel to work in various capacities, including a stint making documentaries in Spain and working in Hollywood. However, his career in the U.S. was hampered by his unorthodox style and political views. He eventually returned to Mexico, where he found a more receptive environment for his talents.
In Mexico, Bu帽uel directed numerous films that combined his surrealist tendencies with social and political commentary. Notable works from this period include "Los Olvidados" (1950), a gritty portrayal of urban poverty that won him the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival, and "El" (1953), a psychological drama about jealousy and obsession.
The 1960s and 1970s marked a period of international recognition and success for Bu帽uel. He directed several acclaimed films, including "Viridiana" (1961), which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, "Belle de Jour" (1967), starring Catherine Deneuve, and "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" (1972), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. These films showcased Bu帽uel's continued fascination with surrealism, his sharp wit, and his critique of societal norms.
Bu帽uel's later years were marked by a retreat from the public eye, but he remained active in filmmaking until his final work, "That Obscure Object of Desire" (1977). He died on July 29, 1983, in Mexico City, leaving behind a legacy that has profoundly influenced modern cinema. His work continues to be celebrated for its innovation, audacity, and enduring relevance, ensuring Bu帽uel's place as one of the most important filmmakers in the history of the medium.
Despite complains of losing his memory in later life, this was an utterly fascinating autobiography from arguably Spain's most important film-maker of the 20th century. Being in his early eighties at the time, and having a hell of a lot to remember, Bu帽uel is obviously awash with nostalgia, and it's written as if he felt wonderful lives went out with his generation. We move from image to image, just like his films, as he recollects on his childhood in Spain, his involvement with the surrealist movement in Paris, the Spanish Civil War, his time spent in America and Mexico (where he became a citizen), and of course, his films, although, he only really covers a small handful of them in detail.
He had quite the friends list too - Garcia Lorca, Picasso, Dali, Magritte, Breton, Eluard to name but a few. He also got to hang out regularly with Charlie Chaplin whilst in America. It surprised me somewhat, that although he was a close friend of Dali, and admired his work greatly, he was scathing of him as a person on more than one occasion in the book, describing him as selfish, narcissistic and totally unreliable. There were others too. He touched on his likes & dislikes equally - he loved fried eggs served with Chorizo, smoking, a dry martini, and was a big fan of Russian literature, Fritz Lang, and the early work of Jean Renoir, but didn't have anything kind to say about Japanese culture, or writers Steinbeck, Hemingway, and Luis Borges. He even said of Dante's Divine Comedy as being useless, and even less poetic than the Bible, but was singing the praises of de Sade. If I'm honest, he did come across as a bit of a big-head at times, in a sort of Vladimir Nabokov way, but, on the other hand, he was also pleasingly unpretentious.
My Last Sigh was, on the whole, a tremendous pleasure to read. I now feel like having a Bu帽uel movie night! - The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie followed by Belle de Jour.
A master film-maker, Luis Bunuel offers a remarkably sophisticated political analysis, but remains based in the essentially peasant values of storytelling and the purposefully unsystematic supervisions of laughter. Luis Bu帽uel, inimitable, and unrelenting in his assault on bourgeois values. Bunuel's method is free from all artifice, and his honesty and humor are to extreme to accept any compromise in exposing our deceit and our decadence. Like Pasolini, his work offers a remarkably sophisticated political analysis, but remains based in the essentially peasant values of storytelling, and the purposefully unsystematic supervisions of laughter. Originally published: London: Cape, 1984.
Our memory is our coherence, our reason, our feeling, even our action. Without it we are nothing
In his popular study of neurological cases, The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat , Oliver Sacks uses such quotes from Bunuel鈥檚 memoirs. It is a clever way of engaging the reader to appreciate that science can illuminate very human experiences as well as art. And art can illuminate science. The pain of losing memory, hence identity in Sack鈥檚 story of a man who cannot recall any of his life is the introduction to Bunuel鈥檚 autobiography. Can memory be trusted, and when it cannot be, we have lost so much. At least Bunuel has a reasonable memory beyond 80 years of age. He finished this book, in fact, only months before he died. At least there was no further chapter. For an atheist, that was an ideal outcome.
I knew little of Bunuel鈥檚 life and only really knew a handful of films I watched at the university 鈥榗inemateque鈥� on Wednesday nights. Perhaps I鈥檝e been nostalgic: reminiscing about the 1980s this month. Speaking of which, Franscois Ozon鈥檚 latest is set in 1985 called Ete 85. I caught that at the local French Film Festival.
Here鈥檚 an excerpt if interested in the Ozon movie
Born in 1900, Bunuel takes a historical point of view of his early life describing the Spain he was born into as only then emerging from the middle ages, the rituals, relationships, work barely changed in 500 years.
He can be very amusing, giving us endless insights into his love of making martinis.
and here we find such skills used with artistic relevance in the film, The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Bunuel knocked about a lot doing odd jobs, both casual and odd. He made Un Chien Andalou with Dali in 1929, and Large Door (sorry local pronunciation joke on the title L'Age d'Or) in 1930 but hardly made more films for 20 years. Before the fall of the Spanish republic he ended up in France working as a propagandist for the Republic. One of his odd jobs was to send anti-fascist pamphlets up inside balloons across the Pyrenees into fascist held Spain. Surrealism and real life change places as I imagine the beauty of a balloon floating across the frontier to deliver their payload. He spent six months in Hollywood studios with a salary to simply follow film productions and learn techniques. He found stage sets unnerving and instead spent the time in his apartment reading.
He knew Lorca and Dali, Breton, Tanguey etc. He is open about not liking Lorca鈥檚 work, but found him an exceptional though overly dramatic person. He was artistically close to Dali until he found Dali spent too much time chasing money and fame at the expense of friendships. Bunuel did the opposite. He ended up working for 15 years in Mexico, paid well, but not great, making films with poor technical scope, small funding, a limited acting pool and 24-day shooting regimes. He was proud of meeting such deadlines. He was honest about how some films didn鈥檛 work as well as he liked during that time.
Much of what he writes here is matter of fact. He lived around artistic circles, believed in the idea of surrealism as a revolutionary transformative social force, a form of subversion of the oppressive norm around him. He talks about dreams as though they are as valid to relate as the events of the Spanish Civil War. While reading this book, a transference occurred, I had vivid dreams most nights. I can鈥檛 recall mine, but Bunuel could recall many of his. So there's a whole chapter on them.
He talks about old age, how he had been losing his hearing for decades, how he was losing his sight and the way his body declined making his world smaller, his life revolving around a simpler and simpler routine.
I had no idea what to expect in this book, only Oliver Sacks quotes of this book to go on. I don鈥檛 usually read memoirs or biographies. I鈥檓 one of those who prefer the text to the life behind it. But this was illuminating, philosophical, charming, funny, and never egotistical or self-important. A fresh new text that enhances the form.
In Calanda, the small olive growing town where he was born, there is an ancient Easter ritual in which the entire town is out beating a drum for 24 hours after the death of Christ. Death by the way is an ever present in this book, too. It is very Spanish and very personal. These drums are a very early death ritual in his life. Here is a clip of the Calanda Drums I found on YouTube:
Bunuel loved this ritual.
He talks a lot about the one shot you get at life and atheism. chance is a matter of one shots, it rarely takes anything back or gives you a second opportunity
He devotes a whole chapter to pay out on anything he doesn't like. I like it. It's honest. That's one way of writing a late-in-life-memoire, nothing matters when you're dead. The pretensions of life become irrelevant.
I love this guy after reading this. even though he could be a bit of an a**^hole at times.
One of my favourites, as you would expect. I'm a massive Bu帽uel fan, even modeling my drinking and smoking regimens on his advice in this book back in the 80s. By turns funny, angry, insightful, and intelligent, but always entertaining.
This is a wonderful autobiography of the great film director Luis Bunuel. I have watched several of his films and really enjoyed them. This book covers his life growing up in Spain, his 36 years living in Mexico City where most of his films were made, as well as times he spent in New York, California and Paris. Unfortunately, he died the year after this book was written and published at the age of 83. Anybody who likes his films or just cinema in general, should really enjoy this book.
Bunjuel je u saradnji sa 沤an-Klod Karijerom napisao ovu knjigu koju, ako se ne varam zapo膷inje primedbom da je on star isto koliko i vek u kojem 啪ivi. Ako 啪elite da znate 拧ta je jednog umetnika nadahnjivalo, 拧ta je voleo da radi, 拧ta nije voleo da radi. Koje je knjige 膷itao, koje je filmove voleo, koje pisce i slikare nije mogao da podnese i uop拧te ako 啪elite da pro膷itate knjigu u kojoj autor ima jasno izra啪eno mi拧ljenje umetnika o stvarima koje zanimaju sve ljude koji vole njegovo delo, onda je to ova knjiga.
Knjiga prikazuje Bunjuela u jednom 100% ma膷o elementu i Bunjuel od tog svog ma膷oizma ni ne be啪i. Pri膷e o ludim stvarima koje je radio kao dete, o mladosti provedenoj u nadrealisti膷kom pokretu i odlasku u Pariz, gde je u tom momentu poznavao delo Dostojevskog bolje nego 沤id, ali gde je tako膽e otkrio De Sada zbog 膷ega je smatrao da je u najmla膽im danima u 拧koli bio prevaren jer mu je poturan na 膷itanje Dostojevski umesto ne膷eg za njega tako sna啪nog kao 拧to je bilo De Sadovo pisanje. Tu je Bunjuel koji odbija dalju saradnju sa Dalijem iako je Dali molio kasnije da snime drugi deo "Zlatnog doba". Bunjuel koji pi拧e o Daliju kao meku拧cu i iznosi dosta intimnih i po Dalija posramljuju膰ih detalja u knjizi. GOvori o tome kako je jednom od besa 啪eleo da udavi Galu i to bi i uspeo da ga Dali pla膷u膰i i mole膰i na kraju jedva nije odvratio od toga. Tu je Bunjuel koji bi voleo da 23 sata dnevno sanja a da jedan preostali sat na osnovu toga mo啪e da snima filmove. Bunjuel 艩panac, Bunjuel Francuz, Bunjuel Meksikanac, a zaprava Bunjuel Nadrealista, koji prezire nacionalni ponos. Bunjuel koji je uvek vi拧e voleo da on bude nesre膰no zaljubljen, nego da je neka 啪ena nesre膰no zaljubljena u njega. Bunjuel koji se bavi hipnozom 膷ime ostvaruje stra拧ni, trajni uticaj na jednu devojku. Bunjuel koji od svih pisaca na svetu najvi拧e mrzi Borhesa, iako priznaje da je Borhes veliki pisac, ali dodaje da ima puno velikih pisaca i da ne mo啪e da podnese Borhesovu opsednutost Nobelovom nagradom, a i da mora da ga mrzi u skladu sa izrekom prema kojoj "gluvi ljudi mrze slepe" ako se dobro se膰am. Bunjuela koji je svoju gluvo膰u iskoristio da se pravi gluv na setovima i ne slu拧a ni拧ta primedbe gluma膷kih zvezda.
To su samo neke od stvari o kojima pi拧e i to izuzetno zanimljivo Lusi Bunjuel izme膽u ostalog autor i Diskretnog 拧arma bur啪oazije - filma u kojem nekoliko ljudi poku拧ava da ru膷a, ali to ne uspevaju iz razli膷itih 膷udnih razloga - za koji je dobio Oskar 1972. godine, zbog 膷ega u knjizi imamo i sliku njega i njegove ekipe kao i Kopole i njegove ekipe kako sede i starinski poziraju kao dobitnici oskara za doma膰i i strani film za tu 1972. godinu, jednu od retkih godina kada se Filmskoj akademiji nije mogao zameriti izbor - Kum 2 i Diskretni 拧arm - pa gde ima ja膷a berba?
Preporuka svim filmofilima, re啪iserofilima, biografofilima i tako dalje i tako dalje...
One of the great charming memoirs from an artist who I suspect wasn't that charming in real life. But Bunuel was such an incredible force in his medium that he worked in - the cinema. He had his up's and his down's (Dali not that great as a friend) but he took the cultural big surf as a great surfer - and basically made films that were incredibly unique, fun, and well...Fantastic. There is not one Bunuel that I don't love. And I also love this book as well.
i liked this book far more than i expected to. Bunuel is a story teller. and his autobiography is not a linear report on dates and names and places. instead it is very much a story weaving through time and very personal. like a conversation -where one thing leads to another- associations are made and we don't necessarily end up were we thought we were going to. and that is the joy of it.
plus i really relate to how Bunuel sees the world. his chapter entitled Still an Atheist, Thank God! in which he gets rather philosophical ... well, i completely agree with pretty much every thing he has to say, so there is that. it's easy to enjoy reading a book that agrees with your world view right?
and, the time period he lives through and describes is one i am fascinated by. those years as w.w.one comes to an end. and the Russian Revolution is underway and then there is the Spanish Civil war. it's Hemingway and the expat generation in Paris - disillusioned by the war experimenting with life to forget about all the death there had been ... and it's Picasso and the Dadist and Surrealist movements wanting to rip tradition apart and let in new life. in the aftermath of w.w.one there was -for some- a great sense of hope .... that the madness they had been through would create a new world order. that is certainly the way the Russian Revolution began and i suspect the Surrealist movement as well, and it is heartbreaking to read about their failures. about the surrealist movement, Bunuel says: '...there is no doubt that surrealism was a cultural and artistic success; but these were precisely the area of least importance. Their aim was not to establish a glorious place for themselves in the annuals of art and literature, but to change the world, to transform life itself. This was our essential purpose, but one good look around is evidence enough of our failure.'
and finally, let's not forget that while i have only seen a handful of his films, i think he is a brilliant director. and a good writer. and he's a smart or rather thoughtful man. i just liked reading what he had to say. right to the very end - the chapter entitled, Swan Song - i just liked reading what he had to say.
Passei tempos achando que nunca daria cinco estrelas para um livro escrito por um cineasta desde que Tarkovski acabara com todo as chances com seu estupendo Esculpir o Tempo, mas eis que aparece essa preciosidade de Bu帽uel (ajudado por Jean-Claude Carri猫re). Ao mesmo tempo que n茫o 茅 a obra-prima narrativa que nos deu Tarkovski, 茅 por si um comp锚ndio do s茅culo XX, parece-me que n茫o h谩 baluarte daquele s茅culo com quem Bu帽uel n茫o manteve um t锚te-脿-t锚te, mesmo assim n茫o 茅 bem isso que torna tal livro grandioso e sim a personalidade deliciosa do cineasta. Sua vida e linguagem 茅 permeada por diatribes incessantes ao status-quo, o que torna suas hist贸rias muito divertidas (assim como seus filmes), mas a verdade 茅 que devo estar dando cinco estrelas ao livro pela minha total identifica莽茫o ao modo de vida e pensar do cineasta, que me d谩 um certo alento em meio 脿 mediocridade reinante.