Luis Bunuel
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Luis Bunuel Portoles was a Spanish-Mexican filmmaker. He was born in Calanda, Spain in to a devoutly Catholic Family. This probably led to his resentment of Catholicism and its values, which was the focus of one of his most famous films, “L’Age d’Or” (The Golden Age). He understood the neuroses and pettiness of his middle class Catholic upbringing well. “I am still an atheist, thank God”, he famously said.
Watch “L’Age d’Or “.
He attended the University of Madrid, where he became friends with Salvador Dali. L’Age d’Or and Un Chien Andalou were collaborations between the two surrealists. Because L’Age d’Or has a strong anti-Catholic theme, the film came under a lot of scruntiny in Bunuel’s native Spain. The theater where the film premiered was left in ruins by national extremists.
His works move from Surrealist experimentation in the 1920s, through commercial comedies and melodrama in the 1950s, to post-modernist Cine d’Art in the 1960s and ’70s.
