Luis Buñuel

Luis Buñuel Portoles (February 22, 1900 – July 29, 1983) was a Spanish-born Mexican filmmaker.

Religious influence

Many of his films were openly critical of middle class morals and organised religion, mocking the pretension and hypocrisy of the Church in ways that are often (then and now) mistaken for vicious and anti-clerical. Many of his most (in)famous films became the target of priggish fury:

Related Topics:
Church - Anti-clerical

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• L'Age D'Or - a bishop is thrown out a window
• Simon Of The Desert - the devil tempts the saint by taking the form of a naughty, bare-breasted little girl singing and showing off her legs
• Nazarin - the pious lead character is a fool who wreaks ruin through his attempts at charity
• Viridiana - a well-meaning but self-regarding young nun tries unsuccessfully to help the poor

Buñuel was a lifelong atheist, whose early disillusionment with the corruption of organized religion remained with him for life and spurred him to expose it fiercely in his films.

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The story of the making of Viridiana is illustrative. In 1960 Buñuel's earlier Spanish and French films were still known and respected - Un Chien Andalou, L'Age D'Or, and Las Hurdes. Spain, at the time, had virtually no film industry and very little arts activity going on at all, due to years of civil war and the flight of many artists and dissidents from Franco's Spain. As a result, Buñuel was revered in Spain far out of proportion to the number of people who had actually seen his films. Accordingly, Franco decided to approach Buñuel about returning to Spain to make a government-subsidized film. Buñuel, much to the shock and anger of his friends and other Spanish expatriates, agreed. He submitted the script of Viridiana to the Spanish censors, but did not make any of the changes they requested and made his film as planned. It was sent by the Spanish government to Cannes without being previewed, and won the Palme D'Or there. The next day, calls and communications started pouring in, first from the Vatican, with outrage at the Spanish government's production and submission to Cannes of what was seen to be a highly blasphemous film. Buñuel, untouched by the scandal, went home to Mexico, having made the film he wanted and having received acknowledgement for it.

Related Topics:
1960 - Franco - Palme D'Or - Vatican

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