Bunuel_Luis_My_Last_Breath

From Spain to Mexico to France (1960-1977,) 233my producer and my close friend. I'd met him briefly years beforeon the set of Archzbaldo de la Cruz, when he was visiting an actresswhom he eventually married, then later divorced in order to marrythe Mexican singer and actress Silvia Pinal. The son of a cockfightmanager, Alatriste loved the sport himself, but he was also the ownerof two magazines, a furniture factory, and a fair bit of land. Now,however, he'd suddenly decided to try his hand at the movie business,and today he's an actor, director, and distributor and owns thirtysix movie theatres in Mexico. A volatile combination of wiliness andinnocence, he once went to Mass in Madrid to ask God to help himsolve a financial problem~and he was perfectly serious about it.Another time, with an absolutely straight face, he asked me if therewere any external signs that distinguished a duke from a marquis ora baron. Handsome, seductive, the friend of people in high places,and incredibly generous (once he reserved an entire restaurant for thetwo of us, because he knew that my deafness made me uncomfortablein crowded places), he was also apt to hide out in his office bathroomto avoid paying a two-hundred-peso debt.I remember the day, for example, that he told me he was leavingMexico in twenty-four hours and wanted to make an appointmentto see me at a later date in Madrid. Three days later, I accidentallyheard that he was still in Mexico, and for a very good reason. Itseems he was forbidden to leave the country because he owed money.He'd tried to bribe the officials at the airport by offering them tenthousand pesos, and the inspector, the father of eight children, waveredbut finally refused. When I talked to him, he told me that thesum that was keeping him from leaving was about eight thousandpesos-less than the bribe. (A few years later, Alatriste offered mea generous monthly salary simply in order to be able to see me fromtime to time for moral support and cinematographic advice. I declined,of course, but told him he could consult me for free; anytime he liked.)In any case, while I was in Spain, Alatriste proposed that wemake a film together; he gave me carte blanche in terms of story. So