"Anyone that remember the final scenes from El," "Archibaldo de La Cruz, The Young One "or" Viridiana would not be surprise if we wonder, "Who's Buñuel?"" "What connection do these mysterious films have with their creator?" ""Before" The Exterminating Angel was screened at Cannes," "Buñuel announced," ""If the film you're about to see seems enigmatic or odd, so is life."" "It's a fitting epigraph for our show, for we found Buñuel, the man, to be both odd and enigmatic beneath his seeming simplicity." "Luis Buñuel, who are you really?" "What if you had to define yourself?" "If I had to define myself?" "I'd walk out the door without a word." "I don't define myself." "Faced with his unwavering refusal, we decided to change tactics." "We visited Buñuel's friends and collaborators, interviewed his sister Conchita, and called on film critics, doing our best to discuss Buñuel only in relation to his work." "Mr. Urgoiti, who worked with Buñuel preceding the Spanish Civil War, recalls what it was like in 1933 at the release of Buñuel's first film," "Un chien andalou." "I met Buñuel in 1934, or maybe 1933." "It was at the premiere of his film Un chien andalou." "Everyone was terrified, no one understood the film, but it was a big hit." "After the screening, I remember someone asking," ""What does it mean?" "I don't understand a thing."" "Buñuel replied with his usual fierceness," ""It's very simple." "It's an incitation to crime and to rape."" "ldeas?" "I don't have ideas." "It's all instinct." "Luis is a brute, a "bruto," as we'd say in Spanish." "He's not really a brute, of course." "He acts that way to hide how softhearted he is." "He's a very sweet man who hides behind this fierce front." "Buñuel is the kind of person who can be physically ill - and I saw this happen to him in Paris - because he'd read in the newspaper that there'd been radioactive fallout over Mexico." "To me, he's a great man." "But you mustn't overlook Buñuel's sense of humor." " Do you like Toledo?" " What?" "Do you like Toledo?" "Not very much." "It's not a very clean city." "The alleys stink." "Like the Americans, I like things to be clean." "Tonight I'll show you how marvelous Toledo is at night." "Earlier you said you didn't like it." "This morning I didn't, but it's starting to grow on me." "Why?" "I don't know." "I change my mind." "In the morning I like it, in the afternoon I don't." "By the evening, I like it again." "That's how I am." "Here we are having a drink in a place you often came with Garcla Lorca and Dali." "Yes, and with lots of other friends." "There were about 40 of us." "People would come and go." "Some of my French friends came here too." "Did you already know the Surrealist crowd in Paris?" "No, but members of that crowd used to occasionally come to Madrid." "We'd have discussions." "What did you do there?" "We'd drink, go for walks, laugh - stuff like that." "Friendly things, fun stuff." " Did you think about making movies?" " What?" "Yes, I think I'd already made a few films at the time." "All of Buñuel's work is Spanish, including the films shot in France." "To me, "L 'âge d'or" and "Un chien andalou" are Spanish films, and the films he shot in Mexico are Spanish as well." """ " Un chien andalou" was shot in France?" " Yes, entirely." "Why didn't you shoot it in Spain?" "Because I was living in Paris at the time." "I'd fled from Spain." "I didn't want to live there." "My work was in Paris." "All my friends and colleagues were there." "From '24 to '35 I didn't live in Spain." "I'd just return once in a while on vacation." "Did you find a producer?" "For "Un chien andalou?"" "My mother gave me the money." "A rich friend of mine gave me the money for "L 'âge d'or."" "This friend was the Viscount of Noailles, also a patron of Cocteau at the time." ""When he financed" L'âge d'or, did he have any idea of the explosion the film would cause, or the reputation for scandal it would earn its creator?" "Even today, 34 years after its brief exclusive run in Paris," "L'âge d'or "remains a cursed film," its ban still in effect." "Since we're unable to show a clip from the film, here are some of the rare available images, in which you'll recognize the film's leads.;" "Gaston Modot and Lya Lys." "Mr. Mauclaire, manager of Studio 28," ""the theater where" L'âge d'or was shown, recounts the highlights of this famous event." "Buñuel contacted me and said," ""Cocteau and I were approached by Mrs. de Noailles, who gave us each what was then 1 ,000,000 francs, and we each made a film." "Cocteau made "The Blood of a Poet," and I made "L 'âge d'or."" "He trusted you?" "Yes, he trusted me." "I had complete freedom." "It was a new movement." "I was completely free." "We were against technique, art, meticulous framing and all that." "That was our point of view." "I was interested in conveying an idea." "The form it took didn't matter." "Later, they said, "That's not cinema." "That's not art." "It's horrible!"" "But that's precisely what we liked about it." "L'âge d'or "was released" on November 28, 1930." "Protests began on December 3." "At the screening of "L 'âge d'or," they set off firecrackers in the theater." "As you can see in the photos, an ink bomb was thrown at the screen and smoke bombs were set off." "Upon hearing shouts of "Down with the Bischoffsheims!"" "which was Mrs. de Noailles' maiden name, and "Down with the Jewess!"" "Maurice de Rothschild, who was seated in the balcony, came running down the stairs in a panic, shouting, "It's a pogrom!"" "As the crowd of young protestors poured out of the theater, they slashed paintings by DalÍ, Tanguy and Max Ernst." "The paintings were ruined." "Several protestors were arrested and taken to the police station for questioning." "I pressed charges." "They were from solid, working-class families, nice, clean-cut boys." "They were brought to trial in petty crimes court, of course." "Henri Torres was my lawyer." "They were released, practically with congratulations." "Afterwards, the police chef, Jean Chiappe, who was well-known, had "L 'âge d'or" banned, even though it had already been approved by the board of censors." "How did the Surrealists react to these protests and the sanctions against the film?" "We protested furiously." "We wrote a manifesto." "Here it is." ""Since when have we in France lost the right to criticize religious principles, the morals of our leaders, et cetera?" "Since when do our police support anti-Semitism?" "Using provocation to justify police intervention - isn't that a trademark of fascism?" "Since intervention took place under the pretext of protecting minors, family, country and religion, can we believe, even for a moment, that this obvious slide towards fascism isn't intended to squash all opposition to the impending war," "and in particular, the war against the USSR?"" "We weren't there the day of the protests." "If it had happened at the premiere, the Surrealists would have been there, but it was a week later." "That's why none of us were there to fight against the Anti-Semitic League protestors shouting, "Kill the Jews!"" "Would you still do the same thing today?" "It's all in the past." "It corresponded to a specific social and spiritual moment." "Conditions have changed, so I wouldn't do the same thing." "They're personal things that I believe in strongly." "Maybe I stress them too much, but unfortunately, I don't have other ideas." "Of course I keep reusing them, but in different ways." "When "L 'âge d'or" opened in Paris, you weren't there?" "No, I was in Hollywood." "I'd been hired by MGM." "But I didn't do anything." "I stayed six months and then came home." "Here comes a bus." "You came back after Hollywood?" "Can we keep talking with that bus going by?" "It's not a problem?" "After what?" "You returned to France after that?" "To make a film, Buñuel needed money to finance it." "You've probably heard that for "Land Without Bread,"" "one of his friends won the lottery and gave him money for the film." " Was it your idea to go shoot " " Yes, it fascinated me." "The poverty of Las Hurdes touched me in a deeply human way." "I seized the chance to make the film." "I had nothing." "Conditions were terrible." "I had a portable camera and bits of film." "What we call "short ends" these days." "Sixty- or 100-foot lengths of film stock." "It's a donkey." "Was that when you met Urgoiti?" "Change the camera angle or viewers will think that was us." "That's right." "You should do an insert of the donkey." "A shot with the donkey." "And here it is." "It was after "Land Without Bread" that you met Urgoiti?" "But not professionally." "I was sent to Spain by Warner Brothers as a dubbing supervisor." "I was paid very well to do nothing." "It was great." "I met Urgoiti and we organized the production of commercial Spanish films." "I said, "Let's discuss your conditions."" "He said, "I have one condition:" "My name must not appear on posters or in the press." "Nowhere!" "I'm part of the avant-garde." "My films are avant-garde, Surrealist." "If my name is attached to a commercial film, it's over." "I'll quit and leave the film hanging."" "I thought, "That's my kind of director."" "What did you do?" "Mainstream movies." "I worked as a producer, since I knew a bit about filmmaking." "My job was to make the movies in less time." "If it was a 30-day shoot, I'd get it shot in 25." "I was a movie-making machine." "In Mexico too?" "No, not there." "I mean, you had the reputation of working quickly?" "I worked quickly because that's what I was used to." "Since I made my films for next to nothing," "I was used to it." "I didn't place much importance on aesthetics, on wowing viewers with composition, or brilliantly colored costumes, sets, landscapes, all that." "I'm more interested in the way people interact." "Of course it needs a setting, but that's secondary." "conflicts OF HONOR" "He had a hard time living in the US during the Spanish Civil War." "He had a small job at the Museum of Modern Art, which he lost, but let's not go into that." "Why not?" ""The screenplays for" L'âge d'or "and" Un chien andalou grew from the collaboration and mutual friendship of Luis Buñuel and Salvador DalÍ, a little-known painter at the time." "When Buñuel moved to America " "But why don't we let Max Ernst tell us?" "I met him in New York when he had a small job at the Museum of Modern Art, in the museum's film department." "He took the job so he could survive in New York." "He went to live in the US under difficult conditions." "Unfortunately for him, this godsend didn't last long." "It ended fairly quickly and quite unexpectedly." "He was summoned by the museum's directors and asked," ""ls it true that your second film, which you shot with Salvador Dali " "Or in any case, the script was written by both of you." "The script was conceived by both of you as an orthodox Catholic film, and you took advantage of Dali's absence from the set to make a film that is atheistic and blasphemous."" "Buñuel answered," ""Of course it's an atheistic film." "But I am not the sole culprit." "We both conceived the film that way." "In any case, the film is definitely atheistic."" ""In that case," they said," ""we must ask you to resign."" "Which he did." "He was out on the street." "A few days later, according to him, he ran into Dali on Fifth Avenue." "He walked up to him and asked, "Are you Mr. Dali?"" "Dali held out his hand, but Luis didn't shake it." "Instead, he slapped Dali's face." "Dali fell to the sidewalk on Fifth Avenue." "That was the end of their friendship." "american BATHTUBS" "When you lived in the United States, did you like the lifestyle there?" "I'd have to say yes." "Americans are nicer in America than they are elsewhere." "I found Americans to be very generous, very good people." "They still believe - or did then - in the value of a man's word." ""Did you steal a watch?" "No."" ""Do you swear?" "Yes, I swear." They'd let you go." "I don't think it's true anymore." "Today, even if you didn't steal it, you still go to jail." "Did you like the modern comforts in America?" "Yes, I liked the clean streets and modern comforts." "You really like comfort?" "America is wonderful that way." "What bathtubs!" "What showers!" "The French can't even begin to imagine." "You don't have that in Spain?" "Spain has nothing." "They still have chicken coops and outhouses." "It's horrible." "It's less civilized here than in America." "Nevertheless, in Aragón, in the heart of this same Spain," "Buñuel's happy childhood was spent between the huge family home in Calanda and the Villa MarÍa on the banks of the Guadalupe River." "This is where most of my childhood memories with my brother took place." "We never played with him." "My mother felt boys and girls shouldn't mix." "He would play with the boys, and we girls would play with our friends." "While my brother and his friends would play by the river, we'd have to stay in the garden." "When he was in the garden, we had to go to the river." "Before leaving the province for the university in Madrid, where he'd make friends such as GarcÍa Lorca, Salvador DalÍ and Rafael Alberti," "Buñuel spent his time between Calanda and a Jesuit boarding school in Zaragoza." "He has never denied the importance of this education, which is why we wanted to interview Father Arteta, a Jesuit who also writes film reviews for a parochial magazine, on his views of this man who could've been one of his students." "The interview took place in the entrance hall of the school, by a statue of baby Jesus oddly similar to the one in the famous passionate love scene "in" L'âge d'or." "If you want to know what it means, according to some of my colleagues," "Buñuel is a blasphemer." "Because of this, he has a bad reputation in Spain." "What is your personal opinion?" "It's difficult for me to form an opinion because I don't know all of his films, but in my opinion, even in the films considered blasphemous, irreligious, or lacking religion, some traces of religion can be found." "If you concede that Buñuel is a blasphemer, the reason he commits blasphemy is because he's a believer." "I drew this conclusion from an interview I read in the Parisian paper "Le Monde,"" "wherein Buñuel stated that what stayed with him from boarding school and his Jesuit teachers was a religious spirit." "That's why I think that even in Buñuel's irreligious films, signs of religion can be found." "He has always retained his affection for this school, and I think it's better to offer him our hand in Christian friendship than to push him away." "It seems you were almost awarded a prize by the Catholic Film Office for "NazarÍn."" "I would've really liked that." "That would've been nice of them." ""Thank you, sir."" "I would've really liked it, but they didn't do it." "mexico AND its thieves" "You live in Mexico City?" "In Mexico City proper or in the suburbs?" "I live in Mexico City." "It's a very big city." "It's in a nice area." "I have a small house with a garden." "I really like it." "I hardly ever leave the house." "You don't go out to " "To "socialize," as they call it?" "No, I don't." "Never." "I've withdrawn from society." "Do you work at home?" "What's the reason for your withdrawal?" "I work at home, but as little as possible." "I don't like to work." "I'm withdrawn because of my deafness." "I heard you had a wall built around your house." "That I built a wall around my house?" "Yes, but not to cut myself off from the world." "It's to keep out thieves." "Are there a lot of thieves?" "No, but just in case." "If one happens by, my wall is there." "If I WERE paranoid" "What authors influenced you?" "lnfluenced me?" "Hardly any." "How about authors that were championed by the Surrealists and have been accepted into the mainstream, like Freud?" " Who?" " Freud." " You've read his work?" " Freud?" "Yes." "Long before I got into Surrealism, I read Freud." "Ten years before Surrealism." "I read Freud in Spain." "What about Sade?" "I discovered Sade when I got involved in Surrealism." "Robert Desnos lent it to me." "And Roland Tual." "He was the first." "Desnos and he gave me my first book by Sade." "What was it?" "It was a complete revolution for me." "Extraordinary." "When you make films today - for example, ten years ago when you made "El-"" "there are scenes that make one think of Sade, like the scene with the needle." "Yes, I suppose in theory." "But I don't think one detail evokes a whole personality, an entire universe." "It's simply a detail that's there because it fits the character, because he's paranoid." "In this case he's not imitating Sade or being sadistic." "The character in "El" is straight out of Sade." "When he sews her up, he's not being sadistic." "He takes no pleasure in sewing her up." "The expression is "to sew up," right?" "It was his wife's punishment, that's all." "He doesn't have sadistic thoughts." " How was it received in Mexico?" " What?" "El." "It was more successful than Chaplin." "We split our guts laughing." " Really?" "It's a comedy?" " We laughed so hard." " Did audiences realize this?" " They didn't realize anything." "To them, it was an idiotic film, and they split their sides laughing." "In this "amusing" film's terrifying portrayal of jealousy," "Francisco, no longer content with just spying on his wife, comes up with an unusual solution between two bouts of madness.;" "He'll sew her up, thus guaranteeing her fidelity." "The relationship between the characters... between Francisco and his wife, is very Spanish, isn't it?" "No, it's universal." "It could be in Russia." "It could be in Pittsburgh." "It's not Spanish at all." "I deny it." "It's French, it's German." "It's a form of paranoia." "If I were paranoid, that's what I'd do if my wife were unfaithful." "Or if I believed her unfaithful, because in the film the wife is faithful, though he doesn't believe it." "Everyone has their own way:" "You'd slap her, another would kill her," "I'd sew her up, and he'd take her for a ride." "MALICIOUS GOSSIP" "Is there a connection between the character's attitude and your own?" "Absolutely." "If I were paranoid, maybe I'd sew up my wife too." "Instead of slapping her, I'd sew her up." "Do you have her locked up in Mexico City?" "You'd lock her up." "I wouldn't." "No one ever saw that woman." "At the time, Buñuel was married to Jeanne." "She's a lovely woman, but I had to wait a long time to meet her." "Your friends complain that when you go out, you never bring your wife." " When I go out?" " You never bring your wife." "That was back then." "They're wrong." "My wife goes everywhere with me now." "They called me a jealous Spaniard who made his wife stay home." "It was just a joke that " "Did Georges tell you that?" "See, I knew who was behind it." "It's not true." "Maybe it was true during the Spanish Civil War." "I'd go out with Sadoul, and my wife would stay home." "The baby had just been born, so she stayed home when I went out." "Breton also complained about not meeting my wife, but it's a joke." "I knew right away who'd said that." "TO BE liked OR disliked" "When you read articles about yourself or your films, are you surprised?" "How do you feel?" "I admit I'm very curious about articles about me." "I'm not proud of it." "It's probably a form of vanity." "It's a strange thing." "As I said before we started shooting," "I make movies for my friends and my friends' friends." "I don't care about the audience." "Their opinion doesn't interest me." "But it makes me really happy when a friend understands or likes a film." "I feel flattered." "It makes me very happy." ""NAZARlN" AND THE cigarette" " Let's go back to "NazarÍn."" " What?" "Let's go back to "NazarÍn."" "I didn't understand the French pronunciation." "To me, NazarIn is a great guy, full of humanity." "I really like him." "As I said before, here he's a priest, but he could be anything else." "Even a policeman." "Anything." "I really like this guy." "He attracts me." "In the end, I wanted to show doubt in the human mind." "For any idea, for any human activity," "I think doubt is an extraordinary thing." "It makes you grow." "NazarIn is so pure, so holy." "In the end, he doubts." "For me, that's all that matters in the film." "He has such strong convictions, and in the end he has a moment of doubt." "Naturally, he doesn't want to deny his past, so he accepts aims." "To me, to doubt is to refuse to accept alms." "He has always valued charity, but in the end, he refuses aims." "This conflict, this rejection of his values, of the meaning of his life, is very interesting to me." "It's natural for him not to want to give everything up forever." "One moment of doubt is enough for me." "It's like someone falling asleep in bed." "You fall asleep in bed with a cigarette." "It might go out, or it might burn the house down." "Doubt is like that cigarette." "It could be nothing, or it could destroy everything." "That's all I wanted to express." "Plus, I really like that guy." "friends AND EVERYONE ELSE" "My friends understand my films." "Those who aren't my friends don't." "That doesn't mean my films are good because my friends understand them." "It means I make films for my friends, and I'm glad they understand them." "I'm not criticizing others." "They have the right to not understand." "I don't care." "I won't fight for it." "But I'm not the kind who tries to please his friends, either." "I wouldn't budge an inch just to please my friends." "Here's a good example, using "The Exterminating Angel."" "A close friend of mine in Mexico whom I'd known for 20 years had seen the film with about 40 friends." "As he left, passed by me, and I held out my hand, and he very angrily said, "Men have been shot for less than that."" "He was really angry with me for a month." "He said I was a mean, nasty person, and that for 20 years he hadn't seen me for what I was." "He said I was a scoundrel." "I don't know why." "Later he changed his mind and invited me over for dinner." "He was very kind." "But he was angry with me for a month." "That's an example of a close friend who didn't like my film." "But I liked that too." "It was almost as good as if he'd liked it." "What counts for me is the reaction, positive or negative." "This close friend, whom I trust, was against me, and that pleased me." "GO YA, ALWAYS GO YA" "What is your connection to Spanish culture," "Spanish writers or painters?" "How do you feel connected to them?" "Personally, intellectually, I don't feel connected to any Spaniard." " lnstinctually." " lnstinctually, I'm strongly connected." "But intellectually, I don't feel a connection to any Spaniard." "People always bring up Goya." "They see references to Goya in my films." "That's too easy." ""Blah, blah, blah, Goya."" "Goya, of course!" "Goya, first and foremost." "But also Velásquez." "There's a strong connection to Velásquez." "Anyway, Velásquez and Goya are similar." "Then there's Spain itself." "Buñuel's continual contrast between extreme wealth and extreme poverty is everywhere you look in Spain." "CULTURE AND CANNONS" "I believe the French have false ideas about Spain." "They know nothing about Spain." "It's incredible that a country so close geographically can be so ignorant about Spain." "For a culture to survive, it needs cannons, it needs power." "It needs economic power, armed forces, military power." "Look at Spain:" "lts armed forces are outdated and in shambles, and Spanish culture is unknown." "Today's great culture is the United States, with its battleships and rockets." "Everyone knows Hemingway." "He's a genius worldwide." "If Hemingway were Spanish, no one would ever have heard of him." "Taken on his own, he's nothing special." "But since he's American..." "France has a great culture, and it was a world power." "It united both:" "It was a world power with cannons and armies, plus it had talent." "Spain is a poor country, an underdeveloped country." "Once you cross the Pyrenees, it's over." "A HOBBY" "I love guns." "They're a lot of fun." "If I had as many guns in France or Spain as I have in Mexico, they'd put me away for 30 years." "I have about 80." "Around 50 pistols, all the latest models, all very deadly." "I also have about 15 rifles." "I reload the shells myself." "I cast the bullets." "I'm a gun enthusiast." " You make your own bullets?" " Yes, I make my own for everything:" "pistols, rifles, large and small calibers." "I enjoy experimenting with different powder charges." "I don't like to kill animals." "I'd never kill a bird, but I love guns." "His son Juan Luis told me a story that I adore, because it's Buñuel in a nutshell." "He said, "My father had an idea of making a bullet, since he made his bullets himself, with such a weak charge that when the bullet was fired at him, it would slide off his clothes harmlessly." "He worked on it for months, and finally one day he said, 'I've done it!" "'" "To test-fire it, he took the precaution of lining up several dictionaries and old phone books." "He fired." "The bullet went through the target, through the phone books, through the wall and into the neighbor's!"" "That's Buñuel in a nutshell." "When he makes a film, he says, "I hardly put anything in it!"" "and it explodes." "I'd like to be illiterate again, to escape from culture." "Maybe I've read too much." "I've never read excessively, though I read as a student, and I moved in intellectual circles." "Now I'm moving away from that and I've come to dislike bookishness." "There are too many books." "Too much talk, too many opinions about books." "I feel a bit suffocated." "My ideal, in theory, is to return to childhood where no one reads." "FOR MY MOMMY" "This desire to return to childhood, this nostalgia for a golden age, the echoes of the 500 drums roaming Calanda's streets during Holy Week, will follow him wherever he goes." "Aren't his films the most obvious evidence of this?" "But the day we went to film in Calanda for this program... they were tearing down the house where he was born."