Figure of European cinema and director in particular of “Cria cuervos” in 1975, the Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura died this Friday February 10 at the age of 91, announced the Spanish Academy of Cinema.
“The Académie du Cinéma deeply regrets to announce the death of Carlos Saura […], one of the fundamental filmmakers in the history of Spanish cinema, who died today at his home at the age of 91, surrounded by his loved ones”she announced on Twitter. “His last film, “Las Paredes Hablan” (the walls speak), was released this Friday, proof of his tireless activity and his love for his profession until his last moments”she said again.
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The filmmaker was to receive an honorary Goya on Saturday at the Spanish cinema awards ceremony held in Seville. A tribute will be paid to “the memory of an irreplaceable creator”continued the Academy.
“Carlos Saura has left us. Filmmaker, photographer, total artist […] he had received all the prizes imaginable during his career and above all the affection and recognition of all those who appreciated his films.reacted on Twitter the Spanish Minister of Culture, Miquel Iceta.
A prolific director
Director in 1975 of “Cria Cuervos”, an allegory of the dictatorship which asphyxiated his country, jury prize at Cannes and nominated for the César for best foreign film, Carlos Saura first placed his work under the sign of social realism before give preference to musical films, particularly on flamenco.
Born on January 4, 1932 in Huesca (north) into a family of artists, Saura, who has made a total of fifty films, had obtained his first international recognition in 1966 in Berlin (silver bear for “The Hunt”) .
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Prolific, Saura was a filmmaker of the game and the imagination, with a sophisticated aesthetic, a style that was both lyrical and documentary, centered on the fate of the most disadvantaged. He often depicted characters from the bourgeoisie, tormented by their past, floating between reality and fantasy.
But, from the death of Franco (1975) and the democratic transition that followed, this music and dance madman gradually moved on to something else: hymns of love to tango and fado, Argentine folklore and the jota, a dance from his native Aragon, at the opera and, above all, at his beloved flamenco, becoming, somewhat in spite of himself, an ambassador of Spanish culture.
Several times married and the father of several children, he had notably been in a relationship with Geraldine Chaplin, his muse with whom he had had a child.
