Sunday, April 30, 2006

On Luis Buñuel

Listening to: Mink, For My Mink (Flying Nun)

The two Luis Buñuel films I recently saw at Wellington Film Society screenings were wonderful. I'm going to get hold of his memoirs I think: My Last Breath, 1983. He had a wry humour in his films that I found very engaging and a great take on social mores and hypocrisy.

He's also a very quotable man from what I've seen so far of his writing. Here's some great lines from the man himself:

"God and Country are an unbearable team; they break all records for oppression and bloodshed."

"All my life I've been harrassed by questions: why is something this way and not another? How do you account for that? This rage to understand, to fill in the blanks, only makes life more banal."

"Age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese."

"The decline of the aperitif may well be one of the most depressing phenomena of our time." (This from the man that featured the correct method of making a martini in the brilliant The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.)

" I never miss my daily cocktail: where certain things are concerned, I plan ahead."

"Children and dwarves make the best actors."

Just found these great quotes in a neat little book I bought recently: The Rough Guide to Cult Fiction. Good little reference to have on the shelf.

3 comments:

paintergirl said...

I looked over the list of movies. Fassbinder's name makes me giggle. I'm sorry. Young Frakenstein is one of the funniest movies of all time.

Godard-like him lots. I can't remember if I've seen Bunuel. (tsk tsk) Did you check out Time of the Wolf?

paintergirl said...

Rose Rose where are you?

Rose said...

Working dear PG and it's horrid!

I think that The Time of the Wolf is this Monday, so I may try to slot it in, but the workload makes planning things tricky. I won't have a social life for the next couple of months but at least I'll be working in an office with other people for a while and that can be kinda fun.

You should try and see some Bunuel. He really is great.