Bunuel_Luis_My_Last_Breath

(Interestingly enough, all the surrealists were handsome, a factDali once pointed out to me. There was the leonine luminosity ofBreton and the more refined beauty of Aragon, Eluard, Crevel, andDali himself. There was Max Ernst with his startling birdlike faceand his blue eyes, and Pierre Unik, and all the others* proud,ardent, and unforgettable group.)After its triumphant premiere, Un Chien andalou was bought byMauclaire of Studio 28. He paid me an advance of a thousand francs,and since the film had a successful eight-month run, he eventuallygave me another two thousand. (Altogether, I received about sevenor eight thousand francs.) Despite its success, many people complainedto the police about its "cruelty" and "obscenity," but thiswas only the beginning of a lifetime of threats and insults.Replying to a proposal made by Auriol and Jacques Brunius, Iagreed to publish the scenario in La Revue du CinW a journal editedby the publishing house of Gallimard. It never occurred to me thatthere was anything wrong with this decision, but it seemed thatVariett3, a Belgian journal, had decided to devote an entire issue tothe surrealist movement. When Eluard asked me to publish thescreenplay in this review, I had to tell him I'd just given it toGallimard. Suddenly, I found myself with a serious moral problem,one that serves as a good illustration of the surrealist mentality."Can you come to my place this evening, Bufiuel?" Breton askeda few days after my conversation with Eluard. "Just for a smallmeeting?"Wholly unsuspecting, I arrived~only to find the entire groupwaiting for me. Apparently, we were going to have a trial. Aragonwas the prosecutor, and in violent terms he accused me of sellingout to a bourgeois publication. Moreover, there was something suspectabout the commercial success of my film. How could such ascandalous film draw such an enormous public? What could I say?Alone before the group, I tried to defend myself, but I didn't seemto be able to make a dent in their attack."The question is," Breton finally asked, "are you with the policeor with us?"