Bunuel_Luis_My_Last_Breath

document+ synoptic table of the American cinema. There wereseveral movable columns set up on a large piece of pasteboard; thefirst for "ambience" (Parisian, western, gangster, war, tropical, comic,medieval, etc.), the second for "epochs," the third for "main characters,"and so on. Altogether, there were four or five categories,each with a tab for easy maneuverability. What I wanted to do wasshow that the American cinema was composed along such preciseand standardized lines that, thanks to my system, anyone couldpredict the basic plot of a film simply by lining up a given settingwith a particular era, ambience, and character. It also gave particularlyexact information about the fates of heroines. In fact, it becamesuch an obsession that Ugarte, who lived upstairs, knew every combinationby heart.One evening, Sternberg's producer invited me to a sneak previewof Dishonored, with Marlene Dietrich, a spy story which had beenrather freely adapted from the life of Mata Hari. After we'd droppedSternberg off at his house, the producer said to me:"A terrific film, don't you think?"'Terrific," I replied, with a significant lack of gusto."What a director! What a terrific director!""Yes.""And what an original subject!"Exasperated, I ventured to suggest that Sternberg's choice ofsubject matter was not exactly distinguished; he was notorious forbasing his movies on cheap melodramas."How can you say that!" the producer cried. "That's a terrificmovie! Nothing trite about it at all! My God, it ends with the starbeing shot! Dietrich! He shoots Dietrich! Never been done before!"" 9I m sorry," I replied, "I'm really sorry, but five minutes intoit, I knew she'd be shot!""What are you talking about?" the producer protested. "I'mtelling you that's never been done before in the entire history of thecinema. How can you say you knew what was going to happen?Don't be ridiculous. Believe me, Bufiuel, the public's going to gocrazy. They're not going to like this at all. Not at all!"