Obsessions! We all have them, but the great ones tend to have them in spades. Think Hitchcock and his icy, unobtainable blondes; Fellini's clowns holding up their crazy funhouse mirrors; Buster Keaton's outsized mad machinery. Quite possibly, these great obsessions (from great obsessors) retain their freshness (while others seem to be flogging a dead horse) because these obsessions (or, better said, motifs) are irrevocably tied to their obsessed parents' work or worldview, and, without this personal stamp, the work becomes, oddly, less unique. Or, this authorial preoccupation could be a crutch for budding auteurists everywhere (as some may point out).
More than other directors, the work of Luis Bu&tilden;uel is filled with such personal signposts and motifs. In an interesting experiment of film criticism (without any text except for film titles), El Centro Virtual Cervantes presents a collection of framegrabs from Bu&tilden;uel's films, categorized by motif and, yes, obsession. Here, you find them all, from his preoccupation about insects; faces at windows; the disfigured and handicapped; and the shapely turn of a woman's leg. And, not to mention, his benign obsession with women's shoes and his love-hate affair with the Catholic Church. There's a lot here, so have fun!
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