Luis Bunuel’s Bohemian World

If you are looking for a better understanding of the dream images and surrealist constructs in the Luis Bunuel movies shown in the Harvard Film Archive last month (“Un Chien Andalou,” anyone?), the famed auteur’s autobiography might not be satisfying.

The book, “My Last Sigh,” lacks autobiographical detail and does not shed much light on his works. Instead, Bunuel provides readers with a kaleidoscope rendition of the bohemian world of the 20th century’s great artistic minds. He freely mixes fact with fiction as he touches upon everything from art to politics. Bunuel mentions how figures like Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, and Charlie Chaplin dressed, drank, and behaved at orgies. The charm of “My Last Sigh” comes from the fiction, as well as the credibility and renown of Bunuel’s friends and foes.

The book focuses on the little things about great people. Bunuel dwells on his opinions of cigars and alcoholic drinks rather than on his success as a filmmaker; similarly, he emphasizes the humorous and awkward sides of his famed friends, and not their artistic accomplishments. When he mentions their success, it’s usually jokingly.

“All that I can say is that I don’t like Guernica at all, although I helped [Pablo Picasso] hang the painting,” he writes. “Recently, I discovered that Alberti, and Jose Bergamin share my opinion. All three of us would like to put a bomb under Guernica, but we are too old now for such things.”

The book is a surprisingly easy read—Bunuel’s writing style is very different from his far murkier cinematic directing. He still finds clever ways to incorporate into his prose dream images, symbols, and allegorical elements that are meant to shock, with surrealist intention. However, Bunuel the writer cannot as easily confuse the audience by abruptly cutting scenes.

He also does not shy away from jumping to conclusions, making daring statements, and passing blunt judgments, which make this book refreshing and interesting. The chapter “Pros and Cons” is the perfect illustration of the clear line in Bunuel’s mind between “good and bad, right and wrong, beautiful and ugly.”

His confessions are short and straightforward: “I don’t really like blind people.” “I hate Steinbeck.” “I adore bars, alcohol, and tobacco.” “I adore the secret corridors, libraries that open without noise, stairs that lead nowhere.” “I like snakes, and especially rats.”

Written shortly before the great cinematographer’s death in 1983, this autobiography fulfils the goals that Bunuel sets out in its first chapter: “The portrait I offer will represent me, with my conclusions, doubts, repetitions, truths, and lies. In one word—my memory.”

My Last Sigh
By Luis Bunuel
University of Minnesota Press
Out Now