Fermín Solís returns to a universal icon thanks to the Luis Buñuel Film Institute in Los Angeles.
THE WORK
Madrid-Paris-Mexico-Madrid, four weeks in the mid-60s. We witness the second collaboration between Luis Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carrière, at a time when half of the film world gave up on the Aragonese genius and the other half almost thought he had died. Buñuel and Carrière are immersed in writing the script for Belle de Jour, adapting the novel of the same name by the interwar writer Joseph Kessel, a cursed project that has already passed through the hands of several directors, screenwriters and producers.
Buñuel is suffering a profound creative and vital crisis, and Carrière sees his budding film career in danger while his marriage falls apart. When the producers of the film, the Hakim brothers, propose that Catherine Deneuve be the protagonist of the film (who was then 22 years old and was François Truffaut's lover) and that Yves Saint-Laurent (a young and egomaniacal dressmaker) be the designer wardrobe, everything seems like it will blow up. However, a final stroke of genius (in which the Madrid brothels play a prominent role) serves to unravel the situation and bring the project to completion. The film, released shortly after, won the Golden Lion at the 1967 Venice Film Festival and became an international phenomenon, and served the director to inaugurate his golden period of maturity, with works such as The Milky Way, Tristana, The discreet charm of the bourgeoisie or That dark object of desire.
If in Buñuel in the labyrinth of the turtles, Fermín Solís put images of the pre-exile period of the Aragonese director, in Buñuel and the dreams of desire he makes a leap of more than 30 years, to a moment in which Buñuel's career seems to touch to its end after having achieved critical successes in Mexico, but not economic ones. Belle de jour will be the film that relaunches their career and brings them back to Europe, opening a new and successful stage that will establish Buñuel and Carrière as one of the most iconic creative couples in cinema, as legendary as Wilder and Lubitsch, Berlanga and Azcona. , Schrader and Scorsese or Spierlberg and Lucas. But Buñuel's surreal vignettes and dreams of desire do not only delve into the relationship that both creators had, but we find a good handful of characters and icons very present throughout Buñuel's work and life. We will discover what happens when you enter a mirror that could very well be that of his friend Jean Cocteau. We will learn why Louis Malle was about to prevent the writing of Belle de jour from coming to fruition. We will learn how to prepare the famous Buñueloni, Buñuel's favorite Martini. And we will find out that a mysterious elderly couple, Henri and Georgette, were "imaginary" scriptwriters of the film.
My father loved three things: a drink with his friends, dreaming and a good story. I am very happy that this story of Henri and Georgette is becoming known. It is one of the most important points of his career. I was very sorry for the death of my brother, as well as the recent death of Jean-Claude Carrière. Carriere was instrumental in my father's great comeback with Belle de Jour. It changed our lives and also international cinema. Carrière said it well: when someone crosses their life with Buñuel, they are not the same. Being able to have this door open to how my father expressed his films is a great treasure and tribute to the history of cinema. I hope that those who read this graphic novel finally appreciate the enigma that was my father.
Rafael Buñuel
(son of Luis Buñuel)
THE AUTHORS
FERMÍN SOLÍS (Madroñera, 1972) is a cartoonist and illustrator. He established himself as one of the Spanish authors with the most future and international projection with the publication of the graphic novel Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles (2008, 2019), finalist for the National Comic Award. After dedicating herself to children's and young people's books for almost a decade, in recent years she has returned to graphic novels for adults with Reservoir Books, with the books Medea a la drift (2021) and Elia (2023). His work has been translated and published in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and France.
OSCAR ARCE is the director of the Luis Buñuel Film Institute in Los Angeles and has been working hand in hand with the heirs of Luis Buñuel for years. He studied Philosophy and Art at Loyola University in Los Angeles. He is also executive producer and talent agent at Banana Productions and CEO of Translux Films.
ESTEVE SOLER (Hospitalet de Llobregat, 1976) is a playwright, director and screenwriter. Of his cinematographic work, the short Interior stands out. Family (2014) and the feature film 7 Reasons (2019), with an extensive track record in the international festival circuit (South by Southwest, San Sebastián, Karlovy Vary, Valladolid, Raindance, Málaga, BFI London, Sitges, Fantasporto) and also winners at the 22nd Malaga Festival and at the 2020 Gaudí Awards. In the dramatic genre, his works have been translated into 20 languages and premiered in a hundred theaters around the world, from the Teatre Lliure in Barcelona to the Theatertreffen in Berlin, with recognitions such as the Godot award, the Butaca award and the Serra d'Or.
Comments