All posts tagged: Salvador

Watch 434 Avant-Garde and Surreal Short Films Online: Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, Luis Buñuel and Many More

Much has been written lately about the crisis in Hollywood, which has left many apparently sure-fire blockbusters floundering, theaters empty, and production jobs lost. There are many factors in play — some of them, as few diagnoses fail to point out, structural — but can we ignore the possibility of fatigue, perhaps even boredom, with film itself? We’ve posted in recent years here on Open Culture about the decay of cinema, the rise of “visual muzak” on Netflix, why movies don’t feel real anymore, and why movies don’t even feel like movies anymore. Even if they’ve limited their exposure to big-budget spectacles, most once-avid cinephiles will have felt all those phenomena for themselves by now, and many will be considering whether to look for a new art form to enjoy. But some will wonder: maybe there’s a cure? There could well be, and a bracing one. If you seek a re-enchantment with film, there could be few better places to look than in the work of filmmakers who have broken that medium down to its very components …

The Nightlife That Builds Empires: From Salvador Dali to Gianni Versace

Published by Sam Flores

Decades before Versace turned his opulent lifestyle into a marketing machine, Dali and Gala were already practicing what we now call personal branding—engineering moments that they knew would be irresistible to photographers. They both understood how powerful visibility can be in a modern, image-driven world. The couple anticipated the mechanics of contemporary celebrity culture, demonstrating that even scandal could elevate an artist, and that controversy could be a tool rather than a liability. When the Museum of Modern Art requested the party’s proceeds for refugee artists, Del Monte sent an itemized list of the party’s accounting, detailing a staggering red ink. Reportedly, MoMA never received a dime. Today, Dali is most remembered for his waxed mustache, melting clocks, and wacky personality; many have all but forgotten that he was also a Nazi sympathizer. In that sense, the surrealist forest helped lay the groundwork for a new model of fame: one in which spectacle sustains myth, and myth sustains the brand—often even outliving the man who put on the show. On July 15th, 1997, Gianni Versace …

“Black hole”: El Salvador disappearing US deportees into CECOT, rights group says

Published by Sam Flores

The watchdog group Human Rights Watch accused El Salvador‘s government of disappearing some nationals deported from the United States. Some 9,000 Salvadorans who have been deported since the start of 2025, according to Human Rights Watch. Some have been detained at the Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT) mega prison, a facility infamous for its rampant abuses. The organization said that many of those detained at CECOT have been kept out of contact with their families and it’s unclear whether or not they’ve appeared before a judge. Previous reporting by the Washington Post found that many are still being held without due process a year after being detained. Human Rights Watch Americas Director Juanita Goebertus likened the extended detention to an “enforced disappearance.” “Whatever the criminal history of these Salvadoran men, they have a right to due process, to be taken before a judge, and their relatives are entitled to know where they are being held and why,” Goebertus said on Monday. Concern among families and communities of individuals deported to El Salvador by the Trump …

Salvador Dalí’s Largest Painting Heads to Auction

Published by José Betancourt

This month, Salvador Dalí’s largest ever painting, a monumental stage set measuring 65 by 100 feet, will head to auction in Paris. The work, which comes from a private collection, will lead Bonhams’s fourth annual sale dedicated to Surrealism on Thursday, March 26. The work is estimated to bring €200,000 – €300,000 ($236,000–$350,000). Dalí designed the 13-panel set for “Bacchanale,” a Surrealist production—for which he also wrote the libretto—created for the Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo. Key collaborators included Léonide Massine, choreographer and director of the Ballets Russes; Coco Chanel, who designed some of the costumes and accessories; and Prince Alexandre Schervachidze, legendary scenographer for the Ballets Russes, who oversaw production of the set at the company’s workshop in Monte Carlo. Related Articles The ballet had its premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in November of 1939. Because of the war in Europe, Dalí was unable to attend himself, and Chanel refused to send her costumes. Nevertheless, it was well received and subsequently toured the US. The artist most synonymous with Surrealism in …

Federal judge orders return of Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador under Alien Enemies Act : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

James Boasberg shown here on Monday, March 13, 2023. Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return to the U.S. of a group of Venezuelan migrants who were sent to a maximum security prison in El Salvador last year under the Alien Enemies Act and accused of being members of the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua. The 137 Venezuelans the ruling applies to were deported to the notorious Center for Terrorism Confinement, or CECOT, in the Central American country, under the rarely-used Alien Enemies Act, despite an emergency ruling ordering the flight to be returned to the U.S. The men were later sent to their home countries as part of a prisoner exchange. U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg ruled the government must pay to fly back or accept at a US port of entry any of the men who are now in countries other than Venezuela. They’re likely to be detained upon arrival as they …

El Salvador President States Evidence Suggests Gang Members are Satan Worshippers – OpentheWord.org

Published by Sam Flores

Official photo of Nayib Bukele, President of El Salvador Credit: AndreX, Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 On February 5, 2026, Nayib Bukele, the President of El Salvador, spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC. According to Fox News, he shared about the dark spiritual forces at work in the gangs and illicit drug industry in his country. He stated that many of the gang members in El Salvador are actively involved in satanic worship. “We know gangs in El Salvador were satanic and they worshiped Satan,” Bukele said. “It’s straight up. Literally. When we went to their homes to arrest them, we discovered altars that were used for satanic rituals.” They have photos and video evidence that showed the alleged satanic altars. He added that even though the government released this information, the mainstream media has basically ignored it. Then Bukele acknowledged the Apostle Paul’s words in the Ephesians 6. In verse 12, he says that our real enemy is flesh and blood, but rather dark spiritual forces. “Many people don’t know that our enemy …

Luis Buñuel & Salvador Dalí’s Un Chien Andalou: The Short Surrealist Film That Revolutionized Cinema (1929)

Published by José Betancourt

Un Chien Andalou means “an Andalusian dog,” though the much-studied 1929 short film of that title contains no dogs at all, from Andalusia or anywhere else. In fact, it alludes to a Spanish expression about how the howling of an Andalusian signals that someone has died. And indeed, there is death in Un Chien Andalou, as well as sex, albeit death and sex as processed through the unconscious minds of the young filmmaker Luis Buñuel and artist Salvador Dalí, whose collaboration on this enduringly strange movie did much to make their names. Two of its memorable images — among sixteen straight minutes of memorable images — came straight from their dreams: a hand crawling with ants, and a razor blade slicing the moon as if it were an eye. “Less than two minutes into the picture, a man — played by the stocky, unmissable figure of Buñuel himself — stands on a balcony, gazing wolfishly at the moon,” writes New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane. “Cut to the face of a woman. Cut back to …

Shelved ’60 Minutes’ Segment on El Salvador Prison to Finally Air

Published by Daniella Wilson

The 60 Minutes segment that was pulled last month by CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss in a controversial move is now ready to finally air. The “Inside CECOT” segment is slated to air Sunday night, according to the program’s listings. CNN‘s Brian Stelter was first to report the news. “Last year, the Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador, a country most had no ties to, claiming they were terrorists. This unusual move sparked an ongoing legal battle, and 10 months later, the U.S. government still has not released the names of all those deported and placed in CECOT, one of El Salvador’s harshest prisons. Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi speaks with some of the now released deportees, who describe the brutal and torturous conditions they endured inside CECOT,” the segment’s description reads. CBS News told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement: “CBS News leadership has always been committed to airing the 60 Minutes CECOT piece as soon as it was ready. Tonight, viewers get to see it, along with other important stories, all of which speak to CBS News’ independence and the power …

A Brief History of Surrealist Art: From the Bible and Ancient Egypt to Salvador Dalí’s Dream Worlds

Published by José Betancourt

The term surrealism — or rather, surréalisme — originates from the French words for “beyond reality.” That’s a zone, we may assume, reachable by only daring, and possibly unhinged, artistic minds. But in fact, even the most down-to-earth among us go beyond reality on a nightly basis. We do so in our dreams, where the accepted mechanics of space and time, life and death, and cause and effect do not apply. Or rather, they’re replaced by another set of rules entirely, which feels perfectly consistent and convincing to us in the moment. Such “dream logic” may frustrate the friends and family we attempt to regale with tales of our night visions, but as the surrealists found, it could also be put to the service of enduring art. In the Hochelaga video above, that channel’s creator Tommie Trelawny provides a long history of surrealism in a short running time. Tracing that movement’s roots, he goes all the way back to the ancient culture of the Australian Aboriginals, for whom the concept of the “dreamtime” still plays an …

Salvador Dalí’s Surreal Jewelry Designs: From Throbbing Heart Necklaces to Medusa Brooches

Published by José Betancourt

Upon hearing the name of Salvador Dalí, even a total layman in the art world is bound to get visions of melting clocks. Surprisingly, for an artist who showed so much self-marketing savvy, Dalí never brought an actual timepiece in that distinctively, even canonically surreal shape to market. But that hardly stopped Cartier from putting out the Crash, whose distorted shape may have always brought The Persistence of Memory to mind, but whose name hints at the inspiration of a watch smashed up in a car wreck. The Crash came out in swinging-sixties London at its very height, by which time Dalí himself had been designing real jewelry for more than a quarter century. ?si=v8xd7w6Tr3ZQzIIq You can see a few of Dalí’s jewels in the 1960 British Pathé clip at the top of the post. Unsurprisingly, they occupy a realm apart from, or at least orthogonal to, that of conventional jewelry. Some of them move: Living Flower, for instance, which “opens to reveal stamen and petals paved with diamonds. The mechanism is embedded in malachite from the …

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All posts tagged: Salvador

Watch 434 Avant-Garde and Surreal Short Films Online: Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, Luis Buñuel and Many More

The Nightlife That Builds Empires: From Salvador Dali to Gianni Versace

Salvador Dalí’s Largest Painting Heads to Auction

Federal judge orders return of Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador under Alien Enemies Act : NPR

El Salvador President States Evidence Suggests Gang Members are Satan Worshippers – OpentheWord.org

Luis Buñuel & Salvador Dalí’s Un Chien Andalou: The Short Surrealist Film That Revolutionized Cinema (1929)

Shelved ’60 Minutes’ Segment on El Salvador Prison to Finally Air

A Brief History of Surrealist Art: From the Bible and Ancient Egypt to Salvador Dalí’s Dream Worlds

Salvador Dalí’s Surreal Jewelry Designs: From Throbbing Heart Necklaces to Medusa Brooches