Luis Buñuel

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 great and more influential filmmakers of all time Buñels works were known for their avantgarde surrealism which were 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 LAge dOr 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 Buñel 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 dOr 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 Buñel 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 Buñuels films are included in Sight Sounds 2012 critics poll of the top 250 films of all time