the filmmaker Carlos Saura has died at 91 years oldjust the day before the Spanish Film Academy was going to give him an honorary Goya to honor one of the best and most important directors in the entire history of our cinema.
A genius of our cinema
Born in Huesca on January 4, 1932, Saura premiered ‘The Gulfs’his first feature film, in 1960. Its scant success made him doubt the future of his career, but everything changed forever six years later with the premiere of the magnificent ‘The hunt’with which he was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin Festival.
A tireless worker ever since, the following years were marked by titles such as ‘Peppermint Frappé’, ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’, ‘Ana and the Wolves’, ‘Cría Cuervos’ or ‘Mom’s One Hundredth Birthday’, with which he earned his first Oscar nomination. In the early 90’s she surprised with ‘hurry hurry’one of the most emblematic films of the quinqui cinema with which he won the Golden Bear in Berlin.
Not long after, he would get his second Oscar nomination with ‘Carmen’an award to which he aspired again almost two decades later thanks to ‘Tango’although without a doubt his most mythical feature film of the 90s was ‘Ay Carmela!’a title that managed to win the then-record number of 13 Goya Awards -later only ‘Mar adentro’ managed to surpass that number-.
In the 21st century, he showed a greater interest in documentary film, but he also had the opportunity to give us a notable approach to the Puerto Hurraco massacre with the never sufficiently claimed ‘The seventh day’.
Saura continued to work tirelessly until his death. In fact, his death has practically coincided with the arrival in theaters of ‘The walls speak’ this past February 3rd.
Rest in peace.