The film director Carlos Saura has died this Friday, at the age of 91, in Madrid, the Spanish Film Academy has announced, which considers him “one of the fundamental filmmakers in the history of Spanish cinema.”
Carlos Saura, director of films considered mythical in Spanish cinema such as “A Caça” (1965), “A prima Angélica” (1973) and “Ai, Carmela” (1990) or the documentaries “Flamenco”, “Tango” and “Fados ”, dedicated to music, would receive this Saturday the Goya de Honra, the award for career bestowed by the Spanish film academy.
At the time of the award, the academy highlighted the “extensive and very personal creative contribution” of Carlos Saura to the history of Spanish cinema from the late 50s to the present “and highlighted how, with more than 90 years, he was still “active, fully creative and looking to the future”.
In addition to being a filmmaker, Carlos Saura, born in Huesca, in the Aragón region of northeastern Spain, in 1932, was also a writer and photographer.
Saura made more than 50 films throughout his life and part of his career was made during the Spanish dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, which ended in 1975.
The films he made at that time were marked by the way in which he evaded censorship, using symbols and allegories to address issues such as the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and Franco’s repression.
With the establishment of democracy in Spain, he began to address the relationship between music and image in his work and inaugurated his series of musicals with “Bodas de Sangue” in 1981, including “Sevillanas” (1991), ” Flemish”. (1994), “Tango” (1997), “Fados” (2007) or “Io, Don Giovanni” (2009), among others.
“Fados” had the musical supervision of Carlos do Carmo and brought together “the best of the new Portuguese talents, such as Mariza or Camané, [recordou] Amália Rodrigues, international legends like Caetano Veloso and Chico Buarque, and other performers like Lila Downs and Lura”, as can be read on the RTP page dedicated to the film.
His last production was the short film “Francisco de Goya, the executions of May 3”, from 2021, in which he recreates a painting by the Spanish painter.
Source: TSF
