Bunuel_Luis_My_Last_Breath

years later that Trumbo made the film himself. It certainly hadsomething, although it was a bit too long and overintellectualized.On several occasions, both American and European producershave suggested that I tackle a film version of Malcolm Lowry's Underthe Volcano, a novel set in Cuernavaca. I've read the book many timesbut cannot come up with a solution for the cinema. If you confineyourself to the action, it's hopelessly banal, because everything importanttakes place within the main character, and how can innerconflicts be translated into effective images on a screen? To date, I'veread eight different screenplays, but not one of them seems convincing.Other directors besides myself have been tempted by the beautyof the story, but so far no one has made the movie.My last abortive American project was the time Woody Allenproposed that I play myself in Annie Hall. He offered me thirtythousand dollars for two days' work, but since the shooting scheduleconflicted with my trip to New York, I declined, albeit not withoutsome hesitation. (Marshall McLuhan wound up doing the self-portraitin my place, in the foyer of a movie theatre.)My Hollywood saga wouldn't be complete, however, withoutmentioning blacklisting. In 1940, after I began work at the Museumof Modern Art, I had to fill out a questionnaire concerning myrelationship with communism in order to get a visa. In 1955, thevisa problem came up again, although this time it was somewhatmore serious. On my way back from Paris, where I'd been makingCela s'appelle I'aurm, I was arrested at the airport and ushered into asmall room, where I learned that my name had appeared on a list ofcontributors to the journal Espuh Libre, a virulently anti-Francopublication which had occasionally attacked the United States. Sincemy name had also cropped up as one of the signers of a protest againstthe atomic bomb, I had to submit to another interrogation. Onceagain, most of the questions concerned my political affiliations andopinions. The result was that my name was added to the infamousblacklist, and each time I went to America, I had to go through thesame inquisition. Not until 1975 was my name removed from thelist, and I could stop feeling like a gangster.