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Musings and Memories from the Emperor of Surrealist Film
A Review by Francesca Gavin

In an appropriately poetic end to a tirelessly creative life, Luis Buñuel (whose ashes, curiously enough, are still missing) finished this autobiography just before his death in 1983. Buñuel's work was visionary, his approach was unique, and his films were incomparable. Beginning with the first surrealist movies he made with Salvador Dali, Un Chien Andalou (1928) and L’Age D’Or (1930), Buñuel specialized in the unexpected. In later years, he created such brilliant left-field pieces on hypocrisy and society as Viridiana, Belle de Jour, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and That Obscure Object of Desire. Without Buñuel, the dreamlike touch of horror films, the biting social humor of Almodóvar, and the psychological tension and depth of Hitchcock would not have been the same.

Yet, as its title implies, Buñuel's memoir is not a look back at a brilliant career but rather a collection of reminiscences assembled at the end of a lifetime. There is little discussion of his films in these pages; instead, Buñuel relates the extraordinary life that framed the filmmaker's work.

The story travels from his almost medieval childhood in Aragon to his studies in Madrid, where he befriended Dali. There are rich accounts of his life among the surrealists in Paris and, later, his time in Spain during the Civil War. Scattered throughout the book are the author's thoughts on memory, the pleasures of drinking and other earthly delights, politics, atheism, the passing of time, and dreams. For such an iconic individual as Buñuel, his autobiography is surprisingly without ego -- but with plenty of soul.