How to combine surrealism and documentary The animated biopic “Bunuel in the Maze of Turtles” was released the other day – and this is a great way to learn from the documentary animation how the documentary was shot. But the essence is not so much in the process of filming, but in who Buñuel was and what he was tormented as a creator - on the eve of large-scale tectonic shifts in the history of the twentieth century.
In addition to the wide distribution, the animation about Buñuel was also presented to a very small audience at the third film festival The Art Newspaper Russia. The film festival is still going on – and at the most popular, in fact, venues – from Garage to MAMM, and there are many interesting things there, however, more related to other arts than cinema. "Bunuel" was one of them.
What do we know about Bunuel in the first place? He and Dali did the Andalusian Dog in 1929. He is Spanish, but is associated with France: there he became famous. And he's associated with Dali. You can't get rid of that kind of attachment. After the creation of the sequel, there was a lot of controversy about how much Dali was involved. Buñuel disputed the involvement of a former pal - and it is difficult to determine until now whether it was the director's pride or reality. The sequel was called the “Golden Age”, and soon after the start of the rental it was banned. The film returned to the screens only in 1980.
In the early '30s, Buñuel was back in Spain, either because he didn't find himself, or because he didn't invest in films, or because he left the party. It is not known exactly how the director got the work of Maurice Legendra about the poorest region of Spain Las Urdez. But Louis decided to make a documentary about this mountainous region, where people fight for every day they live. The animated film “Bunuel in the Maze of Turtles” is partly dedicated to the history of the filming of this film. And the labyrinth is not really an allegory. But it is still worth going to the cinema to understand what it is about.
Animated biopic is a specific genre. On the one hand, animation seemingly simplifies perception (" Waltz with Bashir, for example) or conveys fundamentally important things with the most accessible images, sometimes bypassing ethical issues (these are not living characters, but painted ones - and therefore, more is possible). On the other hand, animation in general is no easier as a genre, and finding the perfect artistic image can take almost more time than in the case of a film. And you need to be able to choose the right visual performance so that the essence of the narrative is not distorted.
So we see a poet, a creator. If we do not know each other personally, then we have an idea of exactly what the creators experience from project to project.
Buñuel is stuck between the desire to prove his value and independence to his deceased father and the desire to show the world of artists his total separation from the mad Salvador. He joined a leftist party that advocated the transformation of society through surrealism. Perhaps he continued to prove something to someone, making a documentary “Land without bread” about the locality of Las Urdez, forcing events, scattering investor money to the right and left, rebuilding and putting shots that should be unchanged by virtue of the genre. However, he later took a different view of Las Urdez. And this path, which includes throwing, incredible (surreal classics) dreams, fears, races with yourself, arguments and recognition of the truth, is depicted in the animation “Bunuel in the Maze of Turtles”.
Well, perhaps, there were two labyrinths after all: the real one - and the one on which Luis Buñuel shook in search of his only truth.
In addition to getting acquainted with the figure of the cult director, the animated film offers us a different look at surrealism itself, which still causes a very heterogeneous reaction. How can a surrealist do documentary work, and can he do it at all? And what could come of it? Well, the answer to the second question is already there: the film “Land without bread”, designed to draw the attention of Spain at least to how the poorest and most decadent region of the country survives (or survives?). But the question "Can it?" answers just an animated biopic. The cross-genre transition looks even more curious on the screen when footage from the black and white documentary in question is inserted into the cartoon.
Don’t worry, you don’t have to love documentary. For an hour or twenty on the screen, you see just the story of an individual who wanted to convey something to this world – not a boring or boring parable, and a full-fledged cartoon is not for children.