Bunuel_Luis_My_Last_Breath

directly from Calanda. Many of my closest friends were among theguests~Julio Alejandro, Fernando Rey, Jose-Luis Barros~and allof them were profoundly moved, although unable to say exactly why.(Five even confessed to having cried!) I don't really know what evokesthis emotion, which resembles the kind of feeling often aroused whenone listens to music. It seems to echo some secret rhythm in theoutside world, and provokes a real physical shiver that defies therational mind. My son, Juan-Luis, once made a short film aboutthese drums, and I myself have used their somber rhythms in severalmovies, especially L'Age d'or and Nazarin.Back in my childhood, only a couple of hundred drummers wereinvolved in this rite, but nowadays there are over a thousand, includingsix hundred to seven hundred drums and four hundred bombos.Toward noon on Good Friday, the drummers gather in the mainsquare opposite the church and wait there in total silence; if anyonenervously raps out a few beats, the crowd silences him. When thefirst bell in the church tower begins to toll, a burst of sound, like aterrific thunderclap, electrifies the entire village, for all the drumsexplode at the same instant. A son of wild drunkenness surges throughthe players; they beat for two hours until the procession (called ElPregbn, after the official "town crier" drum) forms, then leaves thesquare and makes a complete tour of the town. The procession isusually so long that the rear is still in the square when the leadershave already reappeared at the opposite side!When I was young, there were all sorts of wonderful charactersin the parade~Roman soldiers with false beards called putuntunes (aword that sounds very like the beating of the drums), centurions, aRoman general, and Longinos, a personage dressed in a full suit ofmedieval armor. Longinos, the man who theoretically defended Christagainst his attackers, used to fight a duel with the general. As theylocked swords, the host of drummers would form a circle aroundthem, but when the general spun around once, an act that symbolizedhis death, Longinos sealed the sepulchre and began his watch. Nearby,Christ himself was represented by a statue lying in a glass box.