# Cela s'appelle l'Aurore
**Cela s'appelle l'Aurore** (English release title *This Is Called Dawn*) is a 1956 black-and-white drama directed by [Luis Buñuel](https://www.edgepedia.org/luis-bunuel), a French–Italian co-production adapted from the 1952 novel of the same name by Emmanuel Roblès. It stars Georges Marchal as Dr. Valerio, Lucia Bosè as Clara, and Nelly Borgeaud as Angela, and it marked Buñuel's first return to European filmmaking after more than two decades spent largely in Mexico.[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/47175.html) • [2](https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstreams/e26db28e-21ff-474e-ade6-e8c5d772d338/download)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / source | Luis Buñuel, from the novel *Cela s'appelle l'aurore* by Emmanuel Roblès[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/47175.html) |
| Production | Les Films Marceau (Paris) and Laetitia Film (Roma); France–Italy co-production, 1955–1956[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/47175.html) |
| French release | Visa no. 17213 dated 13 January 1956; theatrical release 9 May 1956; classified Tous publics[3](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/17213) |
| Length and format | 103 min per the CNC record (2,801 m of film); 35 mm black and white[3](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/17213) • [4](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=135350) |
| Principal cast | Georges Marchal (Dr. Valerio), Lucia Bosè (Clara Bernacci), Nelly Borgeaud (Angela Valerio), Giani Esposito (Sandro Galli), Julien Bertheau (commissaire Fasaro), Jean-Jacques Delbo (Gorzon)[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/47175.html) |
| Key crew | Screenplay Buñuel and Jean Ferry; cinematography Robert Lefebvre; music Joseph Kosma; editing Marguerite Renoir[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/47175.html) |
| Spanish release | *Así es la aurora*, released 11 September 1973, 33,730 admissions[4](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=135350) |
## Spoilers
### Story and setting
The action takes place on a Mediterranean island, filmed in Corsica. Dr. Valerio, a Corsican physician, treats the workers of an industrial company and the poor of the town, prioritizing those who cannot pay. Feeling neglected and aspiring to a more bourgeois life, his wife Angela leaves to join her family in Nice, where her father, a wealthy notable, is prepared to fund a practice for Valerio on the mainland; the doctor refuses to owe him anything.[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/47175.html) • [5](https://www.telerama.fr/cinema/films/cela-s-appelle-l-aurore-1-10677.php)
During his wife's absence Valerio meets Clara, a young widow, and the two fall in love. The plot turns on Sandro Galli, a friend of the doctor and a worker for the industrialist Gorzone. Gorzone, described in the contemporary press as an exploiter of men, dismisses Sandro despite the grave illness of Sandro's wife; driven by her death, Sandro kills Gorzone, and Valerio gives him refuge, having treated the couple and understood the course of desperation that led to the act. A police commissioner, Fasaro, presses the investigation, and Valerio's defense of the fugitive sets him against both the local bourgeoisie and the police.[6](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1956/05/12/cela-s-appelle-l-aurore-de-luis-bunuel_2254679_1819218.html) • [5](https://www.telerama.fr/cinema/films/cela-s-appelle-l-aurore-1-10677.php)
## Production
Buñuel shot the film in French after his long Mexican period; the Harvard-based film-history account describes it as his first return to French cinema since *L'Âge d'or* (1930), a Franco-Italian co-production filmed in Corsica.[2](https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstreams/e26db28e-21ff-474e-ade6-e8c5d772d338/download) The screenplay was written by Buñuel with Jean Ferry, a writer associated with the surrealist movement, and the Angers festival notes that the film occasionally ventures into the world of dreams through that collaboration.[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/47175.html) • [7](https://www.premiersplans.org/en/film/cela-sappelle-laurore) Jacques Deray and Marcel Camus served as assistant directors, and the production was carried by Les Films Marceau in Paris and Laetitia Film in Rome, with Edmond Ténoudji as producer and Claude Jaeger as délégué de production.[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/47175.html)
The title comes from a line in Jean Giraudoux's play *Électre*, where "cela s'appelle l'aurore" closes a tirade about what life is.[8](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D26211.html)
## Themes
The Angers festival's retrospective note identifies the film as one of the rare works in which Buñuel directly explores belonging to a social class: the doctor's social position is not background information but is tested through his choices, and the film stages the relations between the working class and the bourgeoisie. It quotes Buñuel's own position: "I am not deterministic; I don't believe that anyone is morally determined for ever through the fact of being born in such or such social class."[7](https://www.premiersplans.org/en/film/cela-sappelle-laurore) Télérama's 2022 review reads the film the same way, describing "a gentle humanism in a cruel environment" in which the doctor, by defending the oppressed and a fugitive murderer, disrupts the established order.[5](https://www.telerama.fr/cinema/films/cela-s-appelle-l-aurore-1-10677.php)
## Reception
The film's critical history is marked by a paradox recorded by the Institut Jean Vigo: *Cela s'appelle l'aurore* is generally judged a secondary work in Buñuel's career and was poorly received by critics, yet Buñuel himself considered it one of his favorites. The same institute notes the second paradox that its source novel is the best-known and most durably successful work of its author, Emmanuel Roblès.[9](https://www.inst-jeanvigo.eu/publications/cela-sappelle-laurore)
Contemporary and near-contemporary French critics were divided. Henry Magnan's review in *Le Monde* of 12 May 1956 praised the storytelling, the performances, and Robert Lefebvre's photography, and called it unthinkable that the film was left out of the French selection at Cannes, adding that the selection committee had in fact distinguished it before officials intervened.[6](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1956/05/12/cela-s-appelle-l-aurore-de-luis-bunuel_2254679_1819218.html) André Bazin, the critic and co-founder of *Cahiers du cinéma*, published a positive piece titled "Cela s'appelle l'aurore: Lumière de Buñuel" in *Le Parisien libéré* on 14 May 1956, later reprinted in his collection *Le Cinéma de la cruauté*.[10](https://www.anchor-publishing.com/document/294100) On the other side, Eric Rohmer dismissed the film as "just one cliché after another," and [François Truffaut](https://www.edgepedia.org/francois-truffaut) wrote in *Cahiers du cinéma* that he disliked it "because it's badly acted."[11](https://notesonfilm1.com/2018/06/28/cela-sappelle-laurore-luis-bunuel-france-italy-1956/) Later assessments have been warmer: Télérama calls it a "curious film," formally classical for Buñuel but a recommendable melodrama.[5](https://www.telerama.fr/cinema/films/cela-s-appelle-l-aurore-1-10677.php)
## Distribution and restoration
The CNC's registry records three successive French distributors: Les Films Ariane (1990–2006), Les Acacias (from 2000), and Tamasa Distribution (from 2007).[3](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/17213) In Spain the film circulated as *Así es la aurora*; the ICAA file records a theatrical release on 11 September 1973 with 33,730 admissions and a video classification in 2009 and 2015 at 95 minutes, not recommended for audiences under seven.[4](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=135350) Tamasa issued a 4K restoration on Blu-ray and DVD in 2025, accompanied by a 21-minute portrait of the island by Diogo Serafim and the 1956 trailer, according to the [Bibliothèque nationale de France](https://www.edgepedia.org/bibliotheque-nationale-de-france)'s record of the edition.[12](https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark%3A/12148/cb48576662j)
## References
1. [Cela s'appelle l'aurore (Luis Buñuel, 1956), La Cinémathèque française](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/47175.html)
2. [Cineastas y Escritores Europeos, Harvard DASH](https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstreams/e26db28e-21ff-474e-ade6-e8c5d772d338/download)
3. [Visas et Classification no. 17213, CNC](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/17213)
4. [Datos de Película ICAA, file 135350](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=135350)
5. [Cela s'appelle l'aurore, Télérama](https://www.telerama.fr/cinema/films/cela-s-appelle-l-aurore-1-10677.php)
6. ["Cela s'appelle l'aurore" de Luis Buñuel, Henry Magnan, Le Monde, 12 May 1956](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1956/05/12/cela-s-appelle-l-aurore-de-luis-bunuel_2254679_1819218.html)
7. [Cela s'appelle l'Aurore, Festival Premiers Plans d'Angers](https://www.premiersplans.org/en/film/cela-sappelle-laurore)
8. [Cela s'appelle l'aurore (1956), AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D26211.html)
9. [Cela s'appelle l'aurore, Institut Jean Vigo, Archives no. 103 (2012)](https://www.inst-jeanvigo.eu/publications/cela-sappelle-laurore)
10. [André Bazin, writings index, Anchor Academic Publishing](https://www.anchor-publishing.com/document/294100)
11. [Cela s'appelle l'aurore (Luis Buñuel, France/Italy, 1956), Notes on Film](https://notesonfilm1.com/2018/06/28/cela-sappelle-laurore-luis-bunuel-france-italy-1956/)
12. [Notice bibliographique, BnF catalogue](https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark%3A/12148/cb48576662j)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1950s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license