Who directed the surrealist film 'L'Âge d'Or'?

Luis Buñuel directed the surrealist film “L’Âge d’Or.”

Released in 1930, the French film was written by Buñuel and Salvador Dalí and follows two lovers whose relationship is repeatedly obstructed by social convention, family expectations, and religious morality. Its episodic structure combines black humor, erotic frustration, shocking images, and deliberately irrational associations.

The film is often discussed alongside Un Chien Andalou, the 1929 silent film Buñuel made with Dalí. Unlike that earlier collaboration, L’Âge d’Or is a longer, more openly political attack on bourgeois respectability and organized religion. Buñuel’s direction gives the film its provocative rhythm and confrontational tone.

Its 1930 screenings caused a major scandal in Paris. Right-wing extremists attacked a cinema showing the film and damaged artworks by Surrealist artists in the lobby; authorities subsequently banned the film. The ban lasted for decades, helping cement L’Âge d’Or’s reputation as a landmark of avant-garde cinema.