Bunuel_Luis_My_Last_Breath

Back to America 179do anything, and New York had the reputation (or encouraged theillusion?) of being a generous and hospitable city where work waseasy to find. Soon after I arrived, I ran into a mechanic from Catalonianamed Gali, who had emigrated to New York in 1920 with a violinistfriend. They'd both found jobs the day after the boat docked,the violinist with the Philharmonic and Gali, the mechanic, as adancer in a posh hotel. Unfortunately, times were different now, hetold me, and promptly introduced me to another Catalonian, a bitof a racketeer who was connected to a gangster who also happenedto be the head of a chefs union. They gave me a letter of introductionand some references and told me to go to a certain hotel where I'dsurely find work in the kitchens.Before taking the plunge, however, I ran into an old friend ofmine, an Englishwoman named Iris Barry, who was the wife of thevice-president of the Museum of Modern Art. Apparently, NelsonRockefeller was setting up his Office of Inter-American Affairs, andwaiting only for authorization by the government, despite the factthat it had always been notoriously indifferent to propaganda, especiallyfilms. And so, just as World War I1 began, Iris offered to tryto get me a job with Rockefeller's committee."In the meantime," she told me, "you have to get around a littleand make some contacts. Entre nous, the first secretary in the Germanembassy has smuggled us two propaganda movies-Leni Riefenstahl'sThe Triumph of the Will and another one about the Nazi conquestof Poland. It'd be an interesting experiment to cut them downa little, since they're way too long, and have some screenings, justto show the so-called experts what a movie can do."Since my German was nonexistent, I was given an assistant andwent to work, trying to preserve some continuity in the speeches ofHitler and Goebbels and still make some significant cuts. Ideologically,of course, the films were horrific, but technically they wereincredibly impressive. When they were filming the Nazi rallies atNuremberg, four huge towers were erected just for the cameras. Thecutting and editing went well, and the abridged versions were widely