Happy 114th Birthday to the father of Surrealist Cinema, Luis Buñuel.
Luis Buñuel was a creature of the 20th century. Born in 1900, he died in 1983, and February 22nd would have been his 114th birthday. It is almost impossible to overestimate his influence on cinematic surrealism, though ironically, his biggest contribution to the movement was made without its official “blessing.” No matter, along with a group of artists which included famed visual artist Salvador Dalí, his contributions to motion picture surrealism are still shocking young filmmakers today, and his works, along with his later cohorts, friends, and enemies, are required viewing for anyone who wants to understand how cinema became more than a record of life, but a rendering of the dream. On the occasion of his birth, I look back at the Spanish-Mexican filmmaker’s life and work, including his best known film, the silent 1929 short Un Chien Andalou.
Of their famous first film, Buñuel later recalled: ”Our [Dali and Buñuel] one and only rule was very simple: no idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation of any kind would be accepted. We had to open all doors to the irrational and keep only those images that surprised us, without trying to explain why.”