An emblematic character of Spanish cinema for several decades, Carlos Saura died Friday at the age of 91, surrounded by his loved ones.
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IHe was one of the greatest figures in European cinema. Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura, who notably directed cria cuervos in 1975, died Friday February 10 at the age of 91, announced the Spanish Academy of Cinema.
“The Cinema Academy deeply regrets to announce the death of Carlos Saura […], one of the fundamental filmmakers in the history of Spanish cinema, 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 on Friday, proof of his tireless activity and his love for his profession until his last moments, ”she said again.
The filmmaker was to receive an honorary Goya on Saturday at the Spanish cinema awards ceremony held in Seville. A tribute will be paid there 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.
Se ha ido Carlos Saura, cineasta, fotógrafo, escenógrafo, total artist. Premio Nacional de Cinematografía in 1980, su carrera recibió all los premios imaginables, y sobre todo, el cariño, el aprecio y el recognition de todas y todos los que disfrutamos con sus películas. DEP https://t.co/2w2QLELCvm
— Miquel Iceta Llorens /❤️ (@miqueliceta) February 10, 2023
A filmmaker of the game and the imagination
Director in 1975 of cria cuervosallegory of the dictatorship that suffocated 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 favoring musical films, particularly on the flamenco.
Born on January 4, 1932 in Huesca (North) into a family of artists, Carlos Saura, who has made a total of fifty films, obtained his first international recognition in 1966 in Berlin (Silver Bear for The hunt). Prolific, Carlos 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.