This volume of essays commemorates and celebrates the creative works of Frederico Garcia Lorca, Salvador Dali, and Luis Bunel, three contemporaries and friends. The essays suggest that the artistic creations of Lorca, Dali, and Bunel feature theoretical ideas on (their) contemporary art in general, as well as on the particualr art form cultivated by each- ideas that help us to better understand their work as it relates to a wide rane of aesthetic theories.
Lorca, Bunuel and Dali were, in their respective fields of poetry and theatre, cinema, and painting, three of the most imaginative creative artists of the twentieth century; their impact was felt far beyond the boundaries of their native Spain. But if individually they have been examined by many, their connected lives have rarely been considered. It is these, the ties that bind them, that constitute the subject of this illuminating book. They were born within six years of each other and, as Gwynne Edwards reveals, their childhood circumstances were very similar. Each was affected by a narrow-minded society and an intolerant religious background which equated sex with sin and led all three to experience sexual problems of different kinds: Lorca the guilt and anguish associated with his homosexuality; Bunuel feelings of sexual inhibition; and, Dali virtual impotence. Having met during the 1920s at the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid, they developed intense personal relationships and channelled their respective obsessions into the cultural forms then prevalent in Europe, in particular Surrealism. Rooted in emotional turmoil, their work - from Lorca's dramatic characters in search of sexual fulfilment, to Bunuel's frustrated men and women, and Dali's potent images of shame and guilt - is highly autobiographical. Their left-wing outrage directed at bourgeois values and the Catholic Church was strongly felt, and in the case of Lorca in particular, was sharpened by the catastrophic Civil War of 1936-9, during the first months of which he was murdered by Franco's fascists. The war hastened Bunuel's departure to France and Mexico and Dali's to New York. Edwards describes how, for the rest of his life, Bunuel clung to his left-wing ideals and made outstanding films, while the increasingly eccentric and money-obsessed Dali embraced Fascism and the Catholic Church, and saw his art go into rapid decline.
ONE OF THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER'S 100 GREATEST FILM BOOKS OF ALL TIME • A provocative memoir from Luis Buñuel, 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 Buñuel’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, Buñuel turns his artistic gaze inward. In swift and generous prose, Buñuel 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 García Lorca and Salvador Dalí. 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 Buñuel’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.
From acclaimed author Scott Eyman comes the fascinating story of how the transition from silent films to ‘talkies’ transformed Hollywood. It was the end of an era. It was a turbulent, colorful, and altogether remarkable period, four short years in which America’s most popular industry reinvented itself. Here is the epic story of the transition from silent films to talkies, that moment when movies were totally transformed and the American public cemented its love affair with Hollywood. As Scott Eyman demonstrates in his fascinating account of this exciting era, it was a time when fortunes, careers, and lives were made and lost, when the American film industry came fully into its own. In this mixture of cultural and social history that is both scholarly and vastly entertaining, Eyman dispels the myths and gives us the missing chapter in the history of Hollywood, the ribbon of dreams by which America conquered the world.
Lorca, Bunuel and Dali were, in their respective fields of poetry and theatre, cinema, and painting, three of the most imaginative creative artists of the twentieth century; their impact was felt far beyond the boundaries of their native Spain. But if individually they have been examined by many, their connected lives have rarely been considered. It is these, the ties that bind them, that constitute the subject of this illuminating book. They were born within six years of each other and, as Gwynne Edwards reveals, their childhood circumstances were very similar. Each was affected by a narrow-minded society and an intolerant religious background which equated sex with sin and led all three to experience sexual problems of different kinds: Lorca the guilt and anguish associated with his homosexuality; Bunuel feelings of sexual inhibition; and, Dali virtual impotence. Having met during the 1920s at the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid, they developed intense personal relationships and channelled their respective obsessions into the cultural forms then prevalent in Europe, in particular Surrealism. Rooted in emotional turmoil, their work - from Lorca's dramatic characters in search of sexual fulfilment, to Bunuel's frustrated men and women, and Dali's potent images of shame and guilt - is highly autobiographical. Their left-wing outrage directed at bourgeois values and the Catholic Church was strongly felt, and in the case of Lorca in particular, was sharpened by the catastrophic Civil War of 1936-9, during the first months of which he was murdered by Franco's fascists. The war hastened Bunuel's departure to France and Mexico and Dali's to New York. Edwards describes how, for the rest of his life, Bunuel clung to his left-wing ideals and made outstanding films, while the increasingly eccentric and money-obsessed Dali embraced Fascism and the Catholic Church, and saw his art go into rapid decline.
Drawing on extensive research and recently discovered sources, this ambitious biography of Salvador Dali traces the infamous artist's life from childhood to death, revealing his outlandish personality, paranoia, and sexual torment.
A master filmmaker, inimitable, and unrelenting in his assault on bourgeois values. Bunuel's method is free from all artifice, and his honesty and humour are to extreme to accept any compromise in exposing our deceit and our decadence. Like Pasolini, his work offers a remarkably sophisticated political analysis, but remains based in the essentially peasant values of storytelling, and the purposefully unsystematic supervisions of laughter.
Poetry Changes Lives is a page-a-day of history, poetry and inspiration. My thanks to Professor Jonathan Chick for this review in Alcohol and Alcoholism (Oxford Journals): For each date in the calendar, the author offers a nugget from history or some happening, often poignant, sometimes quaint; gathers us to a beautiful place in a poem about the world we share; then returns us to earth with a short reflection for the day. The founder of Canongate Press, Stephanie Wolfe Murray, in her Foreword: thought this book 'a wonderful journey, reading about people and incidents both famous and infamous ... you might well think it to be superficial, but the author almost always leads us to explore further'. Addicts have not completely lost structure in their daily lives, in that their days are constructed around obtaining the next supply. Aiming for abstinence, they often flounder, especially if they have no employment to resume or living companion to give the day a form. This daily reader could be a little extra frame for their day. Burn's reflection on the day's poem leads to his tenet for the day. His 366 maxims (366 because he includes 29 February) weave into an immediately useful relapse-prevention framework. We can learn from history. Others have gone before us; but poets turn a lesson into music, bring out the universality, and help it stay in our memory. I did not find the word 'god' on any page; yet if you ever wondered what comprised spiritual recovery from alcoholism, you might get the gist by reading this compendium of fact and modest contemplation. Truly, a source for healing and restitution. The author also offers a daily website - poetrychangeslives.com Reprinted from Alcohol and Alcoholism (Oxford Journals - OUP) Poetry has long been a powerful therapy tool. It can help to change your life. The book informs the reader about the historical significance of that particular day, introduces new poems and encourages the practice of daily meditation. Poetry Changes Lives appeals to students, the literary minded, those in recovery or who are interested in little known historical facts (did you know that Wittgenstein went to school with Hitler?!) or anyone who likes to start the day with a short uplifting text. Each day we learn about a historical event that happened, gain understanding through a poem related in some way to the event, and insight from a linked meditation. Thus February 23rd (birth of Samuel Pepys) is linked to a poem by John Donne and a reflection on the need for us to appreciate life in all its ups and downs. Poetry changes the lives of many people. http: //www.poetrychangeslives.com
