A provocative memoir from Luis Bunuel, the Academy Award winning creator of some of modern cinema's most important films, from "Un Chien Andalou" to "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie."
Luis Bunuel's films have the power to shock, inspire, and reinvent our world. Now, in a memoir that carries all the surrealism and subversion of his cinema, Bunuel turns his artistic gaze inward. In swift and generous prose, Bunuel traces the surprising contours of his life, from the Good Friday drumbeats of his childhood to the dreams that inspired his most famous films to his turbulent friendships with Federico Garcia Lorca and Salvador Dali. His personal narratives also encompass the pressing political issues of his time, many of which still haunt us today--the specter of fascism, the culture wars, the nuclear bomb. Filled with film trivia, framed by Bunuel's intellect and wit, this is essential reading for fans of cinema and for anyone who has ever wanted to see the world through a surrealist's eyes.

Although Luis Bunuel, one of the great filmmakers of the century, was notoriously reluctant to discuss his own work in public, he wrote--and wrote well--on many subjects over the years. This collection proceeds chronologically, from poetry and short stories written in Bunuel's youth in Spain to an essay written in 1980, not long before his death. Newly translated into English, the writings offer startling insights into the filmmaker's life and thought.
The earliest pieces came well before Bunuel joined the Surrealist movement in Paris and created the landmark film "Un chien andalou" with Salvador Dali. Yet these and the early Surrealist writings reveal the inventiveness of the mind that would later create such masterpieces of cinema as "L'Age d'or," "Los olvidados," "Viridiana," "The Milky Way," "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie," and "That Obscure Object of Desire."
Later writings, which include screenplays and reflections on his own and others' films, illuminate many aspects of Bunuel's career, as well as the ways of thinking and perceiving that underlie his unique cinematic style. The final essay by this extraordinary artist sums up his view of the world--still vibrant and full of contradictions--at the end of his life.

An aristocrat named Nobile invites several society friends to his house after the opera. But even as the dinner preparations are underway, servants feel compelled to leave. Despite threats of dismissal, the footman also leaves, and, as the guests arrive other servants escape. Dinner is served and hours pass, but the guests do not leave. Finally, each refusing to be the first to leave the party, distrust sets in, and the guests turn on their host, blaming him for their self-induced captivity.

One of Bunuel's most sardonically humorous and visually dazzling of movies, "Exterminating Angel "reveals itself as a screenplay to be also a linguistically brilliant satire of social aspirations. This 1962 film presents in self in script form as a great work of literature.