This will likely be the first and last time I recommend a film connoisseur type book, but this is such a great read you don’t even need to be a fan of Bunuel’s films to enjoy this outstanding autobiography written shortly before his death in 1983.
For those of you wondering who the hell I’m talking about here, Bunuel is the father of surrealist cinema and widely considered to be one of the all-time great directors. He was also right at the heart of the surrealist movement along with Dali, Magritte, Breton, Ernst, Ray and Tanguy. Bunuel defines surrealism as “an aggressive morality based on the complete rejection of all existing values. We exalted passion, mystification, black humor, the insult and the call of the abyss.” Black humor and the insult? Sign me up.
To illustrate this philosophy in action, he relates the story of a Christmas party thrown by a Spanish comedian with many powerful Hollywood types in attendance that he attended with some surrealist friends. Just to be “subversive”, Bunuel and his buddies suddenly attacked the Christmas tree and stomped all the presents beneath it to the great horror of all else in attendance. The book is loaded with similarly insane stories all told with great humor and passion. Bunuel clearly enjoyed himself immensely while wreaking havoc on unsuspecting conventional thinkers.
There is a wonderful chapter called “Earthly Delights” where he dedicates “at least a page” to the dry martini since it played such an important role in his life. And another called “Still an Atheist, Thank God!” where he champions the innocence of the imagination to counter the thinking-something-sinful-is-as-bad-as-actually-doing-it doctrine that scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. And the book ends with this thought: “Frankly, despite my horror of the press, I’d love to arise from the grave every ten years or so and buy a few newspapers. Ghostly pale, sliding silently along the walls, my papers under my arm, I’d return to the cemetery and read about all the disasters in the world before falling back to sleep, safe and secure in my tomb.” Take the time to read the words of this hilarious and wise man and you just might get yourself a new all-time favorite film director, regardless of whether or not you bother to see any of his films.