MacFormat 1996 July/macformat-039.iso/DATABASE/SHARED.DIR/01508_26.cap.txt

Text File | 1996-03-14 | 3.9 KB | 255 lines

@
One of the
greatest figures
in film history,
Luis Bunuel's
iconoclastic work
was always
shocking, but
often amusingly
so. His films have
a remarkable
consistency,
despite a career
lasting half a
century
#
Bunuel was a
fierce critic of the
Church and
bourgeois society
from an early
age. These
antagonisms were
to dominate his
life and work,
and he used the
whole armoury of
surrealism to
attack them
#
From university
in Madrid, Bunuel
went to Paris,
where he made
two films with
the surrealist
artist Salvador
Dali, Un Chien
Andalou and
L'Age d'Or.
Their shocking
images outraged
respectable
society, but the
two films were
to become
landmarks in
cinema history
#
Bunuel fled Spain
for Mexico when
the fascist regime
of General Franco
came to power.
The first serious
film Bunuel
directed in
Mexico, was
Los Olvidados.
It won the Grand
Prix at the Cannes
Film Festival in
1950, and re-
established his
reputation as a
film-maker
@
After Los
Olvidados,
Bunuel made a
further 11 films
in Mexico, among
them Robinson
Crusoe, The
Criminal Life of
Archibaldo de la
Cruz and
Nazarin. The
last, made in
1959, was the
story of an
idealistic priest
who tries to live a
truly Christian
life. It proved a
big success in
Europe
#
General Franco's
government
invited Bunuel
home to make
Viridiana
and, surprisingly,
approved its
script. Viridiana
was acclaimed as
a masterpiece -
except in Spain,
where Franco's
censors soon
realised that they
had made a
mistake,
and banned it
#
In 1967 Bunuel
had his greatest-
ever popular
success, with
Belle de Jour.
Again he
explored beneath
the surface of
respectable
society, telling
the story of a
happily-married
bourgeois
housewife who
spends her
afternoons
working in a
brothel
#
In 1973 Bunuel
won the Oscar for
the best foreign
film for The
Discreet Charm of
the Bourgeoisie,
in which his old
hatreds - the
rituals of class,
the hypocrisy and
the shallow
veneer of polite
society - are all
examined
mercilessly
#
Bunuel continued making films almost until the end of his life. The
Phantom of Liberty was another attack on bourgeois hypocrisy,
That Obscure Object of Desire a modern piece of surrealism in
which the leading character is played by two different actresses
@
The Beatles split
was blamed by
many on Yoko
Ono. John doted
on her, and Paul
was deeply
distrustful of her,
But the two
songwriters'
paths had already
diverged, and the
worst that can be
said of Yoko is
that she hastened
the group's
demise
#
The once happy
and fruitful
Beatles
partnership slid
after the break-
up into personal
sniping and legal
bickering. Lennon
released a very
poor song, How
Do You Sleep,
which was a
bitter and vicious
attack on Paul
#
After the Beatles
fell apart the
members moved
on to other
projects. Lennon
moved to New
York, Ringo Starr
got interested in
film, Harrison
made some
respectable
albums in Britain
, and McCartney,
after a period of
peace and quiet,
re-emerged with
what he called a
working skiffle
band - Wings
#
John Lennon was
killed outside his
home in New
York. He had
done little in the
previous five
years, but had
just re-emerged
with a new
album. His death
put paid to the
perennial
rumours that the
Beatles were
about to get back
together
#
If prophetic
photographs are
anything to go by,
it seems Lennon
knew he would
be the first Beatle
to die. Sales in
Beatles records
naturally
rocketed after his
death, and with
his corpus of
work now
complete, the
appraisal of his
legacy, with the
Beatles and
without them,
could begin
#
Paul McCartney's
solo output has
remained
impressive, but
as with Lennon,
the quality
varied. Though
both men strived
to create a
separate musical
identity for
themselves after
the Beatles,
neither could
quite ever escape
the shadow of
their youthful
moptopped selves