The influence of Bunuel on Latin American Cinema - Essay Example

The influence of Luis Buñuel on Latin America Cinema Foreword: This research paper gives the definition of surrealism and discusses the influence of Luis Buñuel on the Latin America cinema. Surrealism originated from the art movement Dada. The main goal of Dadaism was “to attack established concepts and values of art and to replace them with the power of chance and the irrational” (Sandro, 1987). Among those who were the initiators of this movement one can’t but mention Hannah Hoch, Raoul Hausmann, Max Ernst.

The main motto of this movement was the demonstration and creation of anti-art. This can be exemplified by the Marcel Duchamp’s painting where we can see a well-known Mono Liza with moustache on her face. The Dada representatives disdained official art and those art worshippers who visited museums. In 1922 the movement of Dada linked with Surrealism, which propagated the dominance of the world of imagination and subconscious. Having become surrealists the former Dadaists started experimenting with the automatic writing.

The idea was that one put down the words that occurred to a writer. The same principle was applied to painters who reflected on the canvas the images appearing in their head. In general the direction of surrealism prioritized the fabrication of psychological works rather than creating art masterpieces. The basic principle used in surrealism was irrationalism. In 1924 Andre Breton published “Manifesto of Surrealism” where he gave the explanation of this movement (Paranaguá, 2001 ). Luis Buñuel was the introducer of surrealism to the cinema and in this way he became an innovator.

He was prominent both in silent and modern films, he shot not only feature films but also documentaries. He is believed to be the first surrealist in the world of cinematic though he has several works that are said to be made in realistic and non-realistic manner. His most successful films were in the can when he was past 60. As a rule film directors either retire or have a substantial filmography at this age. Due to his rich life experience Buñuel touched upon several topics in his films: “Yet despite all the innovations and permutations of his work, Buñuel remained suprisingly consistent and limited in the targets of his social satire: the Catholic Church, bourgeois culture, and Fascism” (Cybele , 2006).

In 1946 the director moved to Mexico, where he found a lot of his friends: artists and actors, who have come there from Spain after the Civil war. Within twenty years that he spent there he shot more than 20 films. This time is called by critics an "apprenticeship” since Buñuel had to work only with low-budget projects. Nevertheless he managed to make a handful of real masterpieces of surrealistic classics. Sometimes the surrealistic manner of making films: big close ups, twitching camera and specific music is mixed up with the consequences of the small budget for the film.

According to Luis Buñuel he never depicted in his films anything that contradicted his moral convictions. His Mexican films are sometimes called the enriched style that first appeared in Un Chien Andalou. I would like to focus on the film called Los Olvidados (1950), that made the director internationally known and the peculiar feature of which is the surprising combination of surrealism and post-war non-realism. It shows the life of Mexican slum kids in the post-war time. It may seem that the author intentionally tries to exaggerate the cruelty of those times – but he only shifted the reality onto the screens.

To conclude everything stated above it is necessary to say that Luis Buñuel a world-known film-director contributed greatly to the development of the Latin America Cinema. He was the first who introduced the notion of surrealism into the film-making process. He established the row of prominent surrealistic and non-realistic film directors in Latin America and introduced Latin America cinema to the world arena. Moreover, he left the priceless heritage to the Mexican cinematic. References 1. Cybele O.A.. (2006) “Flesh Cinema: The Corporeal Avant-Garde, 1959-1979”.

Dissertation Abstracts International. 2. Paranaguá P.A. (2001). El: Luis Buñuel, Ediciones Paidós, Barcelona. 3. Sandro P. (1987). Diversions of Pleasure: Luis Buñuel and the Crises of Desire, Ohio State University Press, Columbus.