A propósito de Buñuel

‘Buñuel loved making jokes, but always with a serious face’, is how one of his friends describes the great Spanish director in Javier Rioyo’s and José Luis López-Linares’ film biography A propósito de Buñuel. Luis Buñuel, who died in 1983, was full of contradictions. He continuously snubbed the church, declaring ‘Thank God I’m an atheist!’, but on his deathbed, he talked with a priest for days on end. He shocked people with the sex in his films, but he considered the fading away of his own sexual desires a liberation. He ditched everyday certainties with the surrealistic Un Chien Andalou, made in collaboration with Salvador Dalí, but he could not stand it when someone misplaced an ashtray at his house. By means of conversations with his wife, children and colleagues such as Michel Piccoli and Carlos Saura, the Buñuel mystery is unravelled, layer after layer. The film is illustrated by numerous excerpts from films such as L’age d’or and Viridiana, in which events and places from Buñuel’s own life play a distinctive role. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)