Carlos Saura | |
|---|---|
 At the32nd Goya Awards in 2018 | |
| Born | Carlos Saura Atarés (1932-01-04)4 January 1932 Huesca, Spain |
| Died | 10 February 2023(2023-02-10) (aged 91) Collado Mediano, Spain |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, screenwriter, photographer |
| Years active | 1955–2023 |
| Notable work | |
| Spouses |
|
| Partner | Geraldine Chaplin (1967–1979) |
| Children | 7 |
| Relatives | Antonio Saura (brother) |
Carlos Saura Atarés (4 January 1932 – 10 February 2023) was a Spanish film director, photographer and writer. WithLuis Buñuel andPedro Almodóvar, he is considered to be among Spain's great filmmakers. He had a long and prolific career that spanned over half a century, and his films won many international awards.
Saura began his career in 1955 making documentary shorts. He gained international prominence when his first feature-length film premiered atCannes Film Festival in 1960. Although he started filming as aneorealist, Saura switched to films encoded with metaphors and symbolism in order to get around the Spanish censors. In 1966, he was thrust into the international spotlight when his filmThe Hunt won theSilver Bear at theBerlin International Film Festival.[1] In the following years, he forged an international reputation for his cinematic treatment of emotional and spiritual responses to repressive political conditions.
By the 1970s, Saura was the best known filmmaker working in Spain. His films employed complex narrative devices and were frequently controversial. He won Special Jury Awards forCousin Angelica (1973) andCría Cuervos (1975) in Cannes, and he received anAcademy Award for Best Foreign Language Film nomination in 1979 forMama Turns 100.
In the 1980s, Saura was in the spotlight for hisFlamenco trilogy –Blood Wedding,Carmen andEl amor brujo, in which he combined dramatic content and flamenco dance forms. His work continued to be featured in worldwide competitions and earned numerous awards. He received two nominations for Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film forCarmen (1983) andTango (1998). His films are sophisticated expression of time and space fusing reality with fantasy, past with present, and memory with hallucination. In the last two decades of the 20th century, Saura concentrated on works uniting music, dance and images.
 | This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(November 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Saura was born in Huesca, Aragon on 4 January 1932. His father, Antonio Saura Pacheco, who came from Murcia, was an attorney and civil servant. His mother, Fermina Atarés Torrente, was a concert pianist. The second of their four children, Carlos had an older brother,Antonio Saura, and two younger sisters, María del Pilar and María de los Ángeles. Antonio became a well-known abstract expressionist painter. From their parents, the four siblings received a liberal understanding education. Because his father worked for the Ministry of the Interior, the Saura family moved to Barcelona, Valencia, and, in 1953, to Madrid. Saura's childhood was marked by the Spanish Civil War, during which theNationalists fought against theRepublicans.
Saura had vivid recollection of his childhood during the war. He later evoked some of them in his films – the games he played, and the songs he sang, as well as darker memories of bombings and hunger, blood and death. He was taught to read by a priest, a relative whom his parents sheltered fromanticlerical extremists. At the war's end, Saura was separated from his parents and sent back to Huesca to live with his maternal grandmother and aunts. He described these relatives as "right wings and very religious"[citation needed] who imposed in the child the very antithesis of the liberal education he had received in the republican zone. After having studied civil engineering he began a career in the film industry on the advice of his brother Antonio Saura.[1]
During 1957–1958, Saura createdCuenca, his first film. In 1962, his filmLos Golfos was recognized for its strong sociological impact in helping Spanish youth by tackling the issue of juvenile delinquency in Madrid's poorest districts. Four years later (1966), he was honored at the16th Berlin International Film Festival, where he received theSilver Bear for Best Director for his filmLa caza.[2] In 1967, his filmPeppermint Frappé received the Silver Bear for Best Director at the18th Berlin International Film Festival.[3] He won theGolden Bear in 1981 at the31st Berlin International Film Festival for his filmDeprisa, Deprisa.[4][1]
The filmsLa prima Angélica (Cousin Angélica) of 1973 andCría cuervos (Raise Ravens)[n. 1] of 1975 received thespecial prize of the jury at theCannes Film Festival. His filmMamá cumple 100 años was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the1980 Academy Awards.[5]
Saura become known for movies featuring flamenco and other traditional dances. HisFlamenco Trilogy of the 1980s includesBodas de Sangre (Blood Wedding),Carmen, andEl amor brujo featuring the work of Spanish flamenco dancerCristina Hoyos. He later made the moviesFlamenco (1995),[6]Tango (1998), andFados (2007).
His 1989 filmLa noche oscura was entered into the39th Berlin International Film Festival.[7]
.jpg)
Saura considered his film onsurrealist masterLuis Buñuel to be his best cinematic work. In an interview with an online film magazine,[8] he said aboutBuñuel y la mesa del rey Salomón (Buñuel and the table of King Solomon – 2001): "That's the greatest film I’ve ever made. I like the film but nobody else seems to like it. I’m sure Buñuel would have loved this film. But perhaps only he would have loved it. Everything you see in the film is actually based on conversations I had with him."
In 1990, he received theGoya Award for the best director and best script for¡Ay, Carmela!. He was chosen as director for the official film of the1992 Olympic Games of Barcelona,Marathon (1993).
In 2008, Carlos Saura was honoured with a Global Life Time Achievement Award at the 10th Mumbai International Film Festival, organized by the Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image.[9]
In 2013, he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 18thInternational Film Festival of Kerala.[10]
Carlos Saura was married three times. He first married Adela Medrano.[11] They had two sons, Carlos and Antonio.[11] In 1982, he married Mercedes Pérez, with whom he had three sons, Manuel, Adrián, and Diego.[11] Between those two marriages, Saura had a son Shane with actressGeraldine Chaplin.[12] He was the father of a daughter named Anna from his third marriage to actressEulàlia Ramon [ca;es],[11][13] whom he began a relationship in the wake of the shooting ofOutrage.[14] They married in 2006.[14] His daughter Anna was his agent (as well as right hand and producer of his films) in his late years.[15][16]
He was an avid photographer and had a collection of over 600 cameras.[1] His photographs were exhibited several times.[1] He began to take photographs having reached the age of eight years, and later built his own camera by himself and became the photographer of the Granada Film Festival.[17]
Saura was a close friend of fellow Aragonese filmmakerLuis Buñuel. They met at the1960 Cannes Film Festival.[18]
Saura lived in Collado Mediano since the early 1980s.[19]
Saura died of respiratory failure in his residence of Collado Mediano on 10 February 2023 at the age of 91.[20][21][22] He was due to receive thelife-achievement Goya honorary award the following day during the37th Goya Awards.[23]
Short film
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1957 | La tarde del domingo | Yes | Yes | |
| 1991 | Oragina Commercial | Yes | No | advertising short made for the experimental compilation filmThe King of Ads |
| 2021 | Goya: 3 de Mayo | Yes | Yes |
Feature film
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | Los golfos | Yes | Yes | |
| 1963 | Llanto por un bandido | Yes | Yes | |
| 1965 | Muere una Mujer | No | Yes | |
| 1966 | La caza | Yes | Yes | also uncredited co-producer |
| 1967 | Peppermint Frappé | Yes | Yes | |
| 1968 | Stres-es tres-tres | Yes | Yes | |
| 1969 | La madriguera | Yes | Yes | |
| 1970 | El jardín de las delicias | Yes | Yes | |
| 1973 | Ana y los lobos | Yes | Yes | |
| 1974 | La prima Angélica | Yes | Yes | |
| 1976 | Cría cuervos | Yes | Yes | |
| 1977 | Elisa, vida mía | Yes | Yes | |
| 1978 | Los ojos vendados | Yes | Yes | |
| 1979 | Mamá cumple cien años | Yes | Yes | |
| 1981 | Deprisa, Deprisa | Yes | Yes | |
| Bodas de sangre | Yes | Yes | ||
| 1982 | Dulces horas | Yes | Yes | |
| Antonieta | Yes | Yes | ||
| 1983 | Carmen | Yes | Yes | also producer |
| 1984 | Los zancos | Yes | Yes | |
| 1986 | El amor brujo | Yes | Yes | |
| 1988 | El Dorado | Yes | Yes | |
| 1989 | La noche oscura | Yes | Yes | |
| 1990 | ¡Ay, Carmela! | Yes | Yes | |
| Los Cuentos de Borges: El Sur (TV) | Yes | Yes | ||
| 1993 | ¡Dispara! | Yes | Yes | |
| 1996 | Taxi | Yes | No | |
| 1997 | Little Bird (Pajarico) | Yes | Yes | |
| 1998 | Tango | Yes | Yes | |
| 1999 | Goya en Burdeos | Yes | Yes | |
| 2001 | Buñuel y la mesa del rey Salomón | Yes | Yes | |
| 2002 | Salomé | Yes | Yes | |
| 2004 | El séptimo día | Yes | No | |
| 2009 | I, Don Giovanni | Yes | Yes | |
| 2021 | El rey de todo el mundo | Yes | Yes |
Short film
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | Flamenco | Yes | Yes | also producer and cinematographer |
| 1956 | El pequeño río Manzanares | Yes | Yes | |
| 1958 | Cuenca | Yes | Yes | |
| 2008 | Sinfonía de Aragón | Yes | No | |
| 2021 | Rosa Rosae: La Guerra Civil | Yes | Yes | also editor and artwork |
Film
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Sevillanas | Yes | Yes | |
| 1993 | Marathon | Yes | Yes | |
| 1995 | Flamenco | Yes | Yes | |
| 2005 | Iberia | Yes | Yes | also production designer |
| 2007 | Fados | Yes | Yes | |
| 2010 | Flamenco, Flamenco | Yes | Yes | |
| 2015 | Zonda, folclore argentino | Yes | Yes | |
| 2016 | Jota de Saura | Yes | Yes | also art director |
| 2018 | Renzo Piano, an Architect for Santander | Yes | Yes | |
| 2022 | Las paredes hablan | Yes | Yes | also actor |
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
San Sebastián International Film Festival
Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
