LB
Photo of Luis Buñuel

Luis Buñuel

Director, Writer, Actor, Editor, Producer, Additional Credits
Born February 21, 1900Died July 29, 1983 (83 years)
Luis Buñuel Portolés (Spanish: [ˈlwis βuˈɲwel poɾtoˈles]; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. Buñuel's work was known for its avant-garde surrealism which was also infused with political commentary and social satire.

Often associated with the surrealist movement of the 1920s, Buñuel made films from the 1920s through the 1970s. He collaborated with prolific surrealist painter Salvador Dali creating the films Un Chien Andalou (1929), which was made in the silent era and L'Age d'Or (1930). The two films are seen as the birth of Cinematic surrealism. From 1947 to 1960 he developed his skills as a director filming in Mexico making grounded and human melodramas such as Gran Casino (1947), Los Olvidados (1950), and Él (1953). Here is where he gained the fundamentals of storytelling.

Buñuel than transitioned into making artful, unconventional, surrealist, and political satirical films. He earned acclaim with the morally complex arthouse drama film Viridiana (1961) which criticized the Francoist dictatorship. The film won the Palme d'Or at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival. He then criticized political and social conditions in The Exterminating Angel (1962), and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoise (1972) the later of which won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. He also directed Diary of a Chambermaid (1964), and Belle de Jour (1967), as well as his final film That Obscure Object of Desire (1977) the later of which earned the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Director.

Buñuel earned five Cannes Film Festival prizes, two Berlin International Film Festival prizes, and a BAFTA Award as well as nominations for two Academy Awards. Buñuel received numerous honors including National Prize for Arts and Sciences for Fine Arts in 1977, the Moscow International Film Festival Contribution to Cinema Prize in 1979, and the Career Golden Lion in 1982. He was nominated once for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968. Seven of Buñuel's films are included in Sight & Sound's 2012 critics' poll of the top 250 films of all time.
Movies & Shows on Plex
  • The Exterminating Angel
  • Diary of a Chambermaid
  • The Milky Way
  • The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz
  • Robinson Crusoe
  • The Great Madcap
Known For
  • Belle de Jour
  • The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
  • The Exterminating Angel
  • Un chien andalou
  • Viridiana
  • The Young and the Damned
  • That Obscure Object of Desire
  • Simon of the Desert
  • The Phantom of Liberty
  • L'âge d'or
  • The Milky Way
  • Nazarin
  • Diary of a Chambermaid
  • Johnny Got His Gun
  • El
  • Land Without Bread
  • The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz
  • Robinson Crusoe
  • The Young One
  • The Fall of the House of Usher
  • Death in the Garden
  • Susana
  • The Brute
  • Mexican Bus Ride

Take Plex everywhere

Watch free anytime, anywhere, on almost any device.
See the full list of supported devices