I can't claim to know nothing about Bunuel's work, so don't know if this will
help; 19th century European attitudes to idiocy were, in certain quarters,
different to today's; whilst retarded adults throughout history were often
portrayed as outcasts and objects for ridicule, Victorian Britain had an
almost romantic notion that idiotic children were special in the eyes of God,
in that they would retain forever their childhood innocence (seen as a good
thing in those puritanical days). This goes back to at least the beginning of
the 19th century and can be seen in the works of Blake and Wordsworth,
amongst others. How long this viewpoint persisted I don't know; it might be
the case that in Spain and France the same opinion was held, and Bunuel's
reference to a "choir of idiots" could be either an affirmation or a parody
of such a view. (Or maybe it's completely irrelevant, I don't know).
 
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