cover image An Unspeakable Betrayal: Selected Writings of Luis Bua?uel

An Unspeakable Betrayal: Selected Writings of Luis Bua?uel

Luis Bunuel, Luis Buunuel, Luis Buauel. University of California Press, $44.95 (277pp) ISBN 978-0-520-20840-7

Bu uel (1900-1983) is familiar to English speakers as a pathbreaking Spanish filmmaker heavily influenced by surrealism and Marxism; his work also, of course, helped to define these movements. Less well-known are his numerous writings; most of the pieces in this assemblage have not appeared in English until now. In this collection, Bu uel eloquently proves to be an intellectual and an ideologue and a jokester as well. Though a ""man of silence,"" according to Jean-Claude Carri re in his foreword, his words speak strongly throughout, even when the difficulties of translation from both Spanish and French are evident. (In ""Land Without Bread,"" Bu uel writes that he was attracted to the ""incredible region"" of Las Hurdes ""by its intense drama, its terrible poetry."") Written between 1922 and 1980 (though the majority date from the '20s), the entries--short plays, scripts, stories and poems as well as theoretical pieces--all share Bu uel's distinctively odd yet keenly perceptive interest in surrealism, class, theater, cinema and autobiography. His silly, and very surrealist, sensibility (in ""Hamlet"" he offers a campy, melodramatic re-rendering of the play) shows up as often as his abilities as a passionate visionary (in ""Cinema as an Instrument of Poetry"" he writes that ""in the hands of a free spirit, the cinema is a magnificent and dangerous weapon""). (Mar.)