Bunuel_Luis_My_Last_Breath

Mexico (1946-1961) 209occurred while we were making La Mart en ce jardin near CatemacoLake. The local police chief, who'd waged a vigorous campaign torid the area of outlaws, came by one day and casually invited theFrench actor Georges Marchal, who had a passion for hunting, toaccompany him on a manhunt for a well-known killer. Horrified,Marchal refused. But several hours later, when the police passed byagain, the chief stopped to inform us that the business had now beentaken care of and that we had nothing more to fear.There is a peculiarly intimate relationship between Mexicans andtheir guns. One day I saw the director Chano Urueta on the setdirecting a scene with a Colt .45 in his belt."You never know what might happen," he replied casually, whenI asked him why he needed a gun in the studio.On another occasion, when the union demanded that the musicfor Ensayo de un mimen (The Criminal Life of Archibald) de la Cruz) betaped, thirty musicians arrived at the studio one very hot day, andwhen they took off their jackets, fully three quarters of them werewearing guns in shoulder holsters.The writer Alfonso Reyes also told me about the time, in theearly 19205, that he went to see Vasconcelos, then the secretary ofpublic education, for a meeting about Mexican traditions."Except for you and me," Reyes told him, "everyone here seemsto be wearing a gun!""Speak for youfself," Vasconcelos replied calmly, opening hisjacket to reveal a Colt .45.This "gun cult" in Mexico has innumerable adherents, includingthe great Diego Rivera, whom I remember taking out his pistol oneday and idly sniping at passing trucks. There was also the directorEmilio "Indio" Fernandez, who made Maria Candelaria and Lapeda,and who wound up in prison because of his addiction to the Colt45. It seems that when he returned from the Cannes Festival, whereone of his films had won the prize for best cinematography, he agreedto see some reporters in his villa in Mexico City. As they sat aroundtalking about the ceremony, Fernandez suddenly began insisting that