Luis Buñuel: A Life in Letters

by Jo Evans (Editor)

Luis Buñuel: A Life in Letters provides access for the first time to an annotated English-language version of around 750 of the most important and most widely relevant of these letters. Buñuel (1900-1983) came to international attention with his first films, Un Chien Andalou (with Dalí, 1929) and L'Âge d'Or (1930): two surprisingly avant-garde productions that established his position as the undisputed master of Surrealist filmmaking. He went on to make 30 full-length features in France, the US and Mexico, and consolidated his international reputation with a Palme d'Or for Viridiana in 1961, and an Academy Award in 1973 for The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. He corresponded with some of the most famous writers, directors, actors and artists of his generation and the list of these correspondents reads like a roll call of major twentieth-century cultural icons: Fellini, Truffaut, Vigo, Aragon, Dalí, Unik - and yet none of this material has been accessible outside specialist archives and a very small number of publications in Spanish and French.

640 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2019

Reviews

[Richard]

First things first: I'm a huge Buñuel fan, so I find most accounts of his films and (perhaps even more so) his life fascinating. I think it's the fact that he retained his moral integrity (honed by his experiences with the Surrealists) through every film he made, whether it be avant-garde, melodrama, social (sur)realism, or satire. He charted his own course, as a geographic and philosophical, cinematic outsider throughout the majority of the twentieth century. After twenty years in the wilderness, forgotten by cinephiles, he dropped the bomb that was Los Olvidados and resolutely rebuilt his career as a director. From the late 1950s, he delivered hit after art-house hit, winning distinguished prizes for Nazarin, Viridiana, Exterminating Angel, and an Oscar for Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. What's more, he never courted any of this attention. He was happiest at home with his wife and with occasional visits from friends, in his adopted homeland of Mexico.

For me, this book of letters to and from the great director rivals his 'autobiography', 'My Last Sigh', and the book of interviews, 'Objects of Desire', as the indispensable book on Buñuel. The journey it takes you on, from his years in Madrid, studying with Dali and Lorca at the Residencia, through to his poignant last few years in retirement, almost completely deaf and blind, is extraordinary. You feel you are there, living a 'potted' version of his life with him, as he corresponds with figures such as Dali, Aragon, Breton, Cortazar, Capra, Truffaut, Louis Malle etc.

Buñuel comes across as courteous, contradictory (if I had a penny for the number of times he 'retires' from, or shuns cinema!), curmudgeonly, loyal, affectionate, moral, and intensely human.

Ultimately, the book helps to unravel some of the mythology behind the man, but is all the more positive for that. Essential for anyone interested in Buñuel or the struggles to maintain artistic integrity AND a sedate life in the cinematic vanguard of the twentieth century.