Carlos Saura dies at the age of 91, the last classic director of Spanish cinema

Carlos Saura died this Friday in Madrid due to respiratory failure.

With his death shortly after his 91st birthday —he celebrated it on January 4—, the last classic of Spanish cinema disappears, which since the breakup and the freedom with which he impregnated his very long filmography became a benchmark for great European cinema. From author.

He was also an artist with such curiosity about various facets of life, that his dry, forceful dramas, a line of exploration of the human being, of emotional and social relationships, and of family drives, which began in

(1960) and ended with

(2004), he added his passion for musicals that would take him from

(1981) to

(2021), from flamenco to Mexican music, although he also went through the jota, tango, fados or Argentine folklore.

Tomorrow, Saturday, he was going to receive a Goya of honor, which thus becomes a posthumous award.

The award was justified by the president of the Academy, Fernando Méndez-Leite: "For his extensive and highly personal creative contribution to the history of Spanish cinema from the late 1950s to today."

On February 3,

, his latest feature film, a robust documentary on the evolution of wall art, from prehistoric caves to today's graffiti.

With it, he underlined the validity of the look of a creator active for seven decades: he may not have been the most prolific filmmaker (although he never stopped working), but he has been the longest-lived.

His death was due to his respiratory problems and the rapid decline in his state of health, which since last year, after a small stroke and a subsequent fall while walking his dogs at the end of summer, had been debilitating after almost 90 years. of physical and intellectual vigour.

Elías Querejeta and Carlos Saura (right) follow the electoral night of the legislative elections of June 15, 1977. CÉSAR LUCAS

At the end of the confinement, in September 2020, Saura defined what his talent was: “Imagination.

I have used my imagination to tell stories that I like and I think others will like them.

Then they don't like them anyway, but what are you going to do, you're not always right.

Just the fact that they let you tell your own stories, take a step forward, that's what I've tried my whole life."

Saura watched a lot of movies “because that way I learn what I don't want to do.

What I want to do?

I don't know, what is clear to me is what isn't” and he defined himself as “a lucky being, who has directed some 50 films and has made the cinema he wanted.

And that's a miracle."

Of course, immersed in his own work, away from social relationships and sometimes even from his own children (he had seven with four partners), as Félix Viscarret showed in the documentary

.

Carlos Saura, at his home in 2018 samuel sánchez

If Spanish cinema had to be summarized succinctly, Saura would make up the quartet of masters with Luis Buñuel, Luis García Berlanga and Pedro Almodóvar, the engines that have promoted national cinematography.

In Saura's house in Collado Mediano, in the Madrid mountains, in addition to the innumerable photos taken by himself, one of his passions is a portrait where he is seen with Buñuel hugging each other laughing.

With Berlanga he shared not only decades of contemporary work, but also screenwriter, Rafael Azcona, who was the one who included José Luis López Vázquez in Saura's filmography.

More information

Photogallery: Life and career of the master of cinema

The director, screenwriter and writer obtained from the beginning the recognition of the critics, the public and the big festivals: Golden Bear for

and two Silver Bear for best director at the Berlinale;

twice Grand Jury Prize in Cannes, where it competed in eight editions;

Golden Shell of honor of San Sebastián;

three times nominated for an Oscar (twice for Spain and one for Argentina)... Of course, in Spain he achieved all kinds of recognition, from the National Cinematography to the gold medal of the Film Academy and merit in Fine Arts.

In March he received the Biznaga de Oro at the Malaga festival from Carla Simón, bringing together the last two living Spaniards to win the Berlinale.

And the same thing happened outside, such as the honorary prize of the European Film Academy, various doctorates 'honoris causa' and awards from various competitions throughout his career and his life.

Carmen Maura and Andrés Pajares receive instructions from Carlos Saura, on the set of "Ay, Carmela!", at the Lara theater in Madrid, on October 25, 1989.

That life began on January 4, 1932 in Huesca.

His father, a State lawyer, became secretary to the Minister of Finance, and for this reason the Saura family moved to Madrid, and from there to Valencia and Barcelona, ​​accompanying the Government of the Republic during the Civil War.

Carlos Saura was the third of the four children of the marriage;

His eldest son, Antonio, would eventually become one of the fundamental Spanish painters of the 20th century.

Some of the filmmaker's first memories were the troubles of the Civil War, as he recalled last year when presenting the short

:”That priest, those bombings, those murders, make me identify with the subject.

With the film I have exorcised those memories.

The Civil War has not yet been adequately treated in the cinema.

If anything, a little.

Many of mine speak of those years, true.

But they are missing.

My current fear is that that confrontation will occur again in Spain.

Because of the conflicts that exist between the parties, because of the violence that is expressed orally... It scares me.

We haven't learned anything."

From those years he remembered the cry “That light!”, so that the bulbs would not serve as a guide for snipers or enemy bombers.

The expression was heard in his films

and

and gave a title to one of his novels.

He also confessed from that time the pain due to the distance with his family in his coming and going (in one of those transfers, to Barcelona, ​​he discovered the cinema by watching Walt Disney movies) and how, after the war was over, they sent him to Huesca with his grandmother and their aunts.

"I never finished understanding why overnight the good guys were the bad guys and the bad guys were the good guys."

Carlos Saura and Rafael Azcona, in disguise, with José Luis López Vázquez in the Marco Ferreri film 'El cochecito' (1960).

Once the Sauras settled in Madrid in 1941, Carlos began to go to the movies a lot, to see

,

and in general adventure movies and films by Lana Turner and Loretta Young.

It was also the time when another of her passions, photography, was born.

At the age of nine, he began to photograph a girl with whom he fell in love, and he never stopped taking photos.

Always with a camera around his neck throughout his life, in his house in the mountains he had an impressive collection of cameras, some of them restored by himself.

He also kept markers and pencils on hand for another hobby, painting.

By mixing both arts, the 'photosaurs' were born from it.

Regarding all these drives, he recounted: “I have a very strange profession: doing what I want.

Apart from a few years in which circumstances made me fulfill tasks that they gave me to live, to take care of the children.

But I like too many things.

I would have liked, for example,

play a musical instrument.

It was not possible.

My mother was a pianist.

I like the cello.

I consider music theory to be the only universal language there is”.

A music lover, part of his filmography focused on dance;

In addition, he included the songs he liked in his fictional titles.

“Over time, I have been interested in more and more things.

That disparity now that they sometimes criticize me is the opposite of what they reproached me during the Franco regime, when they told me that I was not going out of the same thing.

The director Carlos Saura (right) with Manolo Sanlúcar (left) and Paco de Lucía during the filming of 'Sevillanas'. Santos Cirilo

It was through photography that he started his artistic career.

Saura achieved the position of official photographer of the Granada music and dance festival, and of the Santander theater, and in November 1951, at the age of 19, he exhibited at the Royal Photographic Society of Madrid, and participated in collective exhibitions of the group Tendencias, with his brother Antonio.

At that time, he had already shot a 16-millimeter documentary about the San Isidro prairie and his relationship with Goya, which he never edited.

He began to study Industrial Engineering, which he soon abandoned to enter, encouraged by his brother, at the Institute of Cinematographic Research and Experiences of Madrid (IIEC), where he obtained a Diploma in Film Directing.

There he met Julio Diamante, Jesús Fernández Santos and Eugenio Martín,

and as a student at the school he attended the 1955 Salamanca Conversations, which turned Spanish cinema upside down.

The following year he married Adela Medrano and in 1957, having graduated from the IIEC, he traveled to Montpellier to a meeting of Ibero-American filmmakers, and thus he discovered the cinema of Luis Buñuel.

“The mark that Buñuel's work has left on me is definitive.

It is the first time that I saw the essence of our future cinema reflected on the big screen: humor, but an indirect, bitter and jokeless humor [...];

a deep love for those beings that society tends to repudiate, and the fight that Buñuel constantly maintains against hypocrisy and lies”.

and thus he discovered the cinema of Luis Buñuel.

“The mark that Buñuel's work has left on me is definitive.

It is the first time that I saw the essence of our future cinema reflected on the big screen: humor, but an indirect, bitter and jokeless humor [...];

a deep love for those beings that society tends to repudiate, and the fight that Buñuel constantly maintains against hypocrisy and lies”.

and thus he discovered the cinema of Luis Buñuel.

“The mark that Buñuel's work has left on me is definitive.

It is the first time that I saw the essence of our future cinema reflected on the big screen: humor, but an indirect, bitter and jokeless humor [...];

a deep love for those beings that society tends to repudiate, and the fight that Buñuel constantly maintains against hypocrisy and lies”.

The year that censorship in Spain ended, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher revolutionized the city with the European presentation of 'Star Wars', by George Lukas.

The same edition, that of the year 77, Luis Buñuel received the honorary Golden Shell and closed the festival with 'That obscure object of desire'. Festival archive

The documentary

(1958) drew attention with its prize at the San Sebastián festival, and his first feature film,

(1960), shot when he was only 27 years old, produced by Pere Portabella and co-written by Mario Camus, achieved a international with its zenith in Cannes, where Saura personally met Buñuel.

It is also the start of his painful relationship with Franco's censorship, which prohibited him from several scripts, delayed the release of many of his films and always had him under his watchful eye.

Three lengths later

(1966), the beginning of his collaboration with the producer Elías Querejeta and Silver Bear for best direction at the Berlin festival.

Saura confessed: “Some say it is my best film.

It's okay, but I don't think so.

Sometimes I feel the need for violence to appear in my films, it depends on my mood.

It is true that

can be considered a metaphor for the Civil War.

But the one that most corresponds to that episode is

”.

Carlos Saura at his house in Collado Mediano with his favorite camera in the year 2020.BP

With Querejeta came powerful works such as

(1967),

(1970) —retained for seven months by censorship—,

(1973),

(1974) —censorship prohibited the script in twice, and on the third, and once filmed, six ministers saw it before giving it final approval, 'Cría cuervos' (1976) -his first solo script-,

(1977),

(1979) —continuation of

— and

(1981) —his opening to the problems of the youth of that time.

It is a splendid cinema, without equal, with a dry, direct style, at times almost abstract and, of course, a faithful reflection and cartography of the ills that sickened Spain.

It is also a time marked by his pairing with Geraldine Chaplin and the consolidation of Saura as a myth of European cinema.

In 1981 he began his other great creative line in the cinema, the musical, with

“Dancing has given me a different dimension.

The first film in that aspect was

...

Elías Querejeta told me: 'You have made a brutal mistake.

Be careful what you do'.

A Frenchman warned me: 'Wow, Saura, are you going to do a Spanish dance now?

You're lost…'.

Dance, especially flamenco, has something magical.

No dance in the world is so clear and evident, especially in women: she raises her hands and there it is, in her fingers, heaven itself, the fluttering of the doves.

From the waist down is the earth, patapan, patapan

I have studied this with gypsies all over the world, from Rajasthan to India… They have gone everywhere and have adapted the music that was out there”.

He would complete the trilogy with Antonio Gades with

(1983) and

(1986).

Thus Saura entered his most eclectic era, in which he immersed himself in music such as

(1992),

(1995) —where he began his collaboration with the cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, who gives unity to the dances— or

(1998) .

(1988) joins

at its premiere, the most expensive film in Spanish cinema—,

(1989) —in contrast, an intimate film about Saint John of the Cross—,

(1990) —his return to co-writing with Azcona, a box office success and winner of 13 Goya awards, including directing and screenplay—,

(1993) —in which he began his relationship with the actress Eulalia Ramón, whom he married in 2006, and mother of his young daughter, Anna—,

(1996),

—with which he recalls his Murcian family—,

(1999) —a tribute to his admired painter—,

(2001) —inspired by his beloved Buñuel and the atmosphere of the Student Residence— or

(2004).

In addition, Saura has directed theater, musicals, opera, and his photographs have been seen in numerous exhibitions.

Since 2004 his cinema has been eminently musical, with incursions into short films on the Civil War and the world of Goya.

His film grandchildren, creators such as Carla Simón, Paco Plaza or Carlos Vermut, vindicate his work as previous generations did not.

In 2009, Saura pointed out to Diego Galán: "Mario Camus told me that deep down it wasn't so bad that in this country the work of others was cruelly criticized, because that way you can't fall asleep."

“I like life at every moment;

I rarely look back,” she would say.

And that explains why he is one of the few masters of cinema who did not film a twilight movie, a review of his career or his childhood.

He never faced death, because he was never in the plan for him to die.

Saura leaves with a television series and a long project, active.

As he wanted.