Buñuel, Luis, 1900-1983

Variant names

Dates:

Birth 1900-02-22

Death 1983-07-29

Nationality: Spaniards

Language: Spanish; Castilian

Biographical notes:

Luis Buñuel was born February 22, 1900 in Calanda, Spain. He was educated by Jesuits before going to Madrid to study at the University. There he met Salvador Dali and the two became friends. He moved to Paris where, in 1928-29 he made, with Dali, the short film Un Chien Andalou. This film contained such shocking images that it was banned for decades. Some of the images still shock today, such as the slit-open eyeball that was one of the opening images in the film. It catapulted Buñuel to notoriety, especially among surrealists. He followed this with L'Age d'Or. He went on making movies, most of which attacked the bourgeoisie and Christianity. He moved to Mexico in the late nineteen-forties and made movies, many of which did not make much of an impression outside Spanish-speaking countries. One outstanding film from this time is Los Olvidados, an unflinching look at street life in Mexico. Returning to Europe, he made several films late in his career which won much critical acclaim. He worked with such actors as Fernando Rey, Jeanne Moreau and Catharine Deneuve. He won a Palme d'or, and an Oscar for The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie in 1972. Buñuel died in 1983.

From the description of Luis Buñuel film scripts, 1932-1956. (University of Iowa Libraries). WorldCat record id: 233636059

Film director, Luis Buñuel was born in Calanda, Spain in 1900 and attended college at the University of Madrid. At Madrid, he befriended the painter Salvador Dalí and the poet Federico García Lorca. In 1929, Buñuel and Dalí co-wrote the ground breaking Surrealist short film Un Chien Andalou, which also marked Buñuel's directorial debut. Buñuel went on to direct several internationally acclaimed motion pictures, including L'Age d'Or, The Young and the Damned, and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. Zachary Scott was an American actor who became typecast as villains or enigmatic characters over the course of his career. The Southerner, Mildred Pierce, and Natchez Trace are among his film credits. Scott also starred in one of Luis Buñuel's first English-language films, The Young One, and was preparing for the most significant role of his career: Geoffrey Firmin, the protagonist of Under the Volcano, an alcoholic British consul living his final days in 1939 Mexico. In 1965, before production began, Scott died suddenly of a brain tumor at the age of 51. Lowry's novel would undergo several attempts by various filmmakers to reach the screen until John Huston's adaptation in 1984.

From the description of Papers, 1956-1967. (Indiana University). WorldCat record id: 727064705