Benito
Pérez
Buñuel

Who is Benito Pérez Galdós and who is Luis Buñuel? What about Galdós in Buñuel’s cinema, what united them?

These and other questions are answered in the documentary

Benito Pérez Buñuel with the voices of prestigious specialists, admirers and people close to the two great universal creators.

Days

Hours

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Seconds

Release
March 24th

Distributed by

What unites the writer Benito Pérez Galdós and the filmmaker Luis Buñuel?

“Benito Pérez Buñuel” discovers the connections between the two through a documentary that travels between the classic approach, mockumentary, non-fiction and animated film.

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Data sheet

Title Benito Pérez Buñuel

Film genre Documentary with animation

Duration 74 minutes

Support 4K Digital

Produced and original idea by Marta de Santa Ana

Directed and written by Luis Roca

Production manager Marta de Santa Ana

Film Editing by Juan Gabriel García (AMMAC) / Raúl Román

Cinematography by Santiago Torres

Music by Lisandro Rodríguez

Art Direction by María González

Animation Directior Manuel Sirgo

Sound by Fabián Yanes / Álvaro Silva

Head of Administration Iñaki de Santa Ana

With the voices of Jerónimo Saavedra, José Luis Gil, Luis Bajo, Joel Bosqued, Manuel Castillo, Mari Carmen Sánchez, Francisco Montesdeoca

Interviewees Elena Poniatowska, Víctor Fuentes, Yolanda Arencibia, Arantxa Aguirre, Jordi Xifra, Carolina Fernández Cordero, Mario Barro, Nelson Carro, Rafael Congrio Lamata

Filming locations Gran Canaria, Calanda, Madrid, Ciudad de México, Santa Bárbara (California)

Distributor Karma Films

Galdós
is the only influence that I would recognize about me

Luis Buñuel to Max Aub,
collected in Conversaciones con Buñuel
(Ed. Aguilar, Madrid, 1985)

Proyect

Benito Pérez Buñuel is a documentary feature film whose protagonists are two great creators, the writer Benito Pérez Galdós and the filmmaker Luis Buñuel.

The basis of this film is the phrase that Luis Buñuel said to his friend Max Aub in 1969 when he asked him about his most important influences. Buñuel replied:

“Galdós is the only influence that I would recognize, in general, on me”.

In Benito Pérez Buñuel, flow together three films. First, that of Benito Pérez Galdós, continuator of the great Spanish cultural tradition (Cervantes, El Lazarillo, Quevedo, Lope de Vega, Velázquez, Goya), a universal realist writer on a par with his Russian, French and British contemporaries, but not as recognized as these. Second, that of Luis Buñuel, one of the main filmmakers of the 20th century, who continued the path of the previous ones through the main artistic expression of his century, cinema. And finally, the film that weaves together the previous ones: that of the director, a filmmaker in his fifties, who reflects on the two great creators in the process of building this film.

shooting locations

Production in images

Teaser filming team, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Benito Pérez Galdós Street in Mexico City

Shooting with Víctor Fuentes in Santa Barbara (California)

Recording of the animation locution, with Jerónimo Saavedra

Recording of the animation locution, with Mari Carmen Sánchez

Shooting on the Avenida Marítima in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, with Arantxa Aguirre

Shooting on the Avenida Marítima in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Shooting at CAAM, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Shooting at Acusa Seca, Artenara, Gran Canaria

Shooting in Acusa Seca, Artenara, Gran Canaria, with Rafael Congrio

Shooting in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, with Yolanda Arencibia

Shooting at the Pérez Galdós House Museum, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

End of shooting in Gran Canaria, Casa Museo Pérez Galdós, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Shooting at the Calanda reservoir, Teruel

Shooting in Calanda, Teruel, with children and teacher at the CEIP Virgen del Pilar, film crew and mayor of Calanda

End of shooting in Gran Canaria, Centro Buñuel Calanda, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Recording of voices in Madrid, with Luis Bajo and Jerónimo Saavedra

Shooting at the statue of Galdós in Parque del Retiro, Madrid

Media Appearances

"Dialogue between two geniuses.
After five years of work, the documentary 'Benito Pérez Buñuel', directed by Luis Roca and produced by Marta de Santa Ana, theatrical release on March 24.
The filmmaker recognized that Galdós was the greatest influence on him "

Dominical de La Provincia, DLP

03.19.2023

"When in 1968 the writer Max Aub asked Buñuel about his influences, he replied that he only recognized one: that of Galdós. From this idea, the producer Marta de Santa Ana and the director Luis Roca Arencibia began to develop their project 'Benito Pérez Buñuel'"

El Asombrario, Público.es

10.19.2022

"This Wednesday the trailer for Benito Pérez Buñuel was presented in a world premiere in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, within the framework of the 12th Galdosian Congress organized by the Cabildo de Gran Canaria. the capital, has finished this Thursday. The promotional piece, the first to publicly disseminate images of the film, has been received with expectation and enthusiasm by the audience.'"

Canarias Ahora, El Diario.es

06.23..2022

"When in 1968 the writer Max Aub asked Buñuel about his influences, he replied that he only recognized one: Galdós's. From this idea, the producer Marta de Santa Ana and the director Luis Roca Arencibia began to develop their project 'Benito Pérez Buñuel'"

El Asombrario, Público.es

19.10.2022

"We couldn't aspire to a better place, where thousands of film prescribers will come from, because these researchers about the writer will also be the ones who help make the work of the distinguished filmmaker known."

La Provincia, Diario de Las Palmas

22.06.2022

"This Wednesday, the world premiere of Benito Pérez Buñuel's trailer was presented in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, within the framework of the 12th Galdosiano Congress organized by the Cabildo de Gran Canaria. The event, whose headquarters is the Pérez Galdós House Museum in the capital, ended this Thursday. The promotional piece, the first to publicly broadcast images of the film, has been received with expectation and enthusiasm by the audience.'"

Canarias Ahora, El Diario.es

23.06.2022

"We couldn't aspire to a better place, from where thousands of movie prescribers will come out, because these researchers on the writer will also help to publicize the work of the famous filmmaker."

La Provincia, Diario de Las Palmas

06.22.2022

"Benito Pérez Buñuel is part of the island film production that was shown at the Canarias en el Foco meeting last Tuesday in San Sebastián."

La Provincia, Diario de Las Palmas

09.23.2021

"At the beginning of the month, Calanda hosted the filming of Benito Pérez Buñuel, a documentary about the artistic and conceptual confluences between the Calandino filmmaker and the Canarian writer directed by Luis Roca and produced by Marta de Santa Ana."

Diario de Teruel

04.19.2021

"Benito Pérez Buñuel, produced by Marta de Santa Ana and directed by Luis Roca, is finally filming after a long hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic"

El Día.es

10.28.2020

"The filming of the documentary that unites both figures is on the Island throughout this week. Schamann, Teror and Acusa Seca, between the scenes"

La Provincia, Diario de Las Palmas

10.28.2020

"It's an immense challenge. We have two greats and we have to work very carefully. Galdós was the greatest exponent of literature in his time and Buñuel was his continuation in the cinema."

La Provincia, Diario de Las Palmas

10.28.2020

"The film Benito Pérez Buñuel, currently in the development phase, digs under this sentence to recount, for the first time, the influences of the Canarian writer on the Aragonese filmmaker."

El Diario.es

05.09.2018

"Schamann's Neighborhood and Culture i+d Association met yesterday with the Benito Pérez Buñuel documentary team, a project that explores the Galdosian imprint on Luis Buñuel's filmography"

La Provincia, Diario de Las Palmas

02.11.2018

"The budding documentary Benito Pérez Buñuel explores the Galdosian imprint in the oneiric and surreal imagery of Luis Buñuel under the orders of the filmmaker and film writer Luis Roca"

La Provincia, Diario de Las Palmas

12.17.2017

A project of interest

"A very important initiative -and also very necessary- to delve into the relationship between the Aragonese filmmaker and the Canarian writer"

Jordi Xifra

Director of the Buñuel Calanda Center

"Exploring the communicating vessels between the novelist Benito Pérez Galdós and the filmmaker Luis Buñuel is unprecedented from the perspective of an audiovisual work"

Ernesto Contreras

Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences

"In this way he joins two of our most important authors, claiming his importance for Spanish and universal culture"

José Miguel Fernández Sastrón

SGAE President

"A project that proposes the convergence between two geniuses like Luis Buñuel and Pérez Galdós must be impressive"

Yolanda Arencibia

Director of the Pérez Galdós ULPGC Chair

"I think it's a fantastic idea to address the relationship between the Canarian writer and the Aragonese filmmaker through a documentary"

Victoria Galván

Perez Galdos House Museum

"In this game of habitual interlocutors, the figure of the writer Benito Pérez Galdós is key to understanding one of the most permanent sources of provision in Luis Buñuel's adaptations"

Marina Díaz

Cervantes Institute