Dubversion said:Know close to nothing about Breton, so this is all interesting
Breton is a despicable hero of mine. Labeled (as in insult obviously) the 'Pope of Surrealism'. He was somewhat dictatorial. Used to sport a green suit and carried a cane he used to whack people with if they disagreed with him. He idolised Trotsky for a bit and wrote the first draft of the 'Manifesto for a Revolutionary Art' that Trotsky re-wrote in its entirety. Breton and Rivera put their names to the Trotsky version. Breton was an art collector and art critic but mostly he was the leading figure in the Surrealist Movement. Behaving like a good Trotskyist he spent a great deal of time denouncing people and expelling people....He wrote some of the principle Surrealist texts such as the novel Nadja and co-wrote the Surrealist Manifestos. He was a revolutionary, but a seriously flawed one - an immature attitude to women, failure to appreciate music and thoroughly dogmatic. He was also a twisted genius. No Breton no Dali (who was justly expelled and denounced by Breton!).
First Surrealism was a literary movement and there could be no Surrealist painting (Breton decreed so). Then Breton co-opted artists who he said were Surrealists in spite of themselves. He grouped around him figures such as Ernst, Magritte, Dali who were all heavily influenced by the Surrealist revolutionary ethos and obsession with a particular political reading of Freud (one that Freud rejected, much to Breton's disappointment).
Khalo was long considered one of the foremost Surrealist women artists, but she never accepted the tag. It was Breton who declared her a Surrealist regardless as to her thoughts on the matter!
). and yeh, Molina was bloody amazing - who'd have thought he'd have made a decent Mexican muralist revolutionary? Great cast all round, really sexy and provocative and just fantastically shot - sent my Mexiphilia (?) up a few more notches.
