For what would be the series’ inaugural episode, it was decided the subject should be Luis Buñuel, the old surrealist master recently returned to Europe to make Diary of a Chambermaid. Buñuel travels to Spain, where he visits Toledo, talks of old times with Garcia Lorca and Dali, and retraces the trip through Las Hurdes recounted in his film Land without Bread. (44m)

Screening with:
Lang/Godard: The Dinosaur and the Baby
André S. Labarthe | 1967 | France | 61m

One wears a monocle, the other sunglasses: this extraordinary conversation between Fritz Lang and Jean-Luc Godard, recorded in 1964, was not, unlike most of the earlier series episodes, a career overview, but rather an exchange of viewpoints on a wide range of topics, from how to define a cinematic auteur to the use of improvisation.

Image courtesy of THE KOBAL COLLECTION