Juan Antonio Bardem

An internationally acclaimed figure in features, Juan Antonio Bardem, with former classmate Luis-Garcia Berlanga, developed a filmmaking style known as "estetica franquista" in the 1950s. The object of the movement was to avoid political censorship by couching criticisms of Franco's regime in satirical terms. Bardem, nevertheless, was jailed after making the neorealist-influenced "Death of a Cyclist" (1955), a film which, along with "Calle Mayor" (1956), won him international acclaim. Bardem was also responsible--through his production company Uninci--for Luis Bunuel's return to Spain for the making of "Viridiana" (1961).