Zaragoza ( Spanish: [θaɾaˈɣoθa] ) also known in English as Saragossa , is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous community of Aragon , Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the Huerva and the Gállego , roughly in the centre of both Aragon and the Ebro basin.
124-525: Luis Buñuel Portolés ( Spanish: [ˈlwis βuˈɲwel poɾtoˈles] ; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish and Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. Buñuel's works were known for their avant-garde surrealism which were also infused with political commentary . Often associated with
248-801: A BAFTA Award as well as nominations for two Academy Awards . Buñuel received numerous honors including National Prize for Arts and Sciences for Fine Arts in 1977, the Moscow International Film Festival Contribution to Cinema Prize in 1979, and the Career Golden Lion in 1982. He was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968 and 1972 . Seven of Buñuel's films are included in Sight & Sound 's 2012 critics' poll of
372-460: A dialectical approach to such political stances by avant-garde artists and the avant-garde genre of art. Sociologically, as a stratum of the intelligentsia of a society, avant-garde artists, writers, architects, et al. produce artefacts — works of art, books, buildings — that intellectually and ideologically oppose the conformist value system of mainstream society. In the essay " Avant-Garde and Kitsch " (1939), Clement Greenberg said that
496-516: A 16-minute short, Un Chien Andalou , with Salvador Dalí . The film, financed by Buñuel's mother, consists of a series of startling images of a Freudian nature, starting with a woman's eyeball being sliced open with a razor blade. Un Chien Andalou was enthusiastically received by the burgeoning French surrealist movement of the time and continues to be shown regularly in film societies to this day. It has been called "the most famous short film ever made" by critic Roger Ebert . The script
620-530: A 6.7% did not answer. In 2017, there were 64,003 foreign citizens in Zaragoza, which represent 9.6% of the total population. From 2010 to 2017 immigration dropped from 87,735 to 64,003 people, a 27% drop. Romanians represent 29.8% of foreigners living in Zaragoza, or 2.9% of the total city population, followed by Moroccans (9.1%) and Chinese (7%). An Opel factory was opened in 1982 in Figueruelas ,
744-469: A 66% reduction in the department's budget and Buñuel felt himself compelled to resign. In 1944, he returned to Hollywood for the third time, this time as Spanish Dubbing Producer for Warner Brothers . Before leaving New York City, he confronted Dalí at his hotel, the Sherry Netherland , to tell the painter about the damage his book had done and then shoot him in the knee. Buñuel did not carry out
868-515: A Communist. In 1932, Buñuel was invited to serve as film documentarian for the celebrated Mission Dakar-Djibouti , the first large-scale French anthropological field expedition, which, led by Marcel Griaule , unearthed some 3,500 African artifacts for the new Musée de l'Homme . Although he declined, the project piqued his interest in ethnography . After reading the academic study, Las Jurdes: étude de géographie humaine (1927) by Maurice Legendre [ es ; fr ; pt ] , he decided to make
992-712: A Communist. Although Dancigers was not enthusiastic about the Lorca project, he did want to work with Buñuel and persuaded the Spanish director to undertake a totally different project. The Golden Age of Mexican cinema was peaking in the mid-to-late 1940s, at just the time Buñuel was connecting with Dancigers. Movies represented Mexico's third largest industry by 1947, employing 32,000 workers, with 72 film producers who invested 66 million pesos (approximately U.S. $ 13 million) per year, four active studios with 40 million pesos of invested capital, and approximately 1,500 theaters throughout
1116-475: A cultural term, avant-garde identified a genre of art that advocated art-as-politics, art as an aesthetic and political means for realising social change in a society. Since the 20th century, the art term avant-garde identifies a stratum of the Intelligentsia that comprises novelists and writers, artists and architects et al. whose creative perspectives, ideas, and experimental artworks challenge
1240-537: A deliberate attack on Catholicism, and this precipitated a much larger scandal than Un Chien Andalou . One early screening was taken over by members of the fascist League of Patriots and the Anti-Jewish Youth Group, who hurled purple ink at the screen and then vandalised the adjacent art gallery, destroying a number of valuable surrealist paintings. The film was banned by the Parisian police "in
1364-556: A detached-sounding announcer, while the soundtrack thunders inappropriate music by Brahms . Though the material is organized with masterly skill, the very conception of "art" here seems irrelevant. It is the most profoundly disturbing film I have ever seen. Award-winning film director Tony Richardson on Las Hurdes: Tierra Sin Pan Las Hurdes was banned by the Second Spanish Republic and then by
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#17327653160581488-471: A few months at the studio, he was asked to watch rushes of Lili Damita to gauge her Spanish accent, he refused and sent a message to studio boss Irving Thalberg stating that he was there as a Frenchman, not a Spaniard, and he "didn't have time to waste listening to one of the whores". He was back in Spain shortly thereafter. Spain in the early 1930s was a time of political and social turbulence. Due to both
1612-628: A film focused on peasant life in Las Hurdes , perhaps the poorest comarca in Extremadura , one of Spain's poorest regions. The film, called Las Hurdes: Tierra Sin Pan (1933), was financed on a budget of 20,000 pesetas donated by a working-class anarchist friend named Ramón Acín , who had won the money in a lottery. In the film, Buñuel matches scenes of deplorable social conditions with narration that resembles travelogue commentary delivered by
1736-768: A film version of Malcolm Lowry 's Under the Volcano ", but that after reading the book many times as well as eight different screenplays he was unable to come up with a solution for the cinema. The movie was eventually made in 1984 by John Huston . In 1946, an old friend, producer Denise Tual , the widow of Pierre Batcheff , the leading man in Un Chien Andalou , proposed that she and Buñuel adapt Lorca's play La casa de Bernarda Alba for production in Paris. As it turned out, though, before they could both make their way to Europe, they encountered problems in securing
1860-526: A fire at the Hotel Corona de Aragón fire killed at least 80 people, including members of the family of Francisco Franco. The armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization ETA carried out the Zaragoza barracks bombing in 1987 which killed eleven people, including a number of children, leading to 250,000 people taking part in demonstrations in the city. Since 1982, the city has been home to
1984-720: A large factory built by General Motors for the production of Opel cars, some of which are exported to the United Kingdom and sold under the Vauxhall brand. The city took advantage of the entry of Spain into the European Communities (later European Union). Zaragoza lies in the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula , in the rather arid depression formed by the valley of the Ebro . The Ebro cuts across
2108-491: A mass audience. He accepted the offer, viewing it as an "experiment" as he knew the film industry in Spain was still far behind the technical level of Hollywood or Paris. According to film historian Manuel Rotellar 's interviews with members of the cast and crew of the Filmófono studios, Buñuel's only condition was that his involvement with these pictures be completely anonymous, apparently for fear of damaging his reputation as
2232-625: A network of buses which is controlled by the Urban Buses of Zaragoza (AUZSA). The network consists of 31 regular lines (two of them circle lines), two scheduled routes, six shuttle buses (one free), and seven night buses operating on Fridays, Saturdays and other festivities. Zaragoza also has an interurban bus network operated by Transport Consortium Zaragoza Area (CTAZ) that operates 17 regular lines. Zaragoza's bicycle lanes facilitate non-motorised travel and help cyclists to avoid running into pedestrians and motor vehicles. The city council also has
2356-476: A part in the salon scene. A film called L'Age d'or , whose non-existent artistic quality is an insult to any kind of technical standard, combines, as a public spectacle, the most obscene, disgusting and tasteless incidents. Country, family, and religion are dragged through the mud. Excerpt from Richard Pierre Bodin's review in Le Figaro , 7 December 1930. L'Age d'Or was publicly proclaimed by Dalí as
2480-549: A post-modern time when the modernist ways of thought and action and the production of art have become redundant in a capitalist economy. Parting from the claims of Greenberg in the late 1930s and the insights of Poggioli in the early 1960s, in The De-Definition of Art: Action Art to Pop to Earthworks (1983), the critic Harold Rosenberg said that since the middle of the 1960s the politically progressive avant-garde ceased being adversaries to artistic commercialism and
2604-619: A secretary in an organization called the International Society of Intellectual Cooperation. He also became actively involved in cinema and theater, going to the movies as often as three times a day. Through these interests, he met a number of influential people, including the pianist Ricardo Viñes , who was instrumental in securing Buñuel's selection as artistic director of the Dutch premiere of Manuel de Falla 's puppet-opera El retablo de maese Pedro in 1926. He decided to enter
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#17327653160582728-627: A small part as a smuggler in Jacques Feyder 's Carmen (1926). When Buñuel derisively rejected Epstein's demand that he assist Epstein's mentor, Abel Gance , who was at the time working on the film Napoléon , Epstein dismissed him angrily, saying "How can a little asshole like you dare to talk that way about a great director like Gance?" then added "You seem rather surrealist. Beware of surrealists, they are crazy people." After parting with Epstein, Buñuel worked as film critic for La Gaceta Literaria (1927) and Les Cahiers d'Art (1928). In
2852-430: A small village nearby. The automotive industry is a main pillar of the regional economy along with Balay , which manufactures household appliances; CAF , which builds railway rolling stock for both the national and international markets; SAICA and Torraspapel in the stationery sector; and various other local companies, such as Pikolin , Lacasa , and Imaginarium SA . The city's economy benefited from projects like
2976-470: A stale orthodoxy". After Las Hurdes in 1933, Buñuel worked in Paris in the dubbing department of Paramount Pictures , but following his marriage in 1934, he switched to Warner Brothers because they operated dubbing studios in Madrid. A friend, Ricardo Urgoiti [ es ; eu ] , who owned the commercial film company Filmófono [ es ; eu ] , invited Buñuel to produce films for
3100-465: A surface of 973.78 km (375.98 sq mi), making it the ninth largest municipality in Spain. While the river banks are largely flat, the territory flanking them can display a rugged terrain, featuring muelas and escarpments. The surrounding elevations rise up to heights of about 600–750 metres above sea level. The locations near the meanders of the Ebro feature some sinkholes formed upon
3224-496: A surge in anti-clerical sentiment and a longrunning desire for retribution for the corruption and malfeasance of the extreme right and their supporters in the church, Anarchists and Radical Socialists sacked monarchist headquarters in Madrid and proceeded to burn down or otherwise wreck more than a dozen churches in the capital. Similar revolutionary acts occurred in many other cities in southern and eastern Spain, in most cases with
3348-399: A surrealist. Rotellar insists, however, "the truth is that it was Luis Buñuel who directed the Filmófono productions". José Luis Sáenz de Heredia , the titular director of two of the films created during Buñuel's years as "executive producer" at Filmófono, recounted that it was Buñuel who "explained to me every morning what he wanted...We looked at the takes together and it was Buñuel who chose
3472-558: A tribe of ancient Iberians , populated a village called Salduie [ es ] ( Salduba in Roman sources). Augustus founded the city as Caesaraugusta between 25 BC and 11 BC as a colony to settle army veterans from the Cantabrian wars . As a Roman city, it had all the typical public buildings: forum , baths , theatre , and was an important economic centre. Many Roman ruins can still be seen in Zaragoza today. It
3596-533: A year: to do nothing". While his family enjoyed themselves at the beach, Buñuel spent much of his time in Antelope Valley with new acquaintances writer Aldous Huxley and sculptor Alexander Calder , from whom he rented a house. In his autobiography, in a chapter about his second spell in America, Buñuel states that "[o]n several occasions, both American and European producers have suggested that I tackle
3720-414: Is a silent film , during the original screening (attended by the elite of the Parisian art world), Buñuel played a sequence of phonograph records which he switched manually while keeping his pockets full of stones with which to pelt anticipated hecklers. After the premiere, Buñuel and Dalí were granted formal admittance to the tight-knit community of Surrealists, led by poet André Breton . Late in 1929, on
3844-516: Is a scanty 322 millimetres (12.7 in) with abundant sunny days, and the rainiest seasons are spring (April–May) and autumn (September–November), with a relative drought in summer (July–August) and winter (December–March). Temperatures in summer are hot, and in winter a cold and dry wind blows from the northwest, the Cierzo . Night frost is common and there is sporadic snowfall . Fog can be persistent in late autumn and early winter. Zaragoza
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3968-524: Is administratively divided into 15 urban districts and 14 rural neighborhoods: The population, in thousands, can be seen here: According to a survey carried out by the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS) in 2019 with a sample size of 300, 51.0% of the surveyed people described themselves as non-practising Catholic, 24.0% as practising Catholic, 6.7% as indifferent/non-believer, 5.0% as agnostic , 4.3% as atheist and 2.3% as "other religions", while
4092-718: Is also home to the MIT-Zaragoza International Logistics Program, a unique partnership between MIT, the Government of Aragon and the University of Zaragoza. There is a French international primary and secondary school, Lycée Français Molière de Saragosse . The city is connected by motorway with the main cities in central and northern Spain, including Madrid , Barcelona , Valencia , and Bilbao , all of which are located about 300 kilometres (200 miles) from Zaragoza. The city has
4216-525: Is another definition of "Avant-gardism" that distinguishes it from "modernism": Peter Bürger, for example, says avant-gardism rejects the "institution of art" and challenges social and artistic values, and so necessarily involves political, social, and cultural factors. According to the composer and musicologist Larry Sitsky , modernist composers from the early 20th century who do not qualify as avant-gardists include Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Igor Stravinsky; later modernist composers who do not fall into
4340-638: Is facilitated by mechanically produced art-products of mediocre quality displacing art of quality workmanship; thus, the profitability of art-as-commodity determines its artistic value. In The Society of the Spectacle (1967), Guy Debord said that the financial, commercial, and economic co-optation of the avant-garde into a commodity produced by neoliberal capitalism makes doubtful that avant-garde artists will remain culturally and intellectually relevant to their societies for preferring profit to cultural change and political progress. In The Theory-Death of
4464-432: Is home to a Spanish Air and Space Force base, which was shared with the U.S. Air Force until 1992. In English, the base was known as Zaragoza Air Base . The Spanish Air Force maintained a McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet wing at the base. No American flying wings (with the exception of a few KC-135s) were permanently based there, but it served as a training base for American fighter squadrons across Europe. It also hosts
4588-546: Is not reducible to a kitsch style or reactionary orientation, but can instead be used to refer to artists who engage with the legacy of the avant-garde while maintaining an awareness that doing so is in some sense anachronistic. The critic Charles Altieri argues that avant-garde and arrière-garde are interdependent: "where there is an avant-garde, there must be an arrière-garde ." Avant-garde in music can refer to any form of music working within traditional structures while seeking to breach boundaries in some manner. The term
4712-631: Is now a functioning parish church. Despite the general decline of the last centuries of the Roman empire, Zaragoza suffered little. Capture by the Goths in the fifth century CE was without significant bloodshed or destruction. In the eighth century, following the Umayyad conquest of the Iberian Peninsula , Zaragoza became the capital of the Upper March of al-Andalus . In 1018, amid
4836-546: Is the 26th most populous municipality in the European Union . The population of the metropolitan area was estimated in 2006 at 783,763 inhabitants. The municipality is home to more than 50 percent of the Aragonese population. The city lies at an elevation of about 208 metres (682 feet) above sea level . Zaragoza hosted Expo 2008 in the summer of 2008, a world's fair on water and sustainable development. It
4960-709: Is thought it might have been the Apostle James who had built a chapel on the site of the Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar . On the spot where Saint Engratia and her companions were said to have been martyred on Valerian's orders was the Church of Santa Engracia de Zaragoza . Only the crypt and the doorway survived the Peninsular War . Around the early 20th century it was rebuilt, and
5084-615: Is used loosely to describe the work of any musicians who radically depart from tradition altogether. By this definition, some avant-garde composers of the 20th century include Arnold Schoenberg , Richard Strauss (in his earliest work), Charles Ives , Igor Stravinsky , Anton Webern , Edgard Varèse , Alban Berg , George Antheil (in his earliest works only), Henry Cowell (in his earliest works), Harry Partch , John Cage , Iannis Xenakis , Morton Feldman , Karlheinz Stockhausen , Pauline Oliveros , Philip Glass , Meredith Monk , Laurie Anderson , and Diamanda Galás . There
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5208-664: Is where he gained the fundamentals of storytelling. Buñuel then transitioned into making artful, unconventional , surrealist , and political satirical films. He earned acclaim with the morally complex arthouse drama film Viridiana (1961) which criticized the Francoist dictatorship . The film won the Palme d'Or at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival . He then criticized political and social conditions in The Exterminating Angel (1962), and The Discreet Charm of
5332-638: The Expo 2008 , the official World's Fair, whose theme was water and sustainable development , held between 14 June and 14 September 2008, Plataforma Logística de Zaragoza (PLAZA), and the Parque Tecnológico de Reciclado (PTR). Furthermore, since December 2003, it has been a city through which the AVE high-speed rail travels. Currently, Zaragoza Airport is a major cargo hub in the Iberian Peninsula , behind only Madrid, Barcelona, and Lisbon. Zaragoza
5456-418: The Francoist dictatorship . It is a film which continues to perplex viewers and resists easy categorization by film historians. Las Hurdes has been called one of the first examples of mockumentary , and has been labeled a "surrealist documentary", a term defined by critic Mercè Ibarz [ es ] as "A multi-layered and unnerving use of sound, the juxtaposition of narrative forms already learnt from
5580-658: The Nueva Planta , abolishing the Aragonese institutions in favour of the Castilian ones. The war turned around again in 1710 after the Battle of Almenar , and, following another Bourbon defeat near Zaragoza on 20 August 1710 , Archduke Charles returned to the city on the next day. This was for only a brief period, though, as following the entry of Philip V in Madrid and the ensuing Battle of Villaviciosa in December 1710,
5704-575: The Residencia de Estudiantes , with the three friends forming the nucleus of the Spanish Surrealist avant-garde , and becoming known as members of " La Generación del 27 ". Buñuel was especially taken with García Lorca, later writing in his autobiography: We liked each other instantly. Although we seemed to have little in common—I was a redneck from Aragon, and he an elegant Andalusian—we spent most of our time together...We used to sit on
5828-504: The arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas . There are many activities during the festival, from the massively attended pregon (opening speech) to the final fireworks display over the Ebro; they also include marching bands, dances such as jota aragonesa (the most popular folk music dance), a procession of gigantes y cabezudos , concerts, exhibitions, vaquillas , bullfights, fairground amusements, and fireworks. Some of
5952-405: The arts and literature , the term avant-garde (from French meaning ' advance guard ' or ' vanguard ' ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art , and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable to the artistic establishment of the time. The military metaphor of an advance guard identifies
6076-581: The surrealist movement of the 1920s, Buñuel made films from the 1920s through the 1970s. He collaborated with prolific surrealist painter Salvador Dali creating the films Un Chien Andalou (1929), which was made in the silent era , and L'Age d'Or (1930). The two films are seen as the birth of Cinematic surrealism . From 1947 to 1960 he developed his skills as a director filming in Mexico making grounded and human melodramas such as Gran Casino (1947), Los Olvidados (1950), and Él (1953). Here
6200-522: The American Language poets (1960s–1970s). The French military term avant-garde (advanced guard) identified a reconnaissance unit who scouted the terrain ahead of the main force of the army. In 19th-century French politics, the term avant-garde (vanguard) identified Left-wing political reformists who agitated for radical political change in French society. In the mid-19th century, as
6324-454: The Army. The 1953 Accords ensued with the installment of a joint US–Spain air base in Zaragoza . Following the declaration of Zaragoza as Polo de Desarrollo Industrial ("Pole for Industrial Development") by the regime in 1964, the city doubled in population in a short time. The increase in population ran parallel to the rural flight and depopulation in the rest of Aragon. In 1979,
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#17327653160586448-497: The Avant-Garde ( Teoria dell'arte d'avanguardia , 1962), the academic Renato Poggioli provides an early analysis of the avant-garde as art and as artistic movement. Surveying the historical and social, psychological and philosophical aspects of artistic vanguardism, Poggioli's examples of avant-garde art, poetry, and music, show that avant-garde artists share some values and ideals as contemporary bohemians . In Theory of
6572-473: The Avant-Garde ( Theorie der Avantgarde , 1974), the literary critic Peter Bürger looks at The Establishment 's embrace of socially critical works of art as capitalist co-optation of the artists and the genre of avant-garde art, because "art as an institution neutralizes the political content of the individual work [of art]". In Neo-avantgarde and Culture Industry: Essays on European and American Art from 1955 to 1975 (2000), Benjamin H. D. Buchloh argues for
6696-697: The Avant-Garde (1991), Paul Mann said that the avant-garde are economically integral to the contemporary institutions of the Establishment, specifically as part of the culture industry . Noting the conceptual shift, theoreticians, such as Matei Calinescu , in Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism (1987), and Hans Bertens in The Idea of the Postmodern: A History (1995), said that Western culture entered
6820-714: The Bourgeoisie (1972) the latter of which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film . He also directed Diary of a Chambermaid (1964), and Belle de Jour (1967), as well as his final film That Obscure Object of Desire (1977) the latter of which earned the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Director . Buñuel earned five Cannes Film Festival prizes, two Berlin International Film Festival prizes, and
6944-604: The Ebro. The Huerva runs through the city buried for much of its lower course. Zaragoza is also located near the confluence of the Ebro with the Gállego , a more voluminous left-bank tributary born in the Pyrenees . Zaragoza has a semi-arid climate ( Köppen : BSk ), as it lies in a wide basin entirely surrounded by mountains which block off moist air from the Atlantic and Mediterranean. The average annual precipitation
7068-611: The Fascists had seized power, so Buñuel decided to stay in the U.S. indefinitely, stating that he was "immensely attracted by the American naturalness and sociability". Returning to Hollywood in 1938, he was befriended by Frank Davis , an MGM producer and member of the Communist Party USA , who placed Buñuel on the payroll of Cargo of Innocence , a film about Spanish refugee mothers and children fleeing from Bilbao to
7192-686: The Habsburg armies fled from Zaragoza in haste in December 1710 and Philip V proceeded to consolidate his rule over the kingdom of Aragon, resuming administrative reforms after a period of institutional void. An important food riot caused by the high price of bread and other necessity goods took place in the city in April 1766, the so-called motín de los broqueleros , named after the repressive agents, volunteer farmers and craftsmen who wielded swords and bucklers ( broqueles ). The repression left about 300 wounded, 200 detainees and 8 deaths and it
7316-517: The Museum team turned into marvellous films. And not just Spanish versions, but also Portuguese, French and English...He would create a good documentary through editing." [italics in original] In 1942, Buñuel applied for American citizenship because he anticipated that MoMA would be put under federal control. This same year, Dalí published his autobiography The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí , in which he made it clear that he had split with Buñuel because
7440-525: The Pillar'). The Aragonese language , in decline for centuries and restricted mostly to northern Aragon, has recently attracted more people in the region. Thus, nowadays, in Zaragoza, up to 7,000 people speak Aragonese. The annual Fiestas del Pilar lasts for nine days, with its main day on 12 October. This date also coincides with Spain's national holiday, El Día de la Hispanidad (Day of Hispanicity), which celebrates Spain's cultural and historical ties with Hispanic America. October 12 also corresponds to
7564-667: The Spanish Civil War, so in 1938, he and his family traveled to the United States using funds obtained from his old patrons, the Noailles. Almost immediately upon his arrival in America, however, the war ended and the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association of America discontinued making films on the Spanish conflict. According to Buñuel's wife, returning to Spain was impossible since
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#17327653160587688-432: The USSR. The project was shelved precipitately when another Hollywood film about the Spanish Civil War, Blockade , was met with disfavor by the Catholic League of Decency . In the words of biographer Ruth Brandon, Buñuel and his family "lived from one unsatisfactory crumb of work to another" because he "had none of the arrogance and pushiness essential for survival in Hollywood". He just was not flamboyant enough to capture
7812-450: The Will (1935) as a demonstration project. The finished product was a compilation of scenes from Riefenstahl's Nazi epic with Hans Bertram 's Feuertaufe . Buñuel stayed at MoMA to work for the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (OCIAA) as part of a production team that gathered, reviewed and edited films intended as anti-fascist propaganda to be distributed in Latin America by American embassies. While being vetted for
7936-399: The acquiescence and occasionally with the assistance of the official Republican authorities. Buñuel's future wife, Jeanne Rucar, recalled that during that period, "he got very excited about politics and the ideas that were everywhere in pre-Civil War Spain". In the first flush of his enthusiasm, Buñuel joined the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) in 1931, though later in life he denied becoming
8060-459: The approach taken by Jean Epstein and his peers, which was to never leave anything in their work to chance, with every aesthetic decision having a rational explanation and fitting clearly into the whole, Buñuel and Dalí made a cardinal point of eliminating all logical associations. In Buñuel's words: "Our only rule was very simple: no idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation of any kind would be accepted. We had to open all doors to
8184-458: The artistic vanguard oppose high culture and reject the artifice of mass culture , because the avant-garde functionally oppose the dumbing down of society — be it with low culture or with high culture . That in a capitalist society each medium of mass communication is a factory producing artworks, and is not a legitimate artistic medium; therefore, the products of mass culture are kitsch , simulations and simulacra of Art. Walter Benjamin in
8308-472: The artists and writers whose innovations in style, form, and subject-matter challenge the artistic and aesthetic validity of the established forms of art and the literary traditions of their time; thus, the artists who created the anti-novel and Surrealism were ahead of their times. As a stratum of the intelligentsia of a society, avant-garde artists promote progressive and radical politics and advocate for societal reform with and through works of art. In
8432-423: The attack on those places of Aragon that had sided with the Bourbon faction such as Borja or the Cinco Villas . Following the April 1707 battle at Almansa , the tide turned with the Austracist forces fleeing in disarray, and the Bourbon forces commanded by the Duke of Orléans entering the city on 26 May 1707. As he seized control of the kingdom, he began to enact the series of institutional reforms known as
8556-411: The attention of Hollywood decision makers, in the opinion of film composer George Antheil : "Inasmuch as [Buñuel], his wife and his little boy seemed to be such absolutely normal, solid persons, as totally un-Surrealist in the Dalí tradition as one could possibly imagine." For the most part, he was snubbed by many of the people in the film community whom he met during his first trip to America, although he
8680-411: The avant-garde push the aesthetic boundaries of societal norms , such as the disruptions of modernism in poetry, fiction, and drama, painting, music, and architecture, that occurred in the late 19th and in the early 20th centuries. In art history the socio-cultural functions of avant-garde art trace from Dada (1915–1920s) through the Situationist International (1957–1972) to the postmodernism of
8804-427: The avant-garde traditions in both the United States and Europe. Among these are Fluxus , Happenings , and Neo-Dada . Brutalist architecture was greatly influenced by an avant-garde movement. Zaragoza On 1 January 2021, the population of the municipality of Zaragoza was 675,301, (as of 2023, the fourth or fifth most populous in Spain) on a land area of 973.78 square kilometres (375.98 square miles). It
8928-477: The cataloguing, Buñuel took left-wing tracts to Spain, did some occasional spying, acted as a bodyguard, and supervised the making of a documentary, entitled España 1936 in France and España leal, ¡en armas! [ es ] in Spain, that covered the elections, the parades, the riots, and the war. In August 1936, Federico García Lorca was shot and killed by Nationalist militia. According to his son, Juan Luis , Buñuel rarely talked about Lorca but mourned
9052-416: The category of avant-gardists include Elliott Carter , Milton Babbitt , György Ligeti , Witold Lutosławski , and Luciano Berio , since "their modernism was not conceived for the purpose of goading an audience." The 1960s saw a wave of free and avant-garde music in jazz genre, embodied by artists such as Ornette Coleman , Sun Ra , Albert Ayler , Archie Shepp , John Coltrane and Miles Davis . In
9176-573: The centre of the Mola -led conspiration in Zaragoza) triumphed in the city. After the military uprising in Africa on 17 July, the military command easily attained its objectives in Zaragoza in the early morning of 19 July, despite the city's status as stronghold of organised labour (mostly CNT anarcho-syndicalists but also UGT trade unionists), as the civil governor critically refused to give weapons to
9300-434: The city centre every day with dramatic sculptures, black-dressed praying women and hundreds of hooded people playing drums. It has been a Festival of International Tourist Interest since 2014. The University of Zaragoza is based in the city. As one of the oldest universities in Spain and a major research and development centre, this public university awards all the highest academic degrees in dozens of fields. Zaragoza
9424-581: The city from the Almoravids, and made it the capital of the Kingdom of Aragon . The aforementioned monarch created a jurisdictional dominion in the city, which was gifted to Gaston of Béarn . The city remained a lordship up until the early 13th century. There was a Jewish community in medieval Zaragoza, a notable center where yeshivas also incorporated the study of philosophy alongside Talmud studies . An outbreak of bubonic plague decimated
9548-595: The city in 1564. It reportedly killed about 10,000 people out of an estimated population of 25–30,000. In the context of the 1701–1714 War of Spanish Succession , the city rose in arms in favour of the Archduke Charles , who was proclaimed "King of Aragon" in the city on 29 June 1706, following the uprising of other parts of the Kingdom of Aragon in December 1705. Charles entered the city in July 1706, directing
9672-432: The city in a west north-west by east south-east direction, entering the municipality at 205 metres above sea level and exiting the municipality at a level of 180 metres above sea level. The city enjoys a beneficial location at the geographical centre of the rough hexagon formed by the Spanish cities of Bilbao , Madrid , Valencia and Barcelona and the French cities of Bordeaux and Toulouse . The municipality has
9796-735: The collapse of the Caliphate of Córdoba , Zaragoza became an independent Taifa of Zaragoza , initially controlled by the Tujibid family, then ruled by the Banu Hud from 1039. The taifa greatly prospered in a cultural and political sense in the late 11th century, and being later governed by Ahmad al-Muqtadir , Yusuf al-Mu'taman ibn Hud and Al-Musta'in II . It fell to the Almoravids in 1110. On 18 December 1118, Alfonso I of Aragon conquered
9920-416: The cultural values of contemporary bourgeois society . In the U.S. of the 1960s, the post–WWII changes to American culture and society allowed avant-garde artists to produce works of art that addressed the matters of the day, usually in political and sociologic opposition to the cultural conformity inherent to popular culture and to consumerism as a way of life and as a worldview . In The Theory of
10044-596: The early stages of the Spanish Civil War along Seville , Zaragoza profited from an increasing industrial production vis-à-vis the war economy , playing a key role for the Francoist faction as ammunition manufacturer. The General Military Academy , a higher training center of the Spanish Army , was re-established on 27 September 1940 by José Enrique Varela , the Francoist Minister of
10168-514: The essay " The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction " (1939) and Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer in the Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947) said that the artifice of mass culture voids the artistic value (the aura ) of a work of art. That the capitalist culture industry (publishing and music, radio and cinema, etc.) continually produces artificial culture for mass consumption, which
10292-596: The essay "The Artist, the Scientist, and the Industrialist" (1825), Benjamin Olinde Rodrigues 's political usage of vanguard identified the moral obligation of artists to "serve as [the] avant-garde" of the people, because "the power of the arts is, indeed, the most immediate and fastest way" to realise social, political, and economic reforms. In the realm of culture, the artistic experiments of
10416-405: The film had grown segmentally to an hour's duration. Anxious that it was over twice as long as planned and at double the budget, Buñuel offered to trim the film and cease production, but Noailles gave him the go-ahead to continue the project. The film, entitled L'Age d'Or , was begun as a second collaboration with Dalí, but, while working on the scenario, the two had a falling out; Buñuel, who at
10540-557: The film industry and enrolled in a private film school run by Jean Epstein and some associates. At that time, Epstein was one of the most celebrated commercial directors working in France, his films being hailed as "the triumph of impressionism in motion, but also the triumph of the modern spirit". Before long, Buñuel was working for Epstein as an assistant director on Mauprat (1926) and La chute de la maison Usher (1928), and also for Mario Nalpas on La Sirène des Tropiques (1927), starring Josephine Baker . He appeared on screen in
10664-436: The film was a popular success with the very audience he had wanted to insult, leading Buñuel to exclaim in exasperation: "What can I do about the people who adore all that is new, even when it goes against their deepest convictions, or about the insincere, corrupt press, and the inane herd that saw beauty or poetry in something which was basically no more than a desperate impassioned call for murder?" Although Un Chien Andalou
10788-401: The film's leading lady, Lya Lys , received offers of interest from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and traveled to Hollywood at the studio's expense. While in the United States, Buñuel associated with other celebrity expatriates including Sergei Eisenstein , Josef Von Sternberg , Jacques Feyder , Charles Chaplin and Bertolt Brecht . All that was required of Buñuel by his loose-ended contract with MGM
10912-517: The grass in the evenings behind the Residencia (at that time, there were vast open spaces reaching to the horizon), and he would read me his poems. He read slowly and beautifully, and through him I began to discover a wholly new world. Buñuel's relationship with Dalí was somewhat more troubled, being tinged with jealousy over the growing intimacy between Dalí and Lorca and resentment over Dalí's early success as an artist. Buñuel's interest in films
11036-558: The inauguration of the Barcelona –Zaragoza line with the arrival of a train from the former city to the Estación del Norte . The Madrid –Zaragoza line was opened a year and a half later, on 16 May 1863. The July 1936 coup d'état (with Gen. Miguel Cabanellas , Col. Monasterio [ es ] , Urrutia [ es ] , Sueiro [ es ] , Major Cebollero and Gen. Gregorio de Benito [ es ] at
11160-419: The irrational and keep only those images that surprised us, without trying to explain why". It was Buñuel's intention to outrage the self-proclaimed artistic vanguard of his youth, later saying: "Historically the film represents a violent reaction against what in those days was called 'avant-garde,' which was aimed exclusively at artistic sensibility and the audience's reason." Against his hopes and expectations,
11284-512: The job at the OCIAA, upon being asked if he was a Communist, he replied: "I am a Republican," and, apparently, the interviewer did not realize that Buñuel was referring to the Spanish socialist coalition government, not the American political party. Describing Buñuel's work at MoMA, his friend, composer Gustavo Pittaluga, stated: "Luis created maybe 2,000 remarkable works. We were sent anodyne documentaries, often extremely feeble primary materials, which
11408-602: The latter was a Communist and an atheist . News of this reached Archbishop Spellman , who angrily confronted Barry with the question: "Are you aware that you are harbouring in this Museum the Antichrist, the man who made a blasphemous film L'Age d'Or ?" At the same time, a campaign on the part of Hollywood, through its industry trade paper, the Motion Picture Herald , to undermine the MoMA film unit resulted in
11532-483: The main Spanish Army academy, Academia General Militar , a number of brigades at San Gregorio , and other garrisons. Christianity took root in Zaragoza at an early date. According to legend, St. Mary appeared miraculously to Saint James the Great in Zaragoza in the first century, standing on a pillar. This apparition is commemorated by a famous Catholic basilica called Nuestra Señora del Pilar ('Our Lady of
11656-535: The mediocrity of mass culture , which political disconnection transformed being an artist into "a profession, one of whose aspects is the pretense of overthrowing [the profession of being an artist]." Avant-garde is frequently defined in contrast to arrière-garde , which in its original military sense refers to a rearguard force that protects the advance-guard. The term was less frequently used than "avant-garde" in 20th-century art criticism. The art historians Natalie Adamson and Toby Norris argue that arrière-garde
11780-566: The most celebrated festivals in Spain. The Iberian town that preceded Roman colonisation was called Salduie or Salduba . The Romans and Greeks called the ancient city Caesaraugusta (in Greek Καισαραυγοῦστα ), from which derive the Arabic name سرقسطة Saraqusṭa (used during the Al-Andalus period), the medieval Çaragoça , and the modern Zaragoza . The Sedetani ,
11904-579: The most important events are the Ofrenda de Flores , or Flower Offering to St. Mary of the Pillar, on 12 October, when an enormous surface resembling a cloak for St. Mary is covered with flowers, and the Ofrenda de Frutos on 13 October, when all the autonomous communities of Spain offer their typical regional dishes to St. Mary and donate them to soup kitchens. Holy Week in Zaragoza , although not as elaborate an affair as its Andalusian or Bajo Aragón counterparts, has several processions passing through
12028-457: The name of public order". The de Noailles, both Catholics, were threatened with excommunication by The Vatican because of the film's blasphemous final scene (which visually links Jesus Christ with the writings of the Marquis de Sade ), so they made the decision in 1934 to withdraw all prints from circulation, and L'Age d'Or was not seen again until 1981, after their deaths, although a print
12152-671: The nation, with about 200 in Mexico City alone. For their first project, the two men selected what seemed like a sure-fire success, Gran Casino , a musical period piece set in Tampico during the boom years of oil exploitation, starring two of the most popular entertainers in Latin America: Libertad Lamarque , an Argentine actress and singer, and Jorge Negrete , a Mexican singer and leading man in "charro" films . Buñuel recalled: "I kept them singing all
12276-478: The people in time. Many refugees, including members of the provincial committees of parties and unions, fled to Caspe , the capital of the territory of Aragon, which was still controlled by the Republic. The rearguard violence committed by the putschists, with at least 12 murders on 19 July, would only go in crescendo along the beginning of the conflict. Thus one of the two big cities under Rebel control since
12400-630: The periodicals L'Amic de les Arts and La gaseta de les Arts , he and Dalí carried on a series of "call and response" essays on cinema and theater, debating such technical issues as segmentation, découpage , the insert shot and rhythmic editing . He also collaborated with the celebrated writer Ramón Gómez de la Serna on the script for what he hoped would be his first film, "a story in six scenes" called Los caprichos . Through his involvement with Gaceta Literaria , he helped establish Madrid's first cine-club and served as its inaugural chairman. After his apprenticeship with Epstein, Buñuel shot and directed
12524-413: The poet's untimely death throughout his life. Buñuel essentially functioned as the coordinator of film propaganda for the Republic, which meant that he was in a position to examine all film shot in the country and decide what sequences could be developed and distributed abroad. The Spanish Ambassador suggested that Buñuel revisit Hollywood where he could give technical advice on films being made there about
12648-401: The rights from Lorca's family. While in Mexico City, on a stopover, they had asked Óscar Dancigers, a Russian émigré producer active in Mexico, for financing. Dancigers ran an independent production company that specialized in assisting U.S. film studios with on-location shooting in Mexico, but following World War II, he had lost his connection with Hollywood due to his being blacklisted as
12772-593: The rock music of the 1970s, the "art" descriptor was generally understood to mean "aggressively avant-garde" or "pretentiously progressive". Post-punk artists from the late 1970s rejected traditional rock sensibilities in favor of an avant-garde aesthetic. Whereas the avant-garde has a significant history in 20th-century music, it is more pronounced in theatre and performance art, and often in conjunction with music and sound design innovations, as well as developments in visual media design. There are movements in theatre history that are characterized by their contributions to
12896-587: The shots, and in editing, I wasn't even allowed to be present." Of the 18 films produced by Buñuel during his years at Filmófono, the four that are believed by critical consensus to have been directed by him are: During the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), Buñuel placed himself at the disposal of the Republican government. The minister for foreign affairs sent him first to Geneva (September 1936) and then to Paris for two years (1936–38), with official responsibility for cataloging Republican propaganda films. Besides
13020-470: The strength of Un Chien Andalou , Buñuel and Dalí were commissioned to make another short film by Marie-Laurie and Charles de Noailles , owners of a private cinema on the Place des États-Unis and financial supporters of productions by Jacques Manuel, Man Ray and Pierre Chenal . At first, the intent was that the new film be around the same length as Un Chien , only this time with sound. But by mid-1930,
13144-480: The subsidence of the gypsum -rich soil, that can form ponds fed from irrigation water. There is also an instance of seasonal endorheic lagoon, la Sulfúrica , in the moors located in the southern part of the municipality. The Roman core of Caesaraugusta was founded on the right bank of the Ebro, with the north-east corner limiting the confluence of the Ebro with the Huerva river , a modest right-bank tributary of
13268-572: The time had strong leftist sympathies, desired a deliberate undermining of all bourgeois institutions, while Dalí, who eventually supported the Spanish fascist Francisco Franco and various figures of the European aristocracy, wanted merely to cause a scandal through the use of various scatological and anti-Catholic images. The friction between them was exacerbated when, at a dinner party in Cadaqués, Buñuel tried to throttle Dalí's girlfriend, Gala ,
13392-590: The time—a competition, a championship". The film was not successful at the box office, with some even calling it a fiasco. Different reasons have been given for its failure with the public; for some, Buñuel was forced to make concessions to the bad taste of his stars, particularly Negrete, others cite Buñuel's rusty technical skills and lack of confidence after so many years out of the director's chair, while still others speculate that Mexican audiences were tiring of genre movies, called "churros", that were perceived as being cheaply and hastily made. Avant-garde In
13516-979: The top 250 films of all time. Buñuel was born on 22 February 1900 in Calanda , a small town in the Aragon region of Spain. His father was Leonardo Buñuel, also a native of Calanda, who had left home at age 14 to start a hardware business in Havana, Cuba , ultimately amassing a fortune and returning home to Calanda at the age of 43, in 1898. He married the 18-year-old daughter of the only innkeeper in Calanda, María Portolés Cerezuela. The oldest of seven children, Luis had two brothers, Alfonso and Leonardo, and four sisters: Alicia, Concepción, Margarita and María. He later described his birthplace by saying that in Calanda, "the Middle Ages lasted until World War I ". When Buñuel
13640-609: The violent part of his plan. Dalí explained himself by saying: "I did not write my book to put YOU on a pedestal. I wrote it to put ME on a pedestal". Buñuel's first dubbing assignment on returning to Hollywood was My Reputation , a Barbara Stanwyck picture which became El Que Diran in Buñuel's hands. In addition to his dubbing work, Buñuel attempted to develop a number of independent projects: In 1945, Buñuel's contract with Warner Brothers expired, and he decided not to renew it in order, as he put it: "to realize my life's ambition for
13764-654: The violin. In his youth, Buñuel was deeply religious, serving at Mass and taking Communion every day, until, at the age of 16, he grew disgusted with what he perceived as the illogicality of the Church, along with its power and wealth. In 1917, he attended the University of Madrid , first studying agronomy then industrial engineering and finally switching to philosophy . He developed very close relationships with painter Salvador Dalí and poet Federico García Lorca , among other important Spanish creative artists living in
13888-415: The wife of Surrealist poet Paul Éluard . In consequence, Dalí had nothing to do with the actual shooting of the film. During the course of production, Buñuel worked around his technical ignorance by filming mostly in sequence and using nearly every foot of film that he shot. Buñuel invited friends and acquaintances to appear, for nothing, in the film; for example, anyone who owned a tuxedo or a party frock got
14012-416: The written press, travelogues and new pedagogic methods, as well as a subversive use of photographed and filmed documents understood as a basis for contemporary propaganda for the masses". Catherine Russell has stated that in Las Hurdes , Buñuel was able to reconcile his political philosophy with his surrealist aesthetic, with surrealism becoming "a means of awakening a marxist materialism in danger of becoming
14136-501: Was able to sell some gags to Chaplin for his film The Great Dictator . In desperation, to market himself to independent producers, he composed a 21-page autobiography, a section of which, headed "My Present Plans", outlined proposals for two documentary films: Nobody showed any interest and Buñuel realized that staying in Los Angeles was futile, so he traveled to New York City to see if he could change his fortunes. Luis Buñuel
14260-725: Was also a candidate for the European Capital of Culture in 2012. The city is famous for its folklore, local cuisine, and landmarks such as the Basílica del Pilar , La Seo Cathedral and the Aljafería Palace . Together with La Seo and the Aljafería , several other buildings form part of the Mudéjar Architecture of Aragon which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site . The Fiestas del Pilar are among
14384-476: Was followed by 17 public executions, and an indeterminate number of killings at the dungeons of the Aljafería . Zaragoza suffered two famous sieges during the Peninsular War against the Napoleonic army: a first from June to August 1808; and a second from December 1808 to February 1809, surrendering only after some 50,000 defenders had died. Railway transport came to Zaragoza on 16 September 1861 with
14508-438: Was four months old, the family moved to Zaragoza , where they were one of the wealthiest families in town. In Zaragoza, Buñuel received a strict Jesuit education at the private Colegio del Salvador, starting at the age of seven and continuing for the next seven years. After being kicked and insulted by the study hall proctor before a final exam, Buñuel refused to return to the school. He told his mother he had been expelled, which
14632-479: Was intensified by a viewing of Fritz Lang 's Der müde Tod : "I came out of the Vieux Colombier [theater] completely transformed. Images could and did become for me the true means of expression. I decided to devote myself to the cinema". At the age of 72, Buñuel had not lost his enthusiasm for this film, asking the octogenarian Lang for his autograph. In 1925 Buñuel moved to Paris, where he began work as
14756-438: Was not true; in fact, he had received the highest marks on his world history exam. Buñuel finished the last two years of his high school education at the local public school, graduating at the age of 16. Even as a child, Buñuel was something of a cinematic showman; friends from that period described productions in which Buñuel projected shadows on a screen using a magic lantern and a bedsheet. He also excelled at boxing and playing
14880-482: Was smuggled to England for private viewing. The furor was so great that the premiere of another film financed by the de Noailles, Jean Cocteau 's The Blood of a Poet , had to be delayed for over two years until outrage over L'Age d'Or had died down. To make matters worse, Charles de Noailles was forced to withdraw his membership from the Jockey Club . Concurrent with the succès de scandale , both Buñuel and
15004-471: Was that he "learn some good American technical skills", but, after being ushered off the first set he visited because the star, Greta Garbo , did not welcome intruders, he decided to stay at home most of the time and only show up to collect his paycheck. His only enduring contribution to MGM came when he served as an extra in La Fruta Amarga , a Spanish-language remake of Min and Bill . When, after
15128-533: Was there, with his thyroid eyes, the moles on his chin which I remember from so long ago when we first saw the surrealist films in the Cinémathèque ... and as he talked I remember thinking that his paleness was most appropriate for someone who spent his life in dark projection rooms ... He has a sharp humor, a bitter sarcasm, and at the same time towards women a gentle, special smile. Anaïs Nin , in her diary entry on encountering Buñuel when he
15252-470: Was working at MoMA In New York City, Antheil introduced Buñuel to Iris Barry , chief curator of film at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Barry talked Buñuel into joining a committee formed to help educate those within the U.S. government who might not have appreciated fully the effectiveness of film as a medium of propaganda. Buñuel was hired to produce a shortened version of Leni Riefenstahl 's Triumph of
15376-515: Was written in six days at Dalí's home in Cadaqués . In a letter to a friend written in February 1929, Buñuel described the writing process: We had to look for the plot line. Dalí said to me, 'I dreamed last night of ants swarming around in my hands', and I said, 'Good Lord, and I dreamed that I had sliced somebody or other's eye. There's the film, let's go and make it.' In deliberate contrast to
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