*I wrote this paper over thirty years ago for a foreign film class, and got a C. The instructor was being too kind.*
Luis Bunuel was born in Calanda, Teruel Province, Spain on February 22, 1900 to a well-to-do family. He was educated at Jesuit schools in Zaragoza from 1906 to 1915. He was a residencia de estudiantes from 1917 until 1920 in Madrid. At the University of Madrid, Bunuel studied with Gabriel Lorca, Salvador Dali, Juan Vicens, and Rafael Alberti. He graduated in 1924, and left Spain the following year to escape the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera.
Bunuel went to France to work in Paris. Having begun to contribute to literary journals while in Spain, Bunuel became an assistant to Jean Epstein. Bunuel and his friend Salvador Dali tried without success to break into the highbrow surrealist society in Paris. Out of this frustration came "Un Chien Andalou," probably the most famous surreal film of all time.
According to Bunuel: "...surrealism revealed to me that man cannot dispense with the moral sense. I believed in the total freedom of man, but I saw in surrealism a discipline to follow and it led me to take a marvelous and poetic, large step forward." "Un Chien Andalou," as well as Bunuel's next surrealist work "L'Age d'Or," were privately commissioned by the Vicomte de Noailles. Bunuel and Dali would select jokes, gags, and objects that would happen to come to mind. They rejected without mercy everything that might mean something. Bunuel also directed, edited, and appeared in the film. He played the man who slits the woman's eye with a razor. The film was photographed by Albert Dubergen, who would enjoy a long career in European film; and starred Simone Mareuil, Pierre Batcheff, Jaime Miravilles, Bunuel, and co-writer Dali. Siberian-born Batcheff would later receive roles in Rene Clair's "Les Deux Timides" and Abel Gance's "Napoleon" before committing suicide in 1932.
The first screening of "Un Chien Andalou" caused an uproar. Dali and Bunuel were quickly accepted into the surrealist's ranks. Over the years, many have dismissed this important film as sensationalism, others call it brilliant, and one critic simply stated "Un Chien Andalou" was "optical rape."
Bunuel's next film, with miniscule help from Dali, was "L'Age d'Or." Henry Miller said of Bunuel's second feature: "I had the impression that I was watching a film which was pure cinema and nothing but cinema...unique and unparalleled...it makes its appeal neither to the intellect nor to the heart; it strikes at the solar plexus."
In 1930, Bunuel was offered a contract by MGM and visited Hollywood, but returned, disenchanted with Tinseltown, to Paris the following year. Two years later, Bunuel was working for Paramount in Paris when he married Jeanne Rucar. They would have two sons- Rafael and Juan-Luis.
In 1935, Bunuel was the Filmofono Executive Producer in Madrid, supervising musicals and comedies. For the next three years, Bunuel served the Republican government during the Spanish Civil War, then returned to Hollywood to supervise unrealized documentaries on the war. From 1939 until 1942, he worked at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, reediting, dubbing, and directing documentaries for Latin American distribution before being dismissed because of suspicion of a Communist background. Bunuel made no apologies about his religious beliefs: "I have always been an atheist, thank God...I believe it is necessary to find God in man, it's a very straightforward attitude."
In 1944, Bunuel returned to Hollywood to produce Spanish versions of Warner Brothers films. He moved to Mexico in 1947 and directed films there until 1960. That year, he was invited to make a film called "Viridiana."
Bunuel's "Viridiana" tore into established religion. His parody of "The Last Supper" shocked those who hadn't seen the orgy involving Christ in "L'Age d'Or," and transvestitism and foot fetishes ran throughout the story of a naive nun. The Spanish government suppressed the film. During the 1960's and '70's Bunuel worked in Italy and France and lived in Mexico.
When his film "Tristana" received a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award nomination, Bunuel said: "Nothing would disgust me more morally than receiving an Oscar. Nothing in the world would make me go accept it. I wouldn't have it in my home. Even in refusing it, like this actor [reluctant nominee George C. Scott for "Patton"], one isn't free from its corrupting influence. Look at what happened to him when he said he wouldn't accept it. It was worth a Time cover." Bunuel played with the structure of his film "The Exterminating Angel." Because it was slightly too short for commercial exhibition, Bunuel simply repeated a scene at the beginning of the film to lengthen it.
Luis Bunuel died in Mexico City, Mexico on July 29, 1983 of natural causes. Although dozens of books and articles have been written on Luis Bunuel, the late Francois Truffaut summed up this great surrealist with just two words-"happily anarchist."
Luis Bunuel Filmography
1926 Mauprat (as assistant)
1928 La Chute de la Maison Usher (as assistant)
1928 Un Chien Andalou
1930 L'Age d'Or
1932 Land Without Bread
1946 Grand Casino
1949 El Gran Calavera
1950 Los Olvidados
1950 Suzana la Perverse
1951 La Hija del Engano
1951 Una Mujer Sin Amor
1951 Subida al Cielo
1952 The Brute
1952 Wuthering Heights
1952 Robinson Crusoe
1953 El
1953 La Ilusion Viaja en Tranvia
1954 El Rio y la Muerte
1955 The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz
1956 La Mort en ce Jardin
1958 Cela S'Appelle L'Aurore
1959 La Fievre Monte a El Pao
1959 Nazarin
1960 The Young One
1961 Viridiana
1962 The Exterminating Angel
1964 Diary of a Chambermaid
1966 Belle de Jour
1966 Simon of the Desert
1969 The Milky Way
1970 Tristana
1972 The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
1974 The Phantom of Liberty
1977 That Obsure Object of Desire
Luis Bunuel
Major Film Awards
"Los Olvidados"
-Best Direction, Cannes Film Festival (1951)
-International Critics Prize, Cannes Film Festival (1951)
"Subida al Cielo"
-Best Avant-Garde Film, Cannes Film Festival (1952)
"Nazarin"
-Gold Medal, Cannes Film Festival (1959)
"Viridiana"
-Gold Medal (co-recipient), Cannes Film Festival (1961)
"Simon of the Desert"
-Silver Lion, Venice Film Festival (1965)
"Belle de Jour"
-Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival (1967)
"Tristana"
-Best Foreign Language Film, Nomination, Academy Awards (1970)
"The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie"
-Best Foreign Language Film, Winner, Academy Awards (1972)
-Best Story and Screenplay, Nomination, Academy Awards (1977)
"That Obscure Object of Desire"
-Best Foreign Language Film, Nomination, Academy Awards (1977)
-Best Adapted Screenplay, Nomination, Academy Awards (1977)
Luis Bunuel
Bibliography
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Bona, Damien and Mason Wiley. Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards. New York: Ballantine Books, 1987.
Crowther, Bosley. Reruns: Fifty Memorable Films. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1978.
Debrix, Jean R. and Ralph Stevenson. The Cinema as Art. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1969.
Halliwell, Leslie. Halliwell's Film Guide, 6th Edition. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1987.
Halliwell, Leslie. Halliwell's Filmgoer's Companion, 9th Edition. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988.
Katz, Ephraim. The Film Encyclopedia. New York: Perigree Books, 1979.
Kauffman, Stanley. Living Images. New York: Harper & Row, 1975.
Kauffman, Stanley. Field of View. New York: PAJ Publications, 1986.
Lindgren, Ernest. The Art of Film. New York: Collier Books, 1963.
Lyon, Christopher, Ed. The International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers: Volume II- Directors/Filmmakers. Chicago: Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1984.
Maltin, Lenoard, Ed. TV Movies and Video Guide, 1990 Edition. New York: Signet, 1989.
Phillips, Baxter. Cut: The Unseen Cinema. New York: Bounty Books, 1975.
Sadoul, Georges. Dictionary of Film Makers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1972.
Talbot, Daniel, Ed. Film: An Anthology. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1969.
Truffaut, Francois. The Films in My Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1985.
