Salvador Dali Panorama

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specially chosen programmes from the BBC Archive.

For this Collection,

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has selected BBC interviews

with influential figures

of the 20th century.

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Mr Dali, we're going to talk in English,

which I know is not your language,

but I'm sure you're going to manage wonderfully.

Er, yes, my English remain very, very problematic.

But...this is not so important, because if somebody catch

only a little piece of my ideas,

this is absolutely sufficient,

because Dalinian ideas possess a tremendous power of germination.

Well, I quite see that.

And also I would beg of you to speak and speak ceaselessly,

even if you don't speak in English,

because I am always accused of speaking

and I want to speak as little possible,

otherwise I shall be torn limb from limb.

The first question I wanted to put to you

really ought to be about modern art,

but I can't help it. There's some delicious frivolity in you

which makes me ask it -

how did you manage to produce those marvellous moustaches?

In the beginning of this moustache,

is one very natural product.

- The Dax. You know, the pffff! - I know.

In the last moment of dinner,

- I not clean my fingers... - Yes.

And I put a little in my moustache,

remain for all afternoon, very fresh and efficient...er, efficiently.

- Mm. And that's how it began? - Yes.

But now, this one, real product, very good, in the Place Vendome.

Is Hungarian wax.

- Oh, yes. - Pinaud.

It's a very well-known wax.

Already Proust, Marcel Proust used the same.

Yes, but his was a little pointed one, wasn't it?

It didn't have a splendid up-turn like yours.

Yes, he used his wax...used his wax in another manner, you know,

another mode, in one depressing...

psychologist...way.

Yes, I see.

A little depressing and melancholic.

My moustache, contrarily, is very gay...

Very gay.

..very pointed, very aggressive. Aggressive.

Do you have any trouble with it at night?

Do you have to peg it or anything like that?

Or does it stand up at night?

No, in the night, er... Clean, every night.

It's becoming soft.

So, at night, it droops down, while you're sleeping?

Completely.

And in the morning, up she goes again?

Three minutes. Only in three minutes, I fix my moustache.

And then you feel you can face the world,

with that wonderful moustache standing up?

Yes, because every day becoming much more practical for my inspiration.

Well, I'm fascinated to know that.

Mr Dali, you've come over, haven't you,

to paint a portrait of Sir Laurence Olivier?

- Exact. - How's it going?

Very good. Very good.

Only about 15 minutes, is almost complete.

You did the whole thing in 15 minutes?

Sitting hours?

Taking two hours for...

..everything.

And myself, in 50 minutes, I complete the portrait.

Now, is necessary only the realisation of his portrait.

It is perhaps one month.

But everything is in my mind, very clear and very violent.

Is it going to be what we would regard

perhaps in our old-fashioned way

as a somewhat eccentric picture?

Is it going to have lobsters and things like that in it

or is it going to be like him?

This portrait, in my opinion,

is perhaps one of the most sensational.

Is not possible to talk nothing in advance,

because everything is possible happen in my life.

And nobody look this portrait before it's completely finished.

This is my condition, for the start this portrait.

I also no like to paint the legend, the historical legend of Shakespeare,

no like paint historical people, no like paint Sir Laurence Olivier,

like to paint this character in the film,

like produce one integral and complete Dalinian portrait.

Good. We shall all look forward to seeing it.

He is, I believe, in the costume of this film, Richard III,

- in which he's appearing, isn't he? - Yes, yes, yes.

Do you bring that out, the costume?

No, taking notice sufficient, very much one...

- animal, the centre of... - Mmm.

Comment ca s'appelle en anglais... Le sanglier.

The sanglier, the blood?

You mean? The spirit?

Non, non, non, le sanglier. Des animals avec...

Oh, le sanglier. Sanglier.

The...the...what the hell is sanglier?

Rhinoceros, is it?

It's a little...

A little tiny thing. What's it like? Describe it.

C'est le, le... C'est un porc avec des longues dents...

Oui, oui, oui... C'est un boar. C'est un boar.

C'est le totem, c'est exactement le totem of Richard...

Of, yes. So Sir Laurence and Richard III

will both resemble this delicious animal with the teeth.

Exactly. It's one big collar in enamel, gold enamel,

and precious stones in the centre, representing the totem of it.

I can't wait to see it. When shall...?

Very aggressive, a boar, you know? Pointed.

I know, I know.

Yes.

Mr Dali, who apart from yourself,

would you regard as a good portrait painter today?

Um...I believe there does not exist one.

Who?

- In modern times. - Nobody?

At all? Have you ever seen...?

Picasso is the only possible, create extraordinary good portraits.

Men don't like it, this kind of activity.

Augustus John, do you like... Have you ever seen any of his portraits?

Has a very big ability in drawing, very good draughtsmanship, drawing.

But the painting, appear me...

the same characteristics of a lot of English painters, you know?

Very dirty, and very melancholic, sad and depressing.

Very depressing.

You feel that our art as a whole

suffers from an undue excess of melancholy, really?

Much melancholy.

I noticed you'd been to see some exhibition,

and there was a donkey there in it...

Yes, you just can indeed talk about this melancholy,

remember this exhibit,

every work of one of these... these very young British painters.

Everyone paint the more sad and melancholic kind

of animals, fish, people, houses.

Everything is very dirty as well, the more dirty colours

and the more depressing effects.

Why do you think that is? Why should they all be so sad?

Why should they paint this poor old donkey with such a sad...

This is what I try to understand,

the reason that these young people are so melancholic, you understand?

Because I myself believe, contrary,

that the modern atomic age is very gay.

- Mmm. - Nothing is more gay

que la collision and explosion

of intra-atomic conflicts of nuclear physics.

It's... You feel that that really livens things up enormously?

For me, the more happy thing is... look, these terrific conflicts

about electrons and atoms,

everything jumping and romping

in a completely extraordinary, rhythmic feeling.

- Yes, I see what you mean. - Myself, every day is more gay.

Et around me, look everybody, every day more sad.

More depressing, and more physical and moral exhaustation.

Do you find that true in New York as well as here in poor old Europe?

No. New York, in this moment, offer one...

very big quantity of abstract painters.

Myself, no like it, abstract painting,

because believe it is only one part of...

Is one decorative art, but these paintings of New York,

there's plenty of vitality.

And on the whole, rather...

Enormous vitality, completely, er...explosive.

Would you still call yourself a Surrealist as a painter?

You were originally, you belonged to the School of Surrealism in Paris.

Yes. I believe now, myself,

that all the Surrealists continue this kind of inspiration.

You are, in fact, the sole survivor of the Surrealist movement, really.

Yes. Avec la difference to myself like, incorporate and sublimate,

the fierce experience of my life,

in the big classical tradition of Spanish painters.

Well, the bottom of my inspiration

remains completely Dalian and Surrealistic.

But the school, as a school, you feel,

has rather gone out of existence?

Le school is disappear because...

becoming one academic school avec no personality.

It also collapse in this kind of sadness and melancholy

of the other kind of modern schools.

I see. So that really, you feel that Surrealism,

having started when you were with it as very gay,

has now sunk into melancholy and despair,

and that you alone remain as a true representative of it.

Absolutely.

Now, all your wonderful jokes that we know about,

taxi cabs with the rain inside, and so on,

you're going to go on with those jokes?

Er...this correspond a fierce period of my life.

Er...the moment of myself with very big interest in psychoanalysis,

- coming London for meet le Dr Freud. - Mmm.

Mais now, my interest is only about

le tremendous progress of nuclear research,

and nuclear physics.

And so, really, those...that represented a phase in your career,

those jokes that we all knew about, and now you move on,

and all your life will be to the rhythm of atomic explosion.

Exactly. One new kind of atomic and nuclear mysticism.

Well, thank you very much, that's a fascinating phrase,

nuclear mysticism.