MALAGA, SPAIN - MARCH 20: Spanish director Carlos Saura receives the Biznaga de Honor award during the 25th Malaga Film Festival at the Cervantes Theater on March 20, 2022 in Malaga, Spain.
(Photo by Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images)
(CNN Spanish) --
Carlos Saura, Spanish filmmaker, photographer and screenwriter, died this Friday in Madrid at the age of 91, reported the Spanish Film Academy, to which he belonged.
Actors and colleagues of Saura have joined in lamenting Saura's departure.
Saura, recognized with the Goya de Honor 2023, was going to receive the award this Saturday in Seville during the awards ceremony of the Spanish Film Academy.
With his death, the world of art is left without one of the most influential filmmakers in Spanish culture, responsible for films like “Quick, quick” that won the Golden Bear in Berlin.
In his career, he also had several forays into the world of music and dance, especially flamenco, Argentine tango or Portuguese fado in films such as "Carmen", "El Amor Brujo", "Sevillanas" or "Tango". , the latter featured the photograph of Oscar winner Vittorio Storaro.
"Tango" was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film in 1998.
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In addition, Saura is the author of one of the most expensive films in Spanish cinema from the late 80s called "El Dorado", which deals with the legend that the Spanish conquistadors were chasing.
He is also behind “Ay Carmela” based on a popular play set in the Spanish civil war that was a huge box office success.
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Carlos Saura receives the Biznaga de Honor during the 25th Malaga Film Festival at Teatro Cervantes on March 20, 2022 in Malaga, Spain.
(Photo by Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images)
Despite being over 90 years old, Saura had many professional plans and, in fact, on February 3 his documentary “Las paredes habla” was released on the history of painting on walls from caves to modern graffiti.
Saura was married to the actress Geraldine Chaplin, daughter of the famous Charlie Chaplin, who starred in some of his films such as "Ana and the Wolves" or "Cría Cuervos".
Together with the director Luis Buñuel, who was also from Aragon, they imposed a way of making movies in the 60s and 70s that broke with the iron censorship of the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.
The repercussions for Saura's death
The Spanish Film Academy was one of the first institutions to react to Saura's death, in a message in which it described him as "one of the fundamental filmmakers in the history of Spanish cinema."
The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, also echoed the news with an emotional message: "Carlos Saura, a fundamental figure of Spanish culture, leaves us. His talent is and will always be a cultural heritage of our history thanks to unforgettable films such as 'Oh, Carmela' or 'Cousin Angélica'. We say goodbye to the director of the imagination, but his cinema remains".
The renowned actor Antonio Banderas also lamented the death of his "friend", in a Twitter message in which he stated that, with him, "a very important part of the history of Spanish cinema dies".
With Carlos Saura, a very important part of the history of Spanish cinema dies.
He leaves behind him an essential work for deep reflection on human behavior.
Rest in peace friend.# DEP #CarlosSaura pic.twitter.com/B7AU9wGWbU
— Antonio Banderas (@antoniobanderas) February 10, 2023
"He leaves behind him an essential work for deep reflection on the behavior of the human being," added Banderas.
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