Salvadore Dali

Hello, Dali
A Documentary for the British TV Show Aquarius, 1973

Salvador Dali, what a fun guy to shoot for a documentary. He was game for anything and had a great sense of humor. He even let me animate his moustache! He told us a story about accidentally starting a fire in his hotel room and calling out for help, using the Catalan word (his Spanish dialect) for fire – which happens to be “Foc”. “Foc! Foc! Foc!” he yelled – to which the man in the next room shouted back, “Go fuck yourself!”. I used the audio of this story, in the background of a scene, including the words Foc and Fuck, hoping that with Dali’s heavy accent it would slip by the censors. Neither ITV nor PBS caught it.

At the end of the shoot Dali invited the crew to his house for dinner, which consisted of crayfish with chocolate sauce. We needed a signed release from Dali, and at the end of the meal, I wrote a release on my Marlboro pack and he signed it. I wish I still had it.