- Born
- Died
- Birth nameLuis Buñuel Portolés
- Nickname
- The Scourge of the Bourgeoisie
- Height5′ 7½″ (1.71 m)
- a classic Surrealist gesture if ever there was one.
The father of cinematic Surrealism and one of the most original
directors in the history of the film medium, Luis Buñuel was given a
strict Jesuit education (which sowed the seeds of his obsession with
both religion and subversive behavior), and subsequently moved to
Madrid to study at the university there, where his close friends
included Salvador Dalí and
Federico García Lorca.
After moving to Paris, Buñuel did a variety of film-related odd jobs in
Paris, including working as an assistant to director
Jean Epstein. With financial assistance
from his mother and creative assistance from Dalí, he made his first
film, the 17-minute
An Andalusian Dog (1929), in
1929, and immediately catapulted himself into film history thanks to
its shocking imagery (much of which - like the sliced eyeball at the
beginning - still packs a punch even today). It made a deep impression
on the Surrealist Group, who welcomed Buñuel into their ranks.
The following year, sponsored by wealthy art patrons, he made his first
feature, the scabrous witty and violent
The Golden Age (1930), which mercilessly
attacked the church and the middle classes, themes that would preoccupy
Buñuel for the rest of his career. That career, though, seemed almost
over by the mid-1930s, as he found work increasingly hard to come by
and after the Spanish Civil War he emigrated to the US where he worked
for the Museum of Modern Art and as a film dubber for Warner Bros.
Moving to Mexico in the late 1940s, he teamed up with producer
Óscar Dancigers and after a couple of
unmemorable efforts shot back to international attention with the
lacerating study of Mexican street urchins in
The Young and the Damned (1950), winning him
the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival.
But despite this new-found acclaim, Buñuel spent much of the next
decade working on a variety of ultra-low-budget films, few of which
made much impact outside Spanish-speaking countries (though many of
them are well worth seeking out). But in 1961, General Franco, anxious
to be seen to be supporting Spanish culture invited Buñuel back to his
native country - and Bunuel promptly bit the hand that fed him by
making Viridiana (1961), which was
banned in Spain on the grounds of blasphemy, though it won the Palme
d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
This inaugurated Buñuel's last great period when, in collaboration with
producer Serge Silberman and writer
Jean-Claude Carrière he made seven
extraordinary late masterpieces, starting with
Diary of a Chambermaid (1964).
Although far glossier and more expensive, and often featuring major
stars such as Jeanne Moreau and
Catherine Deneuve, the films showed
that even in old age Buñuel had lost none of his youthful vigour.
After saying that every one of his films from
Belle de Jour (1967) onwards would
be his last, he finally kept his promise with
That Obscure Object of Desire (1977),
after which he wrote a memorable (if factually dubious) autobiography,
in which he said he'd be happy to burn all the prints of all his films- IMDb Mini Biography By: Michael Brooke <michael@everyman.demon.co.uk>
- SpouseJeanne Buñuel(1925 - July 29, 1983) (his death, 2 children)
- Children
- ParentsLeonardo BuñuelMaría Portolés
- RelativesLeonardo Buñuel(Sibling)Alicia Buñuel(Sibling)Margarita Buñuel(Sibling)María Buñuel(Sibling)Concepción Buñuel(Sibling)Alfonso Buñuel(Sibling)Diego Bunuel(Grandchild)
- Insects
- His films often include an animal in a scene, where they seem out of place
- Satirizies or outright attacks bourgeois lifestyles
- Shocking subject matter
- Mockery or wholesale attacks upon religion, especially Catholicism
- Praised by Alfred Hitchcock as the best director ever.
- Liked to daydream, and his imaginations were frequently to play tricks to his friends and, in Mexico, one of his favorite
"victims" was the Spanish screenwriter Luis Alcoriza. During a
hunting party, Alcoriza saw an eaglet on a tree and knocked it down
with the first shot but then he found a price tag on a paw: it was a
stuffed bird put there by Buñuel. - He was fluent in Spanish and French but never learned to speak English.
- Was voted the 14th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment
Weekly.
- I have a soft spot for secret passageways, bookshelves that open into
silence, staircases that go down into a void, and hidden safes. I even
have one myself, but I won't tell you where. At the other end of the
spectrum are statistics which I hate with all my heart. - [asked why he made movies] To show that this is not the best of
all possible worlds. - I've always found insects exciting.
- Nothing would disgust me more morally than winning an Oscar.
- Thank God, I'm an atheist.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content