Spanish film director Luis Buñuel Portolés was born on the 22nd of February 1900 in Calanda. His parents were very strict Catholics, and Buñuel was raised in this spirit. His parents enrolled him to study at the Jesuit College, from which Buñuel was soon expelled. Then he went to university in Madrid, where he met with Salvador Dalí, who was already known for his revolutionary views on art. At the university Buñuel initially studied agriculture and later begun to study philosophy.

After the death of his father in 1923 Buñuel decided to go to Paris, where he worked as a clerk. He also became involved with the French avant-garde movements, especially with surrealism. In the spirit of surrealism, along with Dalí he made in 1928 a film An Andalusian Dog (Un Chien Andalo) and in 1930 film The Golden Age. After the fall of military dictatorship he returned to Spain, where in 1932 he filmed a critical documentary Land Without Bread about those events.

From 1936 to 1939 during the Spanish Civil War Buñuel worked at the Embassy of Spain in Paris. After the defeat of the Republic he did not return to Spain and immigrated to the USA. There he worked in radio and in various museums; he also worked on foreign language versions of American advertising and documentary films.

At the end of the Second World War Buñuel moved to Mexico, where, after fifteen years he began to shoot films again. He made twenty films, both in Mexico and also in France and Spain.

Buñuel died on the 29th of July 1983 in Mexico City.


Buñuel’s film works:

- 1950 - The Forgotten: the critical drama about the lives of morally disturbed youth
- 1953 - Él (This Strange Passion aka Torments): topic of murdering psychopath
- 1955 - Rehearsal for a Crime aka The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz: topic of young neurotic dreaming about murders of women
- 1958 - Nazarin: the story of a priest trying to act consistently according to his faith and at a price that will become an outcast
- 1961 - Viridiana: filmed in Spain, accusation of false Christian piety and charity
- 1962 - The Exterminating Angel: filmed in Mexico, fantastic story of a group of people involuntarily locked up in one room, where they reveal their true characters in course of the night they spend together
- 1963 - The Diary of a Chambermaid: a free adaptation of the novel of French writer Octavo Mirabeau (1848 – 1917), the deterrent image of the country bourgeoise
- 1966 – Belle de jour: about the dream and reality, young woman dissatisfied in the marriage
- 1970 - Tristana: the story of an aging painter, and his disabled foster-daughter
- 1972 - The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie: a satire of contemporary society
- 1977 - That Obscure Object of Desire


Final version – 15. 1. 2008

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