Old Hollywood
Cinema
1900-1979
Nostalgia is a seductive liar - George Wildman Ball
“If alcohol is queen, then tobacco is her consort. It’s a fond companion for all occasions, a loyal friend through fair weather and foul. People smoke to celebrate a happy moment, or to hide a bitter regret. Whether you’re alone or with friends, it’s a joy for all the senses. What lovelier sight is there than that double row of white cigarettes, lined up like soldiers on parade and wrapped in silver paper? I love to touch the pack in my pocket, open it, savor the feel of the cigarette between my fingers, the paper on my lips, the taste of tobacco on my tongue. I love to watch the flame spurt up, love to watch it come closer and closer, filling me with its warmth.” -Luis Buñuel (via), not helping with those “no more smoking” New Year’s resolutions

“If alcohol is queen, then tobacco is her consort. It’s a fond companion for all occasions, a loyal friend through fair weather and foul. People smoke to celebrate a happy moment, or to hide a bitter regret. Whether you’re alone or with friends, it’s a joy for all the senses. What lovelier sight is there than that double row of white cigarettes, lined up like soldiers on parade and wrapped in silver paper? I love to touch the pack in my pocket, open it, savor the feel of the cigarette between my fingers, the paper on my lips, the taste of tobacco on my tongue. I love to watch the flame spurt up, love to watch it come closer and closer, filling me with its warmth.”

-Luis Buñuel (via), not helping with those “no more smoking” New Year’s resolutions

Catherine Deneuve in Belle de Jour (1967, dir. Luis Buñuel) “Sex without religion is like cooking an egg without salt. Sin gives more chances to desire.” -Luis Buñuel

Catherine Deneuve in Belle de Jour (1967, dir. Luis Buñuel)

“Sex without religion is like cooking an egg without salt. Sin gives more chances to desire.”

-Luis Buñuel

via Un Chien Andalou (1929, dir. Luis Buñuel) (online here) “Amusingly enough, a great many psychiatrists and analysts (i.e., film critics) have had a great deal to say about my movies. I’m grateful for their interest, but I never read their articles, because when all is said and done, psychoanalysis (i.e., film criticism), as a therapy, is strictly an upper-class privilege. Some analysts - in despair, I suppose - have declared me ‘unanalyzable,’ as if I belonged to some other species or had come from another planet (which is always possible, of course). At my age, I let them say whatever they want. I still have my imagination, and in its impregnable innocence it will keep me going until the end of my days. All this compulsion to ‘understand’ everything fills me with horror.” -Luis Buñuel, in his autobiography My Last Sigh

via Un Chien Andalou (1929, dir. Luis Buñuel) (online here)

“Amusingly enough, a great many psychiatrists and analysts (i.e., film critics) have had a great deal to say about my movies. I’m grateful for their interest, but I never read their articles, because when all is said and done, psychoanalysis (i.e., film criticism), as a therapy, is strictly an upper-class privilege.

Some analysts - in despair, I suppose - have declared me ‘unanalyzable,’ as if I belonged to some other species or had come from another planet (which is always possible, of course). At my age, I let them say whatever they want. I still have my imagination, and in its impregnable innocence it will keep me going until the end of my days.

All this compulsion to ‘understand’ everything fills me with horror.”

-Luis Buñuel, in his autobiography My Last Sigh

Czech poster art for Belle de Jour (1967, dir. Luis Bunuel) Artist: Karel Machálek

Czech poster art for Belle de Jour (1967, dir. Luis Bunuel) Artist: Karel Machálek

Catherine Deneuve on promotional tour for Belle de Jour (1967, dir. Luis Bunuel) “I prefer to be associated with Belle de Jour than a lot of other things, frankly. I think it’s a great film. I was very lucky to do films like that, and like Umbrellas of Cherbourg, at a young age. I think it was great luck for an actor to be involved with very important directors young, because it gives you another view of cinema.” What, in particular, did they teach her? “It’s not what they taught me,” she says, “it’s what I learned through the making of the film. It’s like being with intelligent people - it’s very difficult to say or to know what you’ve learned, because sometimes you learn without them trying to say anything. I suppose you always read things differently, you see things differently, when you’ve done films like that.” (via)

Catherine Deneuve on promotional tour for Belle de Jour (1967, dir. Luis Bunuel)

“I prefer to be associated with Belle de Jour than a lot of other things, frankly. I think it’s a great film. I was very lucky to do films like that, and like Umbrellas of Cherbourg, at a young age. I think it was great luck for an actor to be involved with very important directors young, because it gives you another view of cinema.”

What, in particular, did they teach her? “It’s not what they taught me,” she says, “it’s what I learned through the making of the film. It’s like being with intelligent people - it’s very difficult to say or to know what you’ve learned, because sometimes you learn without them trying to say anything. I suppose you always read things differently, you see things differently, when you’ve done films like that.”

(via)

Luis Buñuel on the set of The Milky Way (w/ Edith Scob in her role as the Virgin Mary) (1969, dir. Luis Buñuel)  “I gave up being religious as an adolescent. But do you think I no longer retain any elements of my Christian formation in my way of thinking? Among other things, such as sacred music, I can be profoundly moved by a ceremony honoring the Virgin, with novices in their white habits and the purity of their appearance.” (via)

Luis Buñuel on the set of The Milky Way (w/ Edith Scob in her role as the Virgin Mary) (1969, dir. Luis Buñuel) 

“I gave up being religious as an adolescent. But do you think I no longer retain any elements of my Christian formation in my way of thinking? Among other things, such as sacred music, I can be profoundly moved by a ceremony honoring the Virgin, with novices in their white habits and the purity of their appearance.”

(via)