Luis Buñuel
Biography
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. Buñuel's work was known for its avant-garde surrealism which was also infused with political commentary and social satire.
Often associated with the surrealist movement of the 1920s, Buñuel made films from the 1920s through the 1970s. He collaborated with prolific surrealist painter Salvador Dali creating the films Un Chien Andalou (1929), which was made in the silent era and L'Age d'Or (1930). The two films are seen as the birth of Cinematic surrealism. From 1947 to 1960 he developed his skills as a director filming in Mexico making grounded and human melodramas such as Gran Casino (1947), Los Olvidados (1950), and Él (1953). Here is where he gained the fundamentals of storytelling.
Buñuel than transitioned into making artful, unconventional, surrealist, and political satirical films. He earned acclaim with the morally complex arthouse drama film Viridiana (1961) which criticized the Francoist dictatorship. The film won the Palme d'Or at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival. He then criticized political and social conditions in The Exterminating Angel (1962), and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoise (1972) the later of which won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. He also directed Diary of a Chambermaid (1964), and Belle de Jour (1967), as well as his final film That Obscure Object of Desire (1977) the later of which earned the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Director.
Buñuel earned five Cannes Film Festival prizes, two Berlin International Film Festival prizes, and a BAFTA Award as well as nominations for two Academy Awards. Buñuel received numerous honors including National Prize for Arts and Sciences for Fine Arts in 1977, the Moscow International Film Festival Contribution to Cinema Prize in 1979, and the Career Golden Lion in 1982. He was nominated once for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968. Seven of Buñuel's films are included in Sight & Sound's 2012 critics' poll of the top 250 films of all time.
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Full filmography
- Cinépanorama (1956) as Self
- Reflets de Cannes (1954) as Self
- Belle de Jour (1967) as Man in Gardencafe - Left from the Duke (uncredited)
- Un Chien Andalou (1929) as Man in Prologue (uncredited)
- L'Âge d'or (1930) as (uncredited)
- Encyclopédie audiovisuelle du cinéma (1978) as Self (archive footage)
- The Proud and the Beautiful (1953) as Smuggler (uncredited)
- The Phantom of Liberty (1974) as A Condemned Man (uncredited)
- The Milky Way (1969) as (voice) (uncredited)
- Discovering Buñuel (2012) as Self/Archive Footage
- Weeping for a Bandit (1964) as El verdugo
- Jeanne Moreau: Free Spirit (2018) as Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
- The Incredible Mr. Piccoli (2017) as Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
- Speaking of Buñuel (2000) as Self (archive footage)
- tvSSFBM EHKL (2001) as Himself (archive footage)
- Deneuve, la reine Catherine (2022) as Self (archive footage)
- There Are No Thieves in This Village (1965) as Cura
- Catherine Deneuve, belle et bien là (2010) as Self (archive footage)
- Carmen (1926) as Contrebandier chez lillas pastia
- Le Fantôme de Laurent Terzieff (2020) as Self (archive footage)
- Mauprat (1926) as Monk / Guardsman
- Paco, mi padre (1992)
- The Life and Times of Don Luis Buñuel (1984) as Self
- Buñuel in Hollywood (2000) as Self (archive footage)