Luis Buñuel in a collage with two photographs and signed dedication.

Mexico. Circa 1953.

Collage with two photographs cut out and mounted on a paper where Luis Buñuel wrote a dedication and signed it: With much sympathy on the "set" of Wuthering Heights ... and off the "set" with equal sympathy. Luis Buñuel. The set was finally mounted on a brown cardboard. Measurements. The largest photograph: 12.5 x 18.3 cm / 4.92 x 7.2 in. Cardboard: 18 x 23.5 cm / 7.08 x 9.25 in. Former collection of the wife of Ulises Petit de Murat.

The collage is very striking because although in the text, Buñuel alludes to the adaptation of Wuthering Heights - the film he directed in Mexico in 1953 and which was released with the title of Abysses of passion -, the truth is that the photographs correspond to his previous film Him, from 1952, whose protagonists were Arturo de Córdova and Delia Garcés. In the main image we see the filmmaker himself along with the protagonists; Buñuel and Arturo de Córdova appear dressed as monks in the scene of the monastery, at the end of the film. And in the smallest photograph, from the back, Arturo de Córdova again.

The protagonists of his film adaptation of Wuthering Heights were a great headache for the Spanish director. Buñuel had started his Mexican career in 1949 with the support of producer Oscar Dancigers, who proposed to him later to make a romantic comedy with three actors already hired: Lilia Prado, Irasema Dilián and Jorge Mistral. It was on that occasion that Buñuel told him of an argument prepared in 1932 together with the surrealists Pierre Unik and George Sadoul; it was an interpretation of the famous novel published in 1847: Wuthering Heights. The play was finally released with those protagonists and the critics did not forgive the mistake; even Carlos Fuentes wrote about that film: "Buñuel knew how to create the atmosphere of the play, but he was hopelessly betrayed by a group of lousy actors completely unrelated to those passions (...)". Such a mistake was recognized even by the filmmaker himself.

The reason why the two photographs are in this collage (there are copies of both in the Buñuel Archive) and the dedication is an enigma for everyone. And of even more complex resolution if we note that Ulises Petit de Murat, whose wife -an autograph collector- kept the collage, was an Argentine writer and screenwriter who also had a long career in Mexico, where he settled in exile, in 1951, and where three years later the film The Delivery was released, whose script and adaptation was written with Tito Davisón. The protagonists of that film were Marga López and Arturo de Córdova, who was also a friend of the Argentine writer.

With this intricate crossing of characters, we now ask ourselves whether we are facing an irony or an oversight of Buñuel, or someone later mounted both photographs illustrating that dedication written by the established Spanish filmmaker. Or as one of the specialists consulted suggests to us, "As a hypothesis, it is probable that the original owner of this object (Ulises Petit de Murat, his wife or whoever), had known or shared moments with Buñuel during the filming Him and later they would look for him with these photographic cutouts so that they could be dedicated to them, coinciding with the filming of Abyss of Passion, where they would have lived together again according to the dedication ". (1) So far, the puzzle is part of its appeal.

Let us finally say that the central protagonist of collage, Luis Buñuel (1900 - 1983), achieved the highest international awards. Exiled after the Civil War and after a short period in the United States, he settled for long years in Mexico, where he worked for more than two decades. He also filmed in Spain and France. Among other awards, he won the Oscar for the best non-English speaking film in 1972, with The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie; in Cannes the Palme d'Or, with Viridiana, in 1961, and in San Sebastián, the honorable Golden Shell, in 1981.

Notes:

1. Sent in personal communication by the Mexican researcher Héctor Orozco.

We appreciate the efforts and information provided by Lluis Benejam Buhigas, Héctor Orozco and Jordi Xifra. GELM