Dalí Movie Named After Museum Work

The upcoming foreign film "Little Ashes" describes the rumored homosexual love affair between Spanish Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and dramatist Federico Garcia Lorca.

Little Ashes, a soon-to-be released U.K.-Spanish biopic about Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí (1904-1989), is named after a famous composition (1927-28) by the painter in Madrid's Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. As reported in the Guardian Unlimited on October 28, 2007, the movie is sure to be found controversial by many art historians and Dalí scholars. Its subject is the artist's supposed secret love affair with poet and dramatist Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936). Their relationship with filmmaker Luis Bunuel (1900-1983) is also addressed in this cinematic treatment of Dalí's early years.

Directed by Paul Morrison and filmed mostly in Barcelona, Spain, Philippa Goslett's screenplay is set in Madrid of the 1920s. It portrays the young and eccentric Dalí as a sexually repressed genius incapable of consummating his deepening relationship with Lorca. The cast includes Robert Pattinson as Dalí, Javier Beltran as Lorca and Matthew McNulty as Bunuel. While Dalí is known to have denied the physicality of his affection for Lorca, Goslett insists that her research of written correspondence indicates just the opposite.