Luis Bunuel: A Critical Biography

This is the first major consideration of the life and films of the great director, Louis Bunuel. The distinguished Spanish film critic and author, Francisco Aranda, traces Bunuel's phenomenal career of more than forty yearsfrom the sensational classicsUn Chien andalouin 1929 andL'Age D'orin 1930 to the Oscar-winningLe Charme discret de la bourgeoisiein 1972 andLe Fantome de la Libertein 1974. Focusing initially on Bunuel's formative days as a student in theResidencia de Estudiantesin Madrid and his friendships with Federico Garcia Lorca, Josse Ortega y Gasset, and Salvador Dali, Aranda discusses the development of Bunuel's surrealist preoccupations through the use of important texts and cinema critiques written by him in the 1920s.Bunuel's collaboration in Paris with Dali onUn Chien andalou(the first surrealist film, which shocked audiences throughout the world) andL'Age d'or(where the theater was attacked and closed by enraged rightists) are described in full, as are the stark documentaries that have been neglected until now:Las HurdesandEspana leal, en armas!And we are presented with painstaking analyses of the Mexican comedies (once dismissed by critics as his "bad" films) and Bunuel's favorite film,Los Olvidados,first prize winner at the Cannes Film Festival in 1951. Finally, Aranda analyzes the films of Bunuel's maturity:Viridiana, El angel exterminador, Belle de Jour, Tristana, Le Charm discret de la bourgeoisieandLe Fantome de la Liberte.He examines the Bunuelian treatment of violence, cruelty, sexual aberration, sadism, and eroticism.Aranda, Francisco is the author of 'Luis Bunuel: A Critical Biography', published 1976 under ISBN 9780306800283 and ISBN 0306800284.