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Objects of Desire: Conversations With Luis Buñuel
interviews in Mexico, 1975-77, ed & tr Paul Lenti
280 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1986
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About the author
Luis Buñuel
88 books183 followersLuis Buñuel was born on 22 February 1900 in Calanda, a small town in the Aragón region of Spain. He was a visionary filmmaker and influential figure in the history of cinema, known for his distinctive style and bold exploration of themes such as surrealism, social criticism, and human nature.
His family was wealthy and devoutly Catholic, a conservative environment that would later provide rich material for his critical and often subversive works.
Buñuel's education began in Jesuit schools, where he developed a critical view of religion that would pervade much of his later work. He moved to Madrid in 1917 to study at the University of Madrid, where he became part of an intellectual circle that included future luminaries such as Salvador Dalí and Federico García Lorca. This period marked the beginning of his engagement with avant-garde and surrealist ideas.
In the late 1920s, Buñuel moved to Paris, the epicenter of the surrealist movement. There, he collaborated with Salvador Dalí on his first film, "Un Chien Andalou" (1929), a 16-minute short that shocked audiences with its dreamlike imagery and disjointed narrative. The film, now considered a masterpiece of surrealist cinema, established Buñuel as a daring and original filmmaker.
Buñuel followed up with "L'Âge d'Or" (1930), another collaboration with Dalí, which further cemented his reputation. This film, with its provocative critique of the bourgeoisie and the Catholic Church, was met with outrage and censorship, solidifying Buñuel's position as a controversial and radical artist.
The political turmoil in Europe during the 1930s led Buñuel to work in various capacities, including a stint making documentaries in Spain and working in Hollywood. However, his career in the U.S. was hampered by his unorthodox style and political views. He eventually returned to Mexico, where he found a more receptive environment for his talents.
In Mexico, Buñuel directed numerous films that combined his surrealist tendencies with social and political commentary. Notable works from this period include "Los Olvidados" (1950), a gritty portrayal of urban poverty that won him the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival, and "El" (1953), a psychological drama about jealousy and obsession.
The 1960s and 1970s marked a period of international recognition and success for Buñuel. He directed several acclaimed films, including "Viridiana" (1961), which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, "Belle de Jour" (1967), starring Catherine Deneuve, and "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" (1972), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. These films showcased Buñuel's continued fascination with surrealism, his sharp wit, and his critique of societal norms.
Buñuel's later years were marked by a retreat from the public eye, but he remained active in filmmaking until his final work, "That Obscure Object of Desire" (1977). He died on July 29, 1983, in Mexico City, leaving behind a legacy that has profoundly influenced modern cinema. His work continues to be celebrated for its innovation, audacity, and enduring relevance, ensuring Buñuel's place as one of the most important filmmakers in the history of the medium.
His family was wealthy and devoutly Catholic, a conservative environment that would later provide rich material for his critical and often subversive works.
Buñuel's education began in Jesuit schools, where he developed a critical view of religion that would pervade much of his later work. He moved to Madrid in 1917 to study at the University of Madrid, where he became part of an intellectual circle that included future luminaries such as Salvador Dalí and Federico García Lorca. This period marked the beginning of his engagement with avant-garde and surrealist ideas.
In the late 1920s, Buñuel moved to Paris, the epicenter of the surrealist movement. There, he collaborated with Salvador Dalí on his first film, "Un Chien Andalou" (1929), a 16-minute short that shocked audiences with its dreamlike imagery and disjointed narrative. The film, now considered a masterpiece of surrealist cinema, established Buñuel as a daring and original filmmaker.
Buñuel followed up with "L'Âge d'Or" (1930), another collaboration with Dalí, which further cemented his reputation. This film, with its provocative critique of the bourgeoisie and the Catholic Church, was met with outrage and censorship, solidifying Buñuel's position as a controversial and radical artist.
The political turmoil in Europe during the 1930s led Buñuel to work in various capacities, including a stint making documentaries in Spain and working in Hollywood. However, his career in the U.S. was hampered by his unorthodox style and political views. He eventually returned to Mexico, where he found a more receptive environment for his talents.
In Mexico, Buñuel directed numerous films that combined his surrealist tendencies with social and political commentary. Notable works from this period include "Los Olvidados" (1950), a gritty portrayal of urban poverty that won him the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival, and "El" (1953), a psychological drama about jealousy and obsession.
The 1960s and 1970s marked a period of international recognition and success for Buñuel. He directed several acclaimed films, including "Viridiana" (1961), which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, "Belle de Jour" (1967), starring Catherine Deneuve, and "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" (1972), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. These films showcased Buñuel's continued fascination with surrealism, his sharp wit, and his critique of societal norms.
Buñuel's later years were marked by a retreat from the public eye, but he remained active in filmmaking until his final work, "That Obscure Object of Desire" (1977). He died on July 29, 1983, in Mexico City, leaving behind a legacy that has profoundly influenced modern cinema. His work continues to be celebrated for its innovation, audacity, and enduring relevance, ensuring Buñuel's place as one of the most important filmmakers in the history of the medium.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 28, 2015
This book first came to my attention because Criterion often puts excerpts from these famous interviews in the booklets included with their releases of Luis Buñuel films. If I can trust my memory, I believe I had previously read the interviews pertaining to Belle de Jour, The Exterminating Angel, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and That Obscure Object of Desire -- all great films -- and these discussions between critics José de la Colina and Tomás Pérez Turrent and Luis Buñuel really fascinated me, making me laugh out loud at times and sometimes raising my awareness about certain techniques or images used in the films or challenging my initial interpretations.
When this book first came to my awareness I immediately added it to my virtual to-read list, but I found that it had been out-of-print for some time and it proved very difficult to locate, aside from ordering it online for what I considered a hefty sum for a used book. Then on a voyage to a used bookstore in Downtown Los Angeles I found it at last(!) after previously having searched the film bio section and apparently glancing over it (or else someone else had planned on purchasing it, but then reconsidered and instead returned it to the shelf); and what a look of excitement was painted on my face, like a kid who sees Disneyland for the first time (sure to give any who saw my expression a good laugh). As I was already in the middle of two other books I placed this one on my desk, eager to crack it open as soon as I finished the books I had already started.
In all, I found this book very interesting, but not quite as illuminating as I had hoped. Like many great artists, whether they be musicians, painters, writers or filmmakers, Luis Buñuel doesn't ever give away as much as we might like, though he says more about his films here than perhaps anywhere else (as information on his films and the making of them was very scant in his autobiography, My Last Sigh, just as was the case in similar works by other great filmmakers, such as Charlie Chaplin). And it seems likely that Don Luis is more guarded and less honest at times than one might hope (though not expect), sometimes contradicting himself and denying vigorously that he intended certain things to have any symbolism (just as Virginia Woolf has denied any symbolism in the image of the lighthouse in To the Lighthouse or as Ernest Hemingway did with The Old Man and the Sea: "There isn't any symbolism. The sea is the sea. The old man is an old man. The boy is a boy and the fish is a fish. The shark are all sharks no better and no worse. All the symbolism that people say is shit"). If these artists are honest in saying that certain images have no symbolic significance it might say something about the human need to create symbolic meaning, to attach more explanation to things that needn't be explained so thoroughly, or to add more depth to an otherwise simple story. Buñuel is critical of those who try to seek endlessly for symbolism where there is none and insists in several interviews that he was once called "nonpsychoanalyzable" by a psychotherapist.
The work contains some interesting insights on Buñuel's obsessions and recurring themes and ideas (human relationships, l'amour fou, eyes, feet, etc.) and also provides some interesting discussion about his relationship with Dali and the Surrealists and his influences (mainly the Marquis de Sade, but also García Lorca, Fritz Lang, Marx, his Catholic upbringing).
In the margins I made many notes where Buñuel bore similarities to Fellini -- the role of dreams in film (and in life) as an extension of reality and as adding a layer of depth, the realm of the imagination, his preoccupation with certain main ideas (suggesting that he may only have a few main ideas that he explores over and again in different ways), his criticisms of neorealism (though expressing admiration for Fellini and De Sica) -- and to others, such as Michael Powell (with his insistence that cinema is like a kind of voyeurism) and Ingmar Bergman. And there were many exclamation points and ha-has written in as well because, well, Buñuel has a very rich, if sometimes dry sense of humor (and is sometimes funny even when he might not have intended to be. My favorite was: "Catherine Deneuve is not precisely my type of woman, but when she is crippled and made-up [in Tristana], I find her very attractive."). And the interviewers offer much humor as well: "The best scenes in [Michelangelo] Antonioni's La Notte are those when we escape from boredom thanks to [Jeanne Moreau's manner of] walking." And the greatest laughs come when the director and his interlocutors square off, them questioning illogical explanations that he insists are perfectly reasonable.
Objects of Desire: Conversations with Luis Buñuel is an entertaining and illuminating read, especially for lovers of cinema and the work of Luis Buñuel in particular. As stated above, it is not the key to all of the mysteries in Buñuel's films, but it's the closest we'll ever get from a man who insisted prior to agreeing to these interviews, "I have said everything I had to say long ago and I haven't changed my mind." Well, people weren't satisfied with what he had said long ago and so this work was born. At the time it was being put together Buñuel told the interviewers, "If the book of interviews comes out well I won't have to talk anymore: if someone asks me for an interview I'll simply give them the book." It may not answer every question, but it is certainly a very nice portrait of a very complex artist.
When this book first came to my awareness I immediately added it to my virtual to-read list, but I found that it had been out-of-print for some time and it proved very difficult to locate, aside from ordering it online for what I considered a hefty sum for a used book. Then on a voyage to a used bookstore in Downtown Los Angeles I found it at last(!) after previously having searched the film bio section and apparently glancing over it (or else someone else had planned on purchasing it, but then reconsidered and instead returned it to the shelf); and what a look of excitement was painted on my face, like a kid who sees Disneyland for the first time (sure to give any who saw my expression a good laugh). As I was already in the middle of two other books I placed this one on my desk, eager to crack it open as soon as I finished the books I had already started.
In all, I found this book very interesting, but not quite as illuminating as I had hoped. Like many great artists, whether they be musicians, painters, writers or filmmakers, Luis Buñuel doesn't ever give away as much as we might like, though he says more about his films here than perhaps anywhere else (as information on his films and the making of them was very scant in his autobiography, My Last Sigh, just as was the case in similar works by other great filmmakers, such as Charlie Chaplin). And it seems likely that Don Luis is more guarded and less honest at times than one might hope (though not expect), sometimes contradicting himself and denying vigorously that he intended certain things to have any symbolism (just as Virginia Woolf has denied any symbolism in the image of the lighthouse in To the Lighthouse or as Ernest Hemingway did with The Old Man and the Sea: "There isn't any symbolism. The sea is the sea. The old man is an old man. The boy is a boy and the fish is a fish. The shark are all sharks no better and no worse. All the symbolism that people say is shit"). If these artists are honest in saying that certain images have no symbolic significance it might say something about the human need to create symbolic meaning, to attach more explanation to things that needn't be explained so thoroughly, or to add more depth to an otherwise simple story. Buñuel is critical of those who try to seek endlessly for symbolism where there is none and insists in several interviews that he was once called "nonpsychoanalyzable" by a psychotherapist.
The work contains some interesting insights on Buñuel's obsessions and recurring themes and ideas (human relationships, l'amour fou, eyes, feet, etc.) and also provides some interesting discussion about his relationship with Dali and the Surrealists and his influences (mainly the Marquis de Sade, but also García Lorca, Fritz Lang, Marx, his Catholic upbringing).
In the margins I made many notes where Buñuel bore similarities to Fellini -- the role of dreams in film (and in life) as an extension of reality and as adding a layer of depth, the realm of the imagination, his preoccupation with certain main ideas (suggesting that he may only have a few main ideas that he explores over and again in different ways), his criticisms of neorealism (though expressing admiration for Fellini and De Sica) -- and to others, such as Michael Powell (with his insistence that cinema is like a kind of voyeurism) and Ingmar Bergman. And there were many exclamation points and ha-has written in as well because, well, Buñuel has a very rich, if sometimes dry sense of humor (and is sometimes funny even when he might not have intended to be. My favorite was: "Catherine Deneuve is not precisely my type of woman, but when she is crippled and made-up [in Tristana], I find her very attractive."). And the interviewers offer much humor as well: "The best scenes in [Michelangelo] Antonioni's La Notte are those when we escape from boredom thanks to [Jeanne Moreau's manner of] walking." And the greatest laughs come when the director and his interlocutors square off, them questioning illogical explanations that he insists are perfectly reasonable.
Objects of Desire: Conversations with Luis Buñuel is an entertaining and illuminating read, especially for lovers of cinema and the work of Luis Buñuel in particular. As stated above, it is not the key to all of the mysteries in Buñuel's films, but it's the closest we'll ever get from a man who insisted prior to agreeing to these interviews, "I have said everything I had to say long ago and I haven't changed my mind." Well, people weren't satisfied with what he had said long ago and so this work was born. At the time it was being put together Buñuel told the interviewers, "If the book of interviews comes out well I won't have to talk anymore: if someone asks me for an interview I'll simply give them the book." It may not answer every question, but it is certainly a very nice portrait of a very complex artist.
March 19, 2021
حتما لازم است همه فیلم های بونوئل قبل خواندن کتاب دیده شود. دو خبرنگار مکزیکی با « دن لوئیس» مصاحبه و به ترتیب در مورد همه فیلم های ایشان گفتگو می کنند. حال و هوای « با آخرین نفس هایم » بسیار تفاوت دارد با این کتاب. آن یکی را بونوئل، دلی گفته و نوشته. اینجا پرسش و پاسخ است در مورد همه فیلم ها. هرچند « دن لوئیس» در واقع پاسخی نمی دهد. در بیشتر جاها می گوید: " نمی دانم، اینطور حس کردم، دلیلش را من هم نمی دانم و ... ". این کتاب و کتاب «با آخرین نفس هایم» و فیلم های عالیجناب بونوئل، برای من از دلخوشی های این دنیا بوده اند.
February 17, 2021
جالبیش این بود هیچ چیزی در مورد قصدش از گذاشتن برخی عنصر های سورئال تو فیلم هاش نمیگفت و فقط میگفت که حس کردم یا دوست داشتم که این عنصر رو تو صحنه بذارم و شما ازادید که هرطور دوست دارید تفسیر کنید :))
در حقیقت سینما یعنی همین، این که هرکی ازاد باشه هرجور که میخواد تفسیر کنه نه اینکه کارگردان عقایدش رو بکنه تو حلق بیننده
در حقیقت سینما یعنی همین، این که هرکی ازاد باشه هرجور که میخواد تفسیر کنه نه اینکه کارگردان عقایدش رو بکنه تو حلق بیننده
August 10, 2023
Perfect.
January 5, 2008
Book length Q&A with one of the great filmmakers Luis Bunuel. What makes him such a great character and artist is the way he mixes the humor with the grotesque. His films are almost as silly as one of those teenage movies - Police Academy vol 1 thru 4 or whatever. You just basically sit in the theater or front of a screen and let him drive the car. You are going to go somewhere interesting -just trust Bunuel.
June 19, 2021
It is an excellent book, all very well from beginning to end.
March 29, 2015
My only complaint about Buñuel's My Last Sigh was that he didn't go into much detail about his films. Man, is that every rectified with this volume, which was created specifically to dive into his films. Aside from some minor works that get lumped together, each film of his gets a dedicated chapter, with old Luis offering fascinating insights into what inspired each of his films. He's as sharp and funny as ever, with a very nonchalant attitude about what his films "mean." It can be frustrating to academics looking for deeper insights into his work, but for someone who just loves his art, it's a great read with plenty of laughs. The best thing about this book is finding out what inspired certain films, and my own "to read" list grew nicely after finishing this book. Essential reading, even moreso than My Last Sigh.
August 5, 2013
This is absolutely essential reading for fans of the enigmatic and reclusive Bunuel, whose career in motion pictures spanned 50 years. He is interviewed, and at times interrogated, by his friends, allowing the discussion to veer into his personal life and various obsessions with good humor and mutual understanding.
The book has been compiled in a chronological order and it will give you a good sample of his long life, from his friendship with the key Surrealists like Salvador Dali, to his amusing anecdotes of Hollywood. An easy and entertaining introduction to the life and art of a complex genius.
My favorite book about my favorite filmmaker.
The book has been compiled in a chronological order and it will give you a good sample of his long life, from his friendship with the key Surrealists like Salvador Dali, to his amusing anecdotes of Hollywood. An easy and entertaining introduction to the life and art of a complex genius.
My favorite book about my favorite filmmaker.
March 1, 2024
Pérez Turrent y De la Colina demuestran un profundo conocimiento de la obra de Luis Buñuel y al mismo tiempo hacen que las conversaciones con el cineasta aragonés se sientan íntimas y genuinas, que fluyan con naturalidad y con humor. Este libro le hace justicia a la fama de Buñuel como un conversador genial y poderoso, con una memoria prodigiosa y una inteligencia aguda, añejada por la vejez de una vida intensa y la maestría en su dilatado oficio. Para el cinéfilo curioso por Buñuel, un banquete de anécdotas y esclarecedores detalles en torno a su obra: casi todo lo que quiso saber y nunca pudo preguntar.
June 26, 2008
Im pretty sure this is the book that at the end has these little word games that Bunuel wrote throughout his childhood and career. They are beautiful little quips.
February 8, 2018
Luis Buñuel speaks about his films.
May 11, 2024
Siendo independiente de su último suspiro, no dejan de complementarse y apoyarse uno a otro estos dos libros en el que Buñuel habla en primera persona.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews