MEXICO: Home of Spanish film director Luis Buñuel house opens to the general public for first time

Record ID: 304690

  • Title: MEXICO: Home of Spanish film director Luis Buñuel house opens to the general public for first time
  • Date: 1st January 2012
  • Summary: MORE OF PHOTOGRAPHS
  • Embargoed: 16th January 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico, Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Reuters ID: LVA5ZY3AE4K9G8U3D1C3O3PAPARW
  • Story Text: The house of famed Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel in Mexico City has opened to the general public for the first time, featuring an exhibition to mark the 50th anniversary of the film "Viridiana".
    Luis Buñuel arrived in Mexico in 1946 after a spell in the United States following the Spanish Civil War. He remained in Mexico for the rest of his life, and made 20 films in that time.
    The house was built by Arturo Saenz de la Calzada, a former classmate of Buñuel. The two studied at the University of Madrid where Bunuel also befriended painter Salvador Dali and poet Federico Garcia Lorca.
    Buñuel received many Republican and exiled friends at the house and hosted parties for intellectuals such as Octavio Paz, Carlos Fuentes and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
    "It's incredible to be able to visit the house and learn different anecdotes about Buñuel's house. To learn how he lived, where he held his parties, where his guests arrived. Getting to know the house is the best thing about coming. To see the details, walk in the garden and see where he cooked his paellas. I think the house is the main attraction of this exhibition," said exhibition curator German Rostan.
    The exhibition also featured one of Bunuel's most famous films, "Viridiana".
    Viridiana was made in Spain in 1960 after dictator Francisco Franco told his culture minister to invite Bunuel back to the country to make whatever film he pleased. Nevertheless, once the film was completed, it was banned in Spain while the Vatican said it deeply offended Catholicism.
    Viridiana stars Silvia Pinal as a young nun about to take her final vows. But her uncle, played by Fernando Rey, is obsessed with her and asks her servant to drug her. He hangs himself after being unable to seduce her and after telling her he had taken her virginity.
    Disoriented, Viridiana invites a band of beggars to live in her uncle's estate and tried to redeem herself through charity. But the beggars take over the house to hold an orgy. After being disillusioned, Viridiana plays a game of cards with her uncle's illegitimate son and and servant who is his mistress but the card gamein a menage a trois. Scenes such as these deeply offended conservative Spaniards.
    The film's message suggests this is what happens to saints. Virtue is thrown back into their faces as the world cannot change.
    Rostan said the house was an excellent place to discuss Buñuel films.
    "This exhibition was set up in Mexico City because that is where Luis Buñuel spent the last years of his life and this exhibition, not only the exhibition but also the house, were acquired by Spain's Culture Ministry and it was inaugurated at the beginning of December this year. There is no better way to discuss Buñuel's films other than from his home turf," he said.
    Viridiana won the Palme D'Or at Cannes despite protests.
    Other Buñuel films will also be exhibited at the house, though dates have not yet been set.
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