Spanish director Carlos Saura dies aged 91

Figure of European cinema and director in particular of

in 1975, the Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura died Friday at the age of 91, announced the Spanish Academy of Cinema.

she announced on Twitter.

Born into a family of artists, Carlos Saura discovered his vocation thanks to his pianist mother and his painter brother.

He first embarked on photography before enrolling at the Institute for Cinematographic Research and Studies in Madrid, from which he graduated as a director in 1957. He taught in the premises where he studied until in 1963, and made his first films in parallel: the documentary

, and the fiction

in 1960 which dealt with delinquency in the poor districts of Madrid and earned him his first trouble with the Franco regime.

Twice awarded at Cannes

To avoid censorship while defending his ideas, in the 1970s he adopted a more allegorical mode of expression with

and

which symbolically criticized Francoism.

He was rewarded twice at the Cannes Film Festival thanks to

in 1973 and

in 1976, both of which won the Grand Jury Prize.

In the 1980s, Carlos Saura abandoned politics and concentrated his work on music and dance.

After three films on flamenco -

and

- he directed

in 1998. The following year he directed a film on his favorite painter, Goya, and returned to dance in 2002 by filming the ballet

.

In 2005 he directed the documentary

, followed two years later by

, on Portuguese music.

In 2008, Carlos Saura embarked on an ambitious project on the life of Lorenzo da Ponte, an 18th century Italian opera singer.

His political commitment, his sense of aesthetics and his artistic culture make Carlos Saura a major figure in European cinema.