Conversations with Buñuel

This book features extended conversations with Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel (1900–1983) and interviews with his family members, friends and colleagues—including Salvador Dalí, Louis Aragon and Fernando Rey—conducted by Max Aub in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Notorious for inventing fanciful versions of his life and his creative output, Buñuel was hard put to deceive the astute Max Aub, who shared Buñuel’s background in Spain, in Paris during the Spanish Civil War, and in Mexico, where they were friends and collaborators.
Originally published in Spain in 1985, this translated (the first in English) and expanded edition (with several significant interviews and a detailed index not found in the original) provides a detailed picture of Buñuel’s life and art. Extensive notes contextualize the conversations and acknowledge the discoveries of recent studies on Buñuel.

Max Aub (1903–1972), was a prolific Spanish-Mexican novelist, playwright, critic and screenwriter. His best known novels are part of El laberinto mágico (The Magic Labyrinth), centered on the Spanish Civil War. Active in the Republican cause, he was imprisoned in forced labor camps after General Franco’s victory. He finally escaped from a camp in Algeria and spent the rest of his life, like Buñuel, in exile in Mexico.
Julie Jones, a professor emerita at the University of New Orleans, has published widely on the Spanish American writers of the “Boom,” with a focus on Buñuel’s work in numerous articles for such journals as Cineaste and Cinema Journal.

Max Aub
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 300
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, filmography, index
Copyright Date: 2017
pISBN: 978-1-4766-6822-2
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2755-7
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents


Translator’s Acknowledgments (Julie Jones)   vii

Translator’s Introduction (Julie Jones)   1

Personal Prologue (Max Aub)   7

Foreword to the 1985 Edition (Federico Álvarez)   13

Part I: Conversations with Buñuel   17

Part II: Interviews with Family Members,

Friends and Collaborators   119

Alicia Buñuel and Leonardo Buñuel 119

Conchita Buñuel 122

Leonardo Buñuel 127

Juan Ramón Masoliver 129

José Repollés Aguilar 134

Concha and José Ignacio Mantecón 138

Concha Mantecón 139

Concha Méndez Cuesta 142

José Gaos 143

Francisco García Lorca 144

Arturo Sáenz de la Calzada 145

Rafael Alberti 146

Santiago Ontañón 148

Jeanne Rucar Buñuel 153

Manuel Ángeles Ortíz 160

Joaquín Peinado 162

Louis Aragon 172

Luis Quintanilla 173

Gustavo Pittaluga 176

Oscar Dancigers 177

Eduardo Ducay 179

Juan Larrea 182

Emmanuel Roblès 183

Julio Alejandro de Castro 185

Carlos Velo 191

Ricardo Muñoz Suay 198

Gustavo Alatriste 206

Fernando Rey 214

Valentín Arteta Lusuviaga, S.J. 221

Mosén Vicente Allanegui: An Interview with Luis Buñuel 222

Juan Luis Buñuel 226

Ado Kyrou 231

Salvador and Ana María Dalí 234

Federico Amérigo 247

Luis Alcoriza 253

Pedro (Père) Portabella 260

Notes   263

Bibliography   279

Films Directed by Buñuel   281

Index   283

“full of engaging insights into Bunuel’s life and cinema…now available in English, thanks to an excellent translation and editing work”—World Literature Today; “one of the most revealing books ever published about the filmmaker”—Cineaste (on the original Spanish edition).