Surrealist Bunuel

Regarding Manohla Dargis’ review of Luis Bunuel’s work (“With a Passion That Still Has the Power to Shock,” June 22), I would simply like to point out that Bunuel never “abandoned” surrealism. For Bunuel, surrealism was the healthiest form of artistic exploration developing out of Romanticism’s reaction to the scientific materialism and exploitative commercialism that have come to dominate world culture. He found in surrealism a moral code that he applied to all of his work, allowing him to integrate the apparent contradictions of inner psychology and outer reality. Sometimes he simply called this the exercise of his “imagination muscle,” but he viewed his creative growth as a deepening of the surreal ethic -- not its denial.

Edward Landler

Los Angeles