The mystery of creating: Murcia under Carlos Saura’s gaze

Daniel Toledo Saura (Universidad Complutense)

Far from the magnetism that large cities can exert, Murcia has remained faithful for years to the mystery that its controlled nature contains. If there is something that makes this city unique, it is not its streets, nor its people, nor its heritage, those could be clichés. What makes this city unique is what surrounds it on its edges and that in recent times has been in danger: its orchard. The language, the way of being, how the Murcians have organized their own existence… all of this has had to do for centuries with the planting and harvesting of fruits, with the work in sowing and waiting for the harvest, definitely, with the mystery that the earth gives us.

Carlos Saura works from this mystery, he turns to his childhood to reflect on that first look free of prejudices and tell us about how surprising and mysterious everything around us is when things are discovered for the first time. Childhood is nothing more than fighting over and over again with the hidden, it is constantly discovering something new, unraveling a mystery. Saura has always wanted to delve into these unknown terrains and in this essay, “The mystery of creation: Murcia under the gaze of Carlos Saura”, the aim is to explore these terrains and delve into the reflection that the creative act entails, everything that has What has to do with mystery also has to do with creation. Stefan Zweig tells us in his text The mystery of artistic creation (1953) how sometimes, if we cannot unravel the mystery that the creation of a work of art has entailed since its author, for various reasons, has not explained to us his reasons, we must resort to detective methods to find out what led him to commit that creative act, and makes a comparison between criminology and its methodologies, and the processes that we must follow to investigate the mystery of creation. In this essay, we return to the same places where Saura went to remember his childhood, his family in Murcia… These places entail a mystery because of their light, their color, and what they mean for the artist when it comes to inspiration and committing this creative act. And so now we return to them in the hope of unraveling the mystery that Saura tried to find out at the time.

Furthermore, to continue delving deeper into this mystery, it is essential to refer to the idea of ​​Rinália Taís Benini in El psicoanálisis se va al cine: relaciones entre el lenguaje del sueño y el del séptimo arte (2019), about the importance of both cinema and film. Psychoanalysis emerged at the same time. Both languages ​​have several affinities in common that, in Saura’s film, have to do with the importance of the creative act and its mystery. Dreaming is also a creative act and Saura shows us.

Bibliography

• Benini, Rinália Taís. (2019). El psicoanálisis se va al cine: relaciones entre el lenguaje del sueño y el del séptimo arte. Analytica 8(15): 1-15.
• Berthier, N. y Bloch Robin, M. (2008). Carlos Saura o el arte de heredar. Santander. Shangrila. 
• Deltell, L., García, J y Crego, M. (2013). Breve historia del cine. Madrid: Fragua.
• Saura, C. (2023). De imágenes también se vive. Madrid: Taurus. 
• Zweig, S. (1953). El misterio de la creación artística. Apolo. 

Filmography

• Pajarico (Carlos Saura, 1997)

Videographic references 

Historia de nuestro cine (17 de febrero de 2023) Coloquio: Eterno Carlos Saura (vídeo). RTVE997) Ponencia de Carlos Saura en CONFOCO: https://www.youtube.com/ @confococongresodefotografi6602