Luis Buñuel: Last News

Andrew Barker Senior Features Writer In September 1963, the first ever New York Film Festival was held in Manhattan’s Lincoln Center, and it counted as something of an experiment, an early test case as to whether the sort of serious, artistically inclined fests that were quickly becoming established in Europe could find real purchase stateside. The inaugural lineup included Luis Buñuel’s “Exterminating Angel,” Roman Polanski’s debut, “Knife in the Water,” and Yasujirō Ozu’s swan song “An Autumn Afternoon.” According to a Film Comment report at the time, the inaugural fest sold more than 20,000 tickets before a single film had unspooled. Not bad for a first time out.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent The dream child of 10 Basque businessmen who hoped to prolong San Sebastián’s summer season into late September, the San Sebastian Film Festival was born on Sept. 21, 1953.  Presented by bullfighter Mario Cabré, who romanced Ava Gardner, and comprising just 19 films, won by “La guerra de Dios,” directed by Rafael Gil., rescued from a potential Republican firing squad by Luis Buñuel not so many years before. Fireworks, bullfights and quayside parties regaled the film week. From that first edition remain the beauty and gastronomy of San Sebastian, a Belle Epoque resort boasting the spectacular white-sand Concha Bay, steep-backed hills, an old quarter of higgeldy-piggeldy streets and a trio of three-star Michelin restaurants. 70 years later, San Sebastián still stuns.     

More than 50 years after she made her Venice debut as the star of Luis Buñuel’s 1967 classic Belle du Jour, Catherine Deneuve is being feted by the festival with its Golden Lion for Career Achievement.

Naman Ramachandran A wealth of film and TV titles are available at launch on streamer Studiocanal Presents, which is now available as an Amazon Prime Video channel in the U.K.Some 300 films and series from Studiocanal’s catalogue are available at launch, including Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now: Final Cut” in 4K; Brian Helgeland’s “Legend”; Joel and Ethan Coen’s “Inside Llewyn Davis”; a digitally restored version of Carol Reed’s “The Third Man”; Lynne Ramsay’s “You Were Never Really Here,” zombie horror “Train to Busan” and Céline Sciamma’s “Girlhood.”Also available are Nicolas Roeg’s “The Man Who Fell To Earth” and Sidney Lumet’s “Murder on the Orient Express,” award-winners “Manchester by the Sea” and “Room,” seminal titles like Luis Buñuel’s “Belle de Jour” and Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless” and modern British classics “Submarine” and “Four Lions.” Other recent additions include Sharon Stone classic “Basic Instinct” and John Carpenter’s “Escape From New York.” Studiocanal Presents also offers TV series showcasing the best of Studiocanal and Canal+’s own TV productions, including “Hannibal,” “Spiral” and “All the Way Up,” which broke streaming records upon its launch on Canal+ in France.A variety of new titles will launch on the channel every month, many of which can’t be streamed anywhere else in the U.K. New titles arriving include “Possessions,” “Animal Kingdom” and “The Guard.” After a seven-day free trial the service costs £4.99 ($6) a month.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThe Venice Film Festival is honoring French screen icon Catherine Deneuve with its Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.Through her career, Deneuve has worked with some of Europe’s greatest directors, such as Luis Buñuel, Francois Truffaut, Manoel De Oliveira, Roman Polanski, and Lars von Trier, to name a few.Deneuve’s long rapport with the Lido harks back to 1967 when Buñuel’s “Belle de Jour” in which she played a bourgeoise Paris housewife who seeks erotic liberation through part-time work in a brothel, won the Golden Lion. Deneuve then won the Venice Volpi Cup for best actress for her role in Nicole Garcia’s “Place Vendôme” in 1998, and presided over the fest’s jury in 2006.

Iconic French actress Catherine Deneuve will be presented with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 79th Venice Film Festival which runs August 31–September 10 on the Lido.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent“Goya, Carrière and the Ghost of Buñuel,” which plays Cannes Classics this Saturday, begins with French film great Jean-Claude Carrière in a train, singing an ancient song in Occitan, the language of Provence, where he came from.Visiting Goya’s birthplace, he’ spies a cauldron and comments that there was one like that in his own family home.Towards the end of the film, surveying “The Colossus,” Goya’s painting of a giant dominating tiny people in a valley below who flee in all directions, Carrière observes that the painting capture a sense of immigration. Unlike so many of his friends, and indeed his wife,  Nahal Tajadod, Carrière notes, he will have the privilege of being buried in the same place where he was born.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentJosé Luis López Linares’ “Goya, Carrière and the Ghost of Buñuel,” a portrait of French film great Jean-Claude Carrière, captured breaking down the paintings and personality of painter Francisco de Goya, has been acquired for international sales by Reservoir Docs.In its earliest sales, the doc feature has closed the two biggest markets in Europe with reputed distributors, licensing France to Epicentre and Germany and Austria to Weltkino.  Launched in 2020 by Anais Clanet, Reservoir Docs will bring the documentary feature onto the market at next month’s Cannes Festival.“Reservoir Docs has always been a key sales agent for theatrical art & culture docs and Jose Luis’ work fits perfectly,” said Clanet.

1960’s “L’Avventura” and 1966’s “Modesty Blaise” — was confirmed Wednesday by Walter Veltroni, a filmmaker and the former mayor of Rome.“Roberto Russo, her companion in these years, asks me to communicate that Monica Vitti is no more. I do so with great grief, affection, and nostalgia,” Veltroni posted to Twitter.The blond bombshell was the new wave leading lady of movies helmed by the most legendary international filmmakers in the industry: She worked with directors such as Michelangelo Antonioni, Ettore Scola and Luis Buñuel, often starring alongside the superstar likes of Sir Michael Caine, Terence Stamp and Richard Harris.Born Maria Luisa Ceciarelli to strict, poverty-stricken parents on Nov.

Monica Vitti has died at the age of 90. The award-winning actress has passed away after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. Walter Veltroni, the former Mayor of Rome and a film critic, confirmed the news via a Twitter post.

Monica Vitti, the Italian screen icon known for a string of 1960s classics, has died aged 90, according to reports in Italy.