Das goldene Zeitalter
"L'Age d'Or" was publicly proclaimed by Dalí as a deliberate attack on Catholicism, and this precipitated a much larger scandal than "Un Chien Andalou". One early screening was taken over by members of the fascist League of Patriots and the Anti-Jewish Youth Group, who hurled purple ink at the screen and then vandalised the adjacent art gallery, destroying a number of valuable surrealist paintings. The film was banned by the Parisian police "in the name of public order". The de Noailles, both Catholics, were threatened with excommunication by The Vatican because of the film's blasphemous final scene (which visually links Jesus Christ with the writings of the Marquis de Sade), so they made the decision in 1934 to withdraw all prints from circulation, and "L'Age d'Or" was not seen again until 1979, after their deaths, although a print was smuggled to England for private viewing. The furor was so great that the premiere of another film financed by the de Noailles, Jean Cocteau's "The Blood of a Poet", had to be delayed for over two years until outrage over "L'Age d'Or" had died down. To make matters worse, Charles de Noailles was forced to withdraw his membership from the Jockey Club.