Bunuel_Luis_My_Last_Breath

From Spain to Mexico to France (' I 960-1 97 7 ) 235In Conchita's article about our childhood, she also talks aboutthe making of Vzridtana:During the shoot, I went to Madrid as my brother's secretary,and, as always, Luis lived like an anchorite. Our apartmentwas on the seventeenth floor of the only skyscraper inthe city, and he occupied the space like Simeon on his column.His deafness had gotten worse, and he saw only thepeople he couldn't avoid seeing. We had four beds, but heslept on the floor, with a sheet and blanket and all the windowswide open. I remember him walking out of his studymany times a day to enjoy the view: the mountains in thedistance, Casa Campo, and the royal palace in between. Hemaintained that the light in Madrid was absolutely unique;in fact, he watched the sun come up every day we were there.He reminisced about his student days and seemed happy.Normally, we ate dinner-raw vegetables, cheese, and agood wine from Rioja~at seven o'clock, which is very earlyfor Spain. At noon we always ate heavily in a good restaurantwhere our favorite meal was grilled suckling pig. (That'swhen my cannibalism complex began, and my dreams ofSaturn devouring his children.) At one point, Luis's hearingsuddenly improved, and we began to have company~oldfriends, students from the cinema institute, people workingon the film. I have to confess that I didn't like the Vindianascript, but my nephew Juan-Luis assured me that his father'sscenarios were one thing and what he did with them another,an observation that turned out to be absolutely correct. Iwatched several scenes being shot and was impressed by Luis'spatience. I never saw him lose his temper, and even when atake went badly, he simply redid it until it came out right.One of the twelve beggars in the film, the one called "theleper," was in fact a real beggar, and when Luis found outthat he was being paid three times less than the others, heprotested violently. The producers tried to pacify him by