Bunuel_Luis_My_Last_Breath

Saragossa 31wing, composed of all the conservative elements in the country,declared themselves strict Germanophiles; the left, or all those whoclaimed to be up-to-date and "liberal," were ardent supporters of theFrench and the Allies. Gone were the serenity of the provinces, theslow repetitious rhythm of daily life, the rigid social hierarchy. Thenineteenth century in Spain had finally come to an end.Before going any further, however, let me backtrack a bit andtalk about the movies. I think I was about eight years old when Idiscovered the cinema, at a theatre called the Farrucini. There weretwo doors, one exclusively for exiting, one for entering, set in abeautiful wooden facade. Outside, a cluster of lemonade sellers equippedwith a variety of musical instruments hawked their wares to passersby.In reality, the Farrucini was little more than a shack; it hadwooden benches and a tarpaulin for a roof.I wasn't allowed to go to the movies alone, but was alwaysaccompanied, as everywhere, by my nurse, even when I only wentacross the street to play with my friend Pelayo. I remember howenthralled I was by my first cartoon; it was about a pig who wore atricolor sash around its waist and sang. (The sound came from arecord player hidden behind the screen.) I'm quite sure that it wasa color film, which at that time meant that each image had beenpainted by hand.Movies then were little more than a curiosity, like the sideshowat a county fair. They were simply the primitive products of a newlydiscovered technique. Apart from trains and streetcars, already habitualparts of our lives, such "modern" techniques were not muchin evidence in Saragossa. In fact, in 1908, there was only one automobilein the entire city, an electric one.Yet movies did signify a dramatic intrusion into our medievaluniverse and soon several permanent movie theatres appeared, equippedwith either armchairs or benches, depending on the price of admission.By 1914, there were actually three good theatres: the SalonDore, the Coyne (named after the famous photographer), and theEna Victoria. (There was a fourth, on the Calle de 10s Estebanes, but