biography
pronunciation:
[buhnwel]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1900–83)
|
| biography:
| Film director, born in Calanda, Teruel, EC Spain. He was educated under the Jesuits, then moved to Madrid to study civil engineering. He soon abandoned this for natural sciences, and in 1924 graduated in philosophy and letters. In Madrid he met some of the great figures of the Generación de 1927 and became an intimate friend of Salvador Dalí and Federico García Lorca. After working with the director Jean Epstein in Paris, he directed two short films written by Dalí, which were a sensation with their Surrealistic, macabre approach: Un Chien andalou (1928, Un perro andaluz; An Andalusian Dog) and L'Age d'or (1930, The Golden Age). His career then went into eclipse until he settled in Mexico (1947), where he directed such major films as Los olvidados (1950, trans The Young and the Damned), Viridiana (1961), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972), and That Obscure Object of Desire (1977). His work is characterized by a poetic, often erotic, use of imagery, a black humour, and a hatred of Catholicism, often expressed in blasphemy. |
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