Luis Buñuel won 36 awards and was seen by many as one of the greatest Auteur directors in history.
His early work was seen as surrealist, which can be seen in his work on Un Chien Andalou. He has some incredibly strange scenes in that film, include a scene where the eye is cut with a razor and also scenes with a dead donkey. It is really a horrible film to watch, but it it shows his use of surrealism. It stood out because not many people of that generation where going to that length to prove a point and he was.
I find one of the strange things about this film is the scene with the moon being pierced by the moon. It would normally be seen as a metaphor of the eye being cut without us actually seeing it. However we see this metaphor and then we see it actually happen, which makes it incredibly uncomfortable for the viewers.
As a director who is obsessed with exploring radical concepts he always wanted to show us something different on our screens in comparison to what would have been normal at the time.
He also had a agenda of social criticism and a strong belief in breaking the traditional representation of people and places. This means that a lot of people may not agree with what he portrays but at least he is speaking his mind and not following a trend.
In his film "Land without bread" his interesting use of film language actually mocks the audience so that they get provoked. It seems that one of Luis Buñuel tactics in film making is to disturb the audience so that then they will talk about it with other people.
After looking into more about how he got some of his shots I was surprised to find that for one of his films he actually shot a goat to get his desired effect for a film, something that would be unacceptable today. However this did surprise me that he was willing to go to such lengths to show the story in a correct way, even though it is very inhumane.
From researching into Luis Buñuel I see that he is a director that really likes to be different, he isn't scared to do something crazy just to get the right show and he isn't worried about upsetting people, because 's what he wants. He want's as many people to talk about his as possible. His strange storylines are also another reason why I see his as an Auteur because a lot of people nowadays would not want to do anything that risky.
I see his style as one that likes to tell a story in a very un-linear way, and he was not worried about juxtaposing the real and the surreal. He is seen as a surrealist director who really doesn't care if the film has any logic to it, as long as it told the audience something they could talk about.
Very good and interesting choice of director! Pleased you appreciate his work. But remember auteurism is as much about personal/interior meaning as visual style. Are there common personal themes that connect all of Bunuel's work?
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