The great bon vivant
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The great bon vivant |
| Original title | El gran calavera |
| Country of production | Mexico |
| original language | Spanish |
| Publishing year | 1949 |
| length | 92 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Luis Buñuel |
| script |
Raquel Alcoriza Luis Alcoriza |
| production |
Óscar Dancigers Fernando Soler |
| music | Manuel Esperón |
| camera | Ezequiel Carrasco |
| cut | Carlos Savage |
| occupation | |
| |
The big bon vivant (Spanish: El gran calavera ) is a Mexican film by the film director Luis Buñuel from 1949. The comedy tells the story of the rich Ramón, to whom his family pretends to have become poor, but who ultimately turns the tables and so on changed his family. It was the second film that Buñuel shot in Mexico and its success secured the director's further career. The play on which the script is based comes from Adolfo Torrado .
action
The rich widower Ramón is taken advantage of by his spoiled children Eduardo and Virginia and his lazy brother Ladislao and his wife. Ramón has a heart attack, as a result of which his second brother Gregorio convinces the family to pretend that his wealth has been lost in order to spare him. To make this story believable, the family moves to a working-class neighborhood. In addition, everyone begins to work in simple jobs in order to secure their livelihood. A neighbor from the new district explains this spectacle to Ramón. However, seeing the positive effects on his family, he decides not to clear up the situation. He even turns the tables and leads his family to believe he has really lost his wealth. Towards the end of the film, he also manages to prevent Virginia's wedding to a snob, and he supports the love between her and a simple, honest worker.
background
The great bon vivant was produced by Ultramar Films . Fernando Soler and Óscar Dancigers appeared as film producers . The production was led by Alberto Ferrer . The film was shot from June 9 to July 5, 1949 in the Estudios Cinematográficos del Tepeyac in Mexico City . The premiere took place on November 25 of the same year in the Mexican capital. The first screening in Germany took place on May 5, 1975 in the Arsenal cinema in West Berlin; in the GDR, the film was shown for the first time on October 17, 1986 in the Babylon cinema in East Berlin.
The basis for the film was the play by Afolfo Torrado , which Álvaro Custodio recorded rather mixed. While he praised Torrado's gentleness, he also criticized "his [the film's] conventional little sins". On the other hand, Custodio judged the film version more positively. He wrote: “Plays that lack substance usually win when they make the leap to the cinema, edited by a good screenwriter and an experienced director. This also applies to El gran calavera thanks to Raquel and Luis Alcoriza , those responsible for adapting the script, and thanks to the director Luis Buñuel. ... Even if one cannot say that we are dealing with an exemplary film, I dare to say that it is one of the most lovable and best comedies in Mexican cinema. ”In contrast to this positive reception, The Great Bon vivant was as well as Buñuel's first feature film made in Mexico on the occasion of the premiere in the GDR in the Central German Latest News . There the critic wrote: “The aesthetics of these first two works by Buñuel in Mexico are somewhat surprising, the provocations of the European pictorial compositions and collisions are missing, the unbridled break with narrative traditions has solidified into the iconography of the Hollywood school. Simple, straightforward theater cinema has replaced Buñuel's film vocabulary. The destroyer disappears behind the good scene arranger. "
The great bon vivant was the second film that Luis Buñuel made in Mexico. Unlike Gran Casino from 1947, it was a financial success. The director managed to subtly sell his style of humor to a wide audience at the expense of the ideals of the middle class. With the success he secured the further career of Buñuel in Mexico. The final scene of the movie The Graduate by Mike Nichols in the church seems directly inspired by Buñuel's film.
literature
- Deutsche Kinemathek (Ed.): Luis Buñuel. Essays, dates, documents . Bertz + Fischer, Berlin 2008. ISBN 978-3-86505-183-7 .
- David E. Wilt: "The Mexican Filmography 1916 through 2001" . McFarland & Co Inc, Jefferson NC 2004. ISBN 978-0-7864-6122-6 .
- Carl J. Mora: Mexican Cinema: Reflections of a Society, 1896-2004 . McFarland & Co Inc, Jefferson NC 2005, ISBN 978-0-7864-2083-4 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ David E. Wilt: "The Mexican Filmography 1916 through 2001" . McFarland & Co Inc, Jefferson NC 2004. p. 125.
- ↑ Deutsche Kinemathek (ed.): Luis Buñuel. Essays, dates, documents . Bertz + Fischer, Berlin 2008. p. 97.
- ↑ a b Deutsche Kinemathek, p. 98.
- ^ A b Carl J. Mora: Mexican Cinema: Reflections of a Society, 1896-2004 . McFarland & Co Inc, Jefferson NC 2005. p. 94.