Buñuel at the minimum. Carlos Saura. The most "Spanish" of all directors. Almost all of his early films have strong political overtones. Therefore, it is not easy to watch the audience, not familiar with the situation in Spain in the middle of the last century. Saura did not hide that he was a student of another great Spanish director Luis Buñuel, so he often turned to surrealism in his films. Here is what the art director of the Venetian festival Luigi Chiarini said about Saura’s other work “Peppermint Cocktail with Ice”: “Why do we need another Buñuel film, which was not shot by Buñuel?” (the picture was not accepted in the program, because the competition already had “Day Beauty”) Why watch Saura when you can watch Buñuel?
Eliza, My Life, released after Franco's death, marked Saura's transition from political to more personal filmmaking. The film was too moody, boring and confusing. If Buñuel's surrealism works, Saura's seems to be out of place, except to deliberately confuse and distract. Saura’s film is too personal, the author’s thought throughout the narrative remains elusive. The drama (a la Bergman) doesn't work either. From Bergman characters sparks beat through the screen, Saura everything is too sluggish and stretched. Fernando Rey is as good as ever, but the movie doesn't work. Saura D. Chaplin’s muse tries, but she is better at sexual images than dramatic ones. Of the pluses - the music and the work of the operator and that, perhaps, is all.