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ARLOS SAURA (Director) -- Born in Huesca, Spain, on January 4, 1932, Carlos Saura began as a photographer at the age of eighteen. From 1952 to 1963, he attended the Institute of Cinema in Madrid, first as a student and then as a teacher himself, and shot several short features including a documentary about his elder brother Antonio. His subsequent work as a freelancer on films defying Franco's regime got him constantly into trouble with censors. His association with Geraldine Chaplin, his wife and source of inspiration, yielded no less than nine films in a span of eleven years, from Peppermint Frappé to Los Ojos Vendados. Soon after, he launched himself into the making of a series of musically inspired features: Blood Wedding and Carmen, in which Antonio Gades appeared as choreographer and performer, Manuel de Falla's A Love Bewitched (El Amor Brujo), Ay, Carmela!, an adaptation of a classical Spanish operetta, and Flamenco. His delivery today of Tango is proof of his undying commitment to the genre.
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Over his forty years of career, Carlos Saura has garnered a number of awards, amongst which the 1976 Special Jury Prize at Cannes for Raise Ravens (Cría Guervos), the Golden Bear at the 1981 Berlin Festival with Fast, Fast (Deprisa, Deprisa), and two Silver Bear awards for best direction for The Hunt (La Caza) in 1966 and Peppermint Frappé in 1967. Other than these, his film Ay, Carmela! was awarded two Goya prizes (the equivalent in Spain of the French Césars) in 1991 for best direction and best adaptation together with co-writer Rafael Azcona. Saura, also received a mention at the San Sebastián Festival in 1996 for Taxi, and obtained the prize for best direction in the Montreal World Film Festival in 1997 for Pajarico.
Over and above his specific obsessions - death, solitude, family breakdown, the effect on reality of dreams and memories -, Saura's extensive filmography bears evidence to his great versatility and wide range of interests...in which music and dancing hold a prominent position. |
| Filmography | |
| 1955 | Antonio Saura (short documentary feature) |
| 1956 | El pequeño río Manzanares (short film) |
| 1957 | La tarde del domingo (short film) |
| 1958 | El pisito (performer) Cuenca (director of photography, screenwriter, producer) |
| 1960 | Los Golfos (director) |
| 1963 | Muere una mujer (screenwriter) |
| 1964 | Llanto por un bandido (director) |
| 1966 | La caza (The Hunt) (director, screenwriter) |
| 1967 | Peppermint frappé (director) |
| 1968 | Stress es tres, tres (director, screenwriter) |
| 1969 | La madriguera (director) |
| 1970 | El jardín de las delicias (The Garden of Delights), (director, screenwriter) |
| 1972 | Ana y los lobos (director, screenwriter) |
| 1973 | La prima Angélica (director) |
| 1975 | Cría cuervos (Raise Ravens) (director, screenwriter) |
| 1977 | Elisa, vida mía (Elisa, My Life) (director, screenwriter) |
| 1978 | Los ojos vendados (director, screenwriter) |
| 1979 | Mama cumple cien años (director, screenwriter) |
| 1980 | Deprisa, deprisa (Fast, Fast) (director) |
| 1981 | Bodas de sangre (Blood Wedding) (director) Dulces horas (Tender Hours) (director) |
| 1982 | Antonieta (director, screenwriter) |
| 1983 | Carmen (director, screenwriter, choreography) |
| 1984 | Los zancos (The Stilts) (director, screenwriter) |
| 1985 | El amor brujo (A Love Bewitched) (director, screenwriter, choreography) |
| 1988 | El Dorado (director, screenwriter) |
| 1989 | La noche oscura (The Dark Night) (director, screenwriter) |
| 1990 | ¡Ay, Carmela! (director, screenwriter) |
| 1992 | El sur (The South) (director, screenwriter) Sevillanas (director, screenwriter) |
| 1993 | ¡Dispara! (director, screenwriter) Marathon (director) |
| 1995 | Flamenco (director) |
| 1996 | Taxi (director) |
| 1997 | Pajarico (director, screenwriter) Tango (director) |
| 1998 | ¡Esa luz! (director) |
