Bunuel_Luis_My_Last_Breath

it wasn't very well received; even Jean Cocteau, who'd once writtenseveral generous pages about my work in Opium, declared that withEl I'd "committed suicide." (He later changed his mind.) My onlyconsolation came from Jacques Lacan, who saw the film at a specialscreening for psychiatrists at the Cinkmathkque in Paris and praisedcertain ofjts psychological truths.In Mexico, El was nothing short of disastrous. Oscar Dancigersstormed out of the screening room while the audience was convulsedwith laughter. I went into the theatre just at the moment when(shades of San Sebastian) the man slides a long needle through akeyhole to blind the spy he thinks is lurking behind the door. Oscarwas right; they were laughing. The film played for a couple of weeks,but only thanks to the prestige of Arturo de Cordova, who playedthe lead.Apropos of paranoiacs, I remember a terrifying experience thatoccurred around 1952, just after the El fiasco. In our neighborhoodin Mexico City, there was an officer who closely resembled the characterin the film. He too used to tell his wife that he was leaving onmaneuvers, then sneak back that same evening, fake a voice, and callto his wife: "Open up, it's me! I know your husband's gone. . . ."I told this story, as well as several others, to a friend, who proceededto write a newspaper article about the officer. Later, when it was toolate, I remembered certain ancient Mexican customs involving slanderand vengeance. Clearly, I'd committed an unpardonable sin, andI trembled when I imagined what the officer's response would be.What would I do, I asked myself, if he knocked at my door, gun inhand? In the end, much to my amazement, nothing happened; perhapshe read a different newspaper.Another strange episode, this time involving Cocteau, took placeat the Cannes Festival in 1954, when we both served on the samepanel of judges. One day we made a date to meet at the bar of theCarlton Hotel at a quiet hour in the middle of the afternoon. I arrivedwith my habitual punctuality, but saw no sign of Cocteau. Afterwatching and waiting for half an hour, I finally left, but when I saw