THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY

Salvador Dalí and Gala

a screenplay by   Begonya Plaza

The Persistence of Memory is a rapturous one year adventure in the company of Salvador Dalí and his lascivious muse, Gala, icons of the Twentieth Century, seen through the eyes of young twenty-two year-old gorgeous Jonas, a California/Mexican dancer who the Dalis one night discover while performing on a seedy New York stage.   Young Jonas becomes Dali's model, and Gala's lover, forty years his elder.  

The Dalis enthusiastically seduce young Jonas in to their tantalizing Dolce Vita lifestyle web, entrapped by the glitter of perversion and genius.  

Through New York, Cadaques, and Madrid we see the disintegration of a young man's naive ideals, and the astuteness of power, money, and fame.  What's most impressive is that WE as an audience come to understand young Jonas experiencing the charisma, talent, and witty erudition of the grand Salvador Dalí.

In the end, Gala takes vengeance on the boy when she's forced to confront her own inability to fully posses this young lover's heart who for the rest of his life will look back at this year both with shame and honor.     

Flamenco dancer Antonio Gades and the love a young hard-headed girl are the catalysts to his disheartened awakening. 

 

The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí

This is a morality play about ambition, greed, power and ultimately redemption. Through the Dali’s secret lifestyle, we observe his ability exploring the creative process, and exploiting even his own phobias to their potential.  Jonas' journey with the Dali's exposes their facility for chewing up and spit out lives, impacting history, and transforming our culture.   Dalí had the innate ability to either pervert or turn to gold what ever he touched.  

This is a fictionalized story based on real life accounts, a flamboyant comedy and a dark, perverse tragedy, all wrapped up in one, set to a backdrop of California, New York, Cadaques and Madrid of the early sixties.

This is a film apt to have universal appeal because of Salvador Dali’s place in the world of art as being one of the greatest painters of our time, and his outrageous comedic personality that transcends race and gender. Dalí and Gala are heroic business allies, with a unique complicitous love affair.  Gala’s shrewd commerce sense, and Dali’s genius influenced the capitalist business of art like no other.   Gala broke social norms, and the older she got the younger got her lovers.

This is a sexy, fun and yet powerfully profound story that will attract audiences from all walks of life. With intrigue, mystery, thrill, fashion, glamour, pathos, wit, and historical facts all wrapped up in one cinematic beautiful message of redemption.

My choice to play Gala Dalí, was Glenn Close from the start.  In one of these courageous moments of my life, I dropped off the script for her to read.  We met, we discussed, and while she was given other Dalí projects to consider, Glenn Close insisted that my script was the best, the most human, the one that gave Dalí most dignity, the one that audiences will most relate to and remember.  I have a letter signed by Glenn Close expressing her interest in bringing to life the character of Gala, once the rest of the pieces fall into place.  I also have a letter of interest signed from Director of Photography, Juan Ruiz-Anchia, to make this project his directorial debut.  

This is proof that the script is worthy of serious consideration.  I'm passionate about this story. I'm proud of the years I took researching and writing it.  I am confident that it will get made.  Maybe not in MY lifetime but it will get made, for it's a story is of our times.       

A friend in Los Angeles, Ralph Odierna, someone I trust and respect, is shopping THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY around to a few Hollywood industry friends. Ralph has a plan, to get the script to Robert Downey Jr.  (who I love for this role). 

Spain and Catalunya are ready to invest, and my connections with the Dalí Foundation are established.  Once a Hollywood investor commits to this exciting collaboration with a budget roughly estimated at 15 million.  

Salud!  

begonya@begonyaplaza.com

see below my videos on DALI.

                                                              Quotes by SALVADOR DALI

 "Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad." 

 "Mistakes are almost always of a sacred nature. Never try to correct them. On the contrary: rationalize them, understand them thoroughly. After that, it will be possible for you to sublimate them."

"In order to acquire a growing and lasting respect in society, it is a good thing, if you possess great talent, to give, early in your youth, a very hard kick to the right shin of the society that you love. After that, be a snob."

"I am painting pictures which make me die for joy, I am creating with an absolute naturalness, without the slightest aesthetic concern, I am making things that inspire me with a profound emotion and I am trying to paint them honestly."

"I do not paint a portrait to look like the subject, rather does the person grow to look like his portrait."

"I don't take drugs: I am drugs."

"The difference between false statements and true ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant until you look closely."

"I have Dalínian thought: the one thing the world will never have enough of is the outrageous."

"Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings."

"There are some days when I think I'm going to die from an overdose of satisfaction."

"Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing."

"When I was five years old I saw an insect that had been eaten by ants and of which nothing remained except the shell. Through the holes in its anatomy one could see the sky. Every time I wish to attain purity I look at the sky through flesh."  

"Have no fear of perfection, you'll never reach it."

"The thermometer of success is merely the jealousy of the malcontents." 

“I am going to my room to masturbate before I have a light lunch, if you would like to come and watch?”

 

A young Jonas, of Mexican origin abandons his family in California, early sixties, and like a moth hypnotized by the flames runs off to New York City to triumph as a dancer.  Shortly after his arrival, the asphalt jungle is devouring him alive: as he fights the embarrassment of dancing on a mediocre, low life stage where the gods of fortune serve him on a platter the famous Catalan artist Salvador Dalí, and his all mighty muse, Gala.   It will be the voracious Gala who with her witchcraft attracts Jonas out of his cavern and unto the fantastical world of suites and salons of the Saint Regis Hotel, legendary seasonal residency of the Dalis.  Jonas will become the favorite pet of the mysterious Russian who will present him to a world of extravagance, intellectual freedom, and sex so imaginative as a poem of Ernst Jandl.  Jonas will be witness to the delirious creative process of the genius of Cadaques, and the tyranny and sour lucidity of Gala’s.  He will also discover the volatile world of art, and its leeches, who void of their own light, search for transcendence by association.  The adventure arrives to a climax in Cadaquez and Madrid, where Jonas meets his idol, Antonio Gades.  On the other hand Jonas loses favor with the goddess Gala when he betrays her with the love for a young woman, exposing him to contempt and the consequent expulsion

from their surrealist paradise. 

Salvador and Gala Dalí Pact by Begonya Plaza / Vimeo.

Gala Dalí's Castle in Pubol by Begonya Plaza / Vimeo.

Research video for the screenplay, 

THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY, 2001.   

This is a tour of the castle and a little explanation from Catalán museum guide.

 

The Persistence of Memory at MOMA in NYC, 2005.

In 2001 I visited the Dali's home in Port Lligat, interviewed the postman, a fisherman, and the owner of Gala's sail boat as we went for a ride around Cap Creus.

In 2001, Cat and I travelled to Cadaques to the home of Dali.  Art is infectious because it was where for the first time Cat asked for a camera.  

THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY is Gala Dalí's young lover's Dalinian Surreal journey in which Dalí is shown in a rather favorable light, as young Jonas is taken for the ride of his life.   This is NOT a bio pic, this is a fictionalized story based on life accounts.  

Sinopsis del guion en Castellano:

"LA PERSISTENCIA DE LA MEMORIA" Jonás es un joven de origen mexicano que abandona a su familia en California a comienzos de los años sesenta y, como una polilla hipnotizada por la llama, acude a Nueva York para triunfar como bailarín. Al poco de llegar, la jungla de asfalto ya se lo está fagocitando: lucha contra la vergüenza de bailar en un antro de mala muerte, donde la diosa Fortuna le sirve en bandeja al famoso artista catalán Salvador Dalí y su todopoderosa musa Gala. Será la voraz Gala la que con su hechizo atraiga a Jonás fuera del antro y dentro del fantástico mundo de las habitaciones y salones del Hotel Saint Regis, mítica residencia por temporadas de los Dalí. Jonás será el animal de compañía favorito de la misteriosa rusa, que le descubrirá un mundo de extravagancia, libertad intelectual y sexo tan imaginativo como un poema de Ernst Jandl. Jonás será testigo del proceso delirante de creación del genio de Cadaqués, y la tiranía y lucidez amarga de Gala. También descubrirá el volátil mundillo del arte y sus sanguijuelas que, a falta de luz propia, buscan la trascendencia por asociación. La aventura toca su clímax en Cadaqués y Madrid, donde Jonás conoce a su ídolo, Antonio Gades. Sin embargo Jonás perderá el favor de la diosa Gala al traicionarla con el amor de una joven y este se verá expuesto al desprecio y consiguiente expulsión del paraíso surrealista.

© WGA begonyaplaza, 2004 - All Rights Reserved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Dan]

The Persistence of Memory is said to be the most talked about work of art in the 20th Century.