For a man who made films with such unique power and odd conceptual underpinnings, Luis Buñuel isn’t any sort of grand mystery. Rather open about his background, his work, and his philosophy, he’s responsible for one of the greatest autobiographies, cinema-related or otherwise (I really cannot recommend that book highly enough), and partook in other personal writing at earlier intervals in his life. If you want to know where certain images emerged from, the answers are likely available. For something a bit quicker and, visually speaking, more indicative of his work as a filmmaker, one should also look for Anthony Wall‘s 1984 BBC documentary The Life and Times of Don Luis Buñuel.
The faithful need not look at this with suspicion. More than a fluffy, American Masters-style rundown that hits all the essential bullet points, it digs into the obscure work and asks what one picture might say about several others, as we’d expect of any good auteurist study. Having been produced after his death and mixing clips, archival interviews with the man himself, and commentary from various Buñuel scholars, it makes for a stirring portrait of one of cinema’s greatest artists.
Watch the full piece below: