Carlos Saura: biography, creativity, filmography

Carlos Saura is a famous Spanish director, screenwriter, photographer. He is a laureate of numerous cinematographic prizes, holder of three nominations for "Oscar". Known as the director of films, widely using full-scale shooting. A consistent supporter of neo-realism in filmmaking. Initially, the director had a hard time, his innovative ideas did not always find understanding from his colleagues, as many filmmakers prefer to film their films using old proven methods.

Carlos Saura - biography

The director was born in the Spanish city of Huesca on January 4, 1932. In the big cinema made his debut in 1959, taking off the feature film "The Tramp" in an unusual for that time manner. Then Carlos Saura created a poignant film called "Hunting" about three veterans of the war, occupying absolutely dissimilar life positions. Gray landscape episodes, full-scale shooting and the work of cameraman Luis Cuadrado, underlined contrast, made the picture one of the most successful in 1966, which was confirmed by the delivery to the director of the Silver Bear in Berlin.

A year later Carlos Saura shot another film in the manner of neo-realism called "Mint cocktail with ice." With this film project, the director began working with Elias Kerekhet, an experienced producer. The picture was devoted to the repression of General Franco after the end of the civil war in Spain. The film is no less dramatic than "Hunting", and in something even more cruel. The Spanish director has always drawn to the staging on the verge of "horror movies" - the more frightening is happening on the screen, the more sense can be invested in the film.

Prohibitions

Saura Carlos, along with Elias, tried to circumvent censorship and identify the glaring flaws of the Spanish society. They managed to do this when staging the films "Nora", "Garden of Delights", "Stress". All three paintings had a touch of surrealism, which helped to mask the sharp corners, which abounded in the script.

Horror

In 1973, the director began the production of the saga "Anna and the Wolves," describing the life of the Spanish aristocrats. In the center of the plot is one extremely conservative family living in a large manor house. The head of the family and his wife decided to invite a governess for their little daughters. In the birthplace of the castle comes Anna, which immediately becomes the object of the desire of the three brothers living in the house: Juan, Fernando and Jose.

The drama of the plot goes beyond all limits, the hypertrophied sexual interest of the brothers in the governess is interwoven with attempts to observe the rules of decency. Anna begins to openly mock his admirers. The end of the film is tragic - brothers lie in wait for their abuser on a deserted road, cut her hair, raped and killed with a shot from the revolver in the head.

Psychology

The film "Cousin Angelica," which Carlos Saura took in 1974, was awarded a special prize at the Cannes Film Festival. The picture is devoted to psychoanalytic problems, when suffering experienced in the distant past, begin to manifest itself in the present. Fatal interweaving of the present time with the past can destroy the feelings that have arisen. Children's love and the relationship of the grown-ups of Angelica and Louis, dreams and reality are opposed to each other.

In 1977, the director created a film project entitled "Eliza, My Life", revealing the difficult relationship between literature and cinema, attempts to resolve the eternal dispute, more importantly, the image or sound, music or text. From time to time in the film there is a deep connection between poetry and music. In some episodes, an image is unthinkable without a soundtrack, a musical composition.

Historical Characters

The diary, which leads Fernardo Rei, fits into the channel of statements, but his daughter, reading the diary, is able to destroy everything. The author refers to a number of sources, such as "Pygmalion", presented in the form of an opera performance by Jean-Philippe Rameau, "Del Mundo" by Calderon De Bark, "Criticism" by Balthasar Grassian. As the keynote of the film is the "First Gnassienne" of the French composer Erik Sati, who lived in the first half of the twentieth century.

Creativity Carlos Saura especially flourished during the emergence of democracy in Spain, a transition period from the dictatorship of Franco to a legal society. Later this theme was reflected in the movie "With the blindfold", filmed in 1978, about the suffering of the common people in Latin America.

The first nomination for "Oscar"

A year later, the director creates his first comedy, which goes under the title "Mom turns 100 years old." The film received several awards at various film festivals and was nominated for an Oscar as the "Best Foreign Film".

Directed by Carlos Saura is considered the most important of all their cinematographers in the Pyrenees, he has occupied the production chair for more than thirty years. Among his achievements we can note:

• Special prize of the Berlin Film Festival for the film "Raising the Crow";
• The "Golden Bear" award, received in 1981 also in Berlin for the film "Faster, faster" about the adventures of homeless children;
• Prestigious prize of the British Academy of Cinema for the painting "Carmen", handed in 1983; The film became the second part of the trilogy (after the "Bloody Wedding" and before "Sorcerous Love").

Filmography

During his career, director Saura Carlos has staged about fifty films of a different genre. Below is a sample list of his works.

• "Flamenco" (1955).
• "The Sunday evening" (1957).
• The "Tramps" (1959).
• "Lament for the bandit" (1964).
• "The Hunt" (1966).
• "Mint cocktail with ice" (1967).
• "Nora" (1969).
• "Garden of Delights" (1970).
• "The Cousin of Anhelika" (1974).
• "Raise the Crow" (1975).
• "My life, Eliza" (1977).
• "Tied eyes" (1978).
• "Mom turns 100 years old" (1979).
• "Quickly, quickly!" (1980).
• "Bloody Wedding" (1981).
• "Sweet watches" (1981).
• "Antonietta" (1982).
• "Carmen" (1983).
• "Stilts" (1984).
• "Witchcraft Love" (1986).
• "Eldorado" (1988).
• "The Dark Night" (1988).
• "Aw, Carmella!" (1990).
• "The Seville" (1991).
• "Shoot!" (1993).
• "Taxi" (1996).
• "Birdy" (1997).
• "Tango" (1998).
• "Goya from Bordeaux" (1999).
• "King Solomon and Bunuel" (2001).
• "Salome" (2002).
• "The Seventh Day" (2004).
• "Iberia" (2005).
• Fadu (2007).
• "Don Juan" (2009).
• "Thirty-three days" (2013).
• "Argentina" (2015).

Carlos Saura, whose filmography continues to be replenished with new films, is currently working on another script.

Personal life

According to the materials of the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, director Carlos Saura, who was 84 years old recently, decided to open the veil over his relationship with his longtime mistress, Geraldine Chaplin, a British actress of American descent, daughter of the legendary comedian Charlie Chaplin.

Eighty-four photographs, made by Carlos personally, were put up for a brief general overview. In the photo, the director himself, his current wife Eulalia Ramon, Geraldine, sister Maria Angelis and Pilar. Two photos are devoted to the elder brother of Carlos Saura, Antonio, a famous graphic artist and artist.

It is known that the director owns a unique collection of cameras, in which there are about six hundred copies.