Bunuel_Luis_My_Last_Breath

shown, particularly to senators and consulates. Renk Clair and CharlieChaplin rushed to see them and had totally different reactions."Never show them!" Clair said, horrified by their power. "If youdo, we're lost. "Chaplin, on the other hand, laughed, once so hard that he actuallyfell off his chair. Was he so amused because of The Great Dictator?While the editing was going on, Rockefeller got the green lightfor his committee, and the museum gave a huge cocktail party, whereIris said she'd introduce me to the millionaire who worked for Rockefellerand in whose hands, it seemed, my fate reposed. At the parry,the man held court in one of the exhibition rooms where people werelining up for introductions."When I give you the sign," Iris said to me, busily running fromgroup to group, "you slip into the line. "I stood around talking to Charles Laughton and his wife, ElsaLanchester, until Iris signaled, whereupon I joined the line, and aftera long wait I finally arrived at His Majesty."How long have you been here, Mr. Buiiuel?" he asked."About six months," I replied."How wonderful. "And that was it, at least for the moment. Later that same day,he and I had a more serious talk at the bar of the Plaza. When heasked if I was a Communist, I told him I was a Republican, and atthe end of the conversation, I found myself working for the Museumof Modern Art. The following day, I had an office, several assistants,and the title of editor-in-chief. Apparently, I was to choose anti-Nazi propaganda films, arrange for their distribution in North andSouth America, and in three languages~English, Spanish, and Portuguese.I was also supposed to produce two films of our own. (Onone occasion, I remember meeting Joseph Losey, who brought us ashort. )I lived in the middle of Yorktown, at the corner of SecondAvenue and Eighty-sixth Street, a fairly solidly pro-Nazi neighborhood.Early in the war, there were frequent pro-Fascist dem-