MUBI

Having two artists, like Dalí and Buñuel, work together is a treat. In this surreal mash up we start with a man sharpening his razor, and then using said razor to slice open an eye. This is juxtaposed with a cloud moving, seemingly, through the moon. From here it’s free game as to how to summarize the film. Needless to say, the film is still very deliberate in getting across the point that lust for a woman, and lust for killing are possibly one in the same. I could go into all the psychoanalysis crap most like to, but I won’t.

The way that Buñuel gets this across is pure brilliance. Among the religious imagery, superimposition of nudity, and visual metaphors, are a slew of surreal scenes. Most of which I don’t understand, nor claim to; But damn do I enjoy them. If you have ever been interested in surrealism, or art for that fact, you must watch this.

-Chase
sunday with the giants

The Film “Un Chien Andalou” is usually considered to be starting point of surrealist film making. Although this is true, it also provides the exploitive, horror themes, which Romero uses in “Night of the Living Dead”, and changed the horror genre indefinably. I spent the good proportion of last summer watching cheesy B rated horror films from the 30s and 40s. The general theme introduced in these films are quite simply an evil man holding a woman hostage through usually supernatural means, i.e. through hypnotism in John Barrymore’s “Svengali” (1931), or stealing young bride’s youth in Bela Lugosi’s “The Corpse Vanishes” (1942) . In the end ,however, a man rescues the beautiful young woman, and destroys the evil man, along with usually the castle which in inhabits. The horror movies at this time, were no suppose to be serious, but rather, an escapism from the horrors of war, and the economic down turn. From the Second World War which seemed hopeless to win, the horror movies always had a happy ending where good defeated evil. The film “Un Chien Andalou” defiantly influenced the horror genre, but the horror seen the the 60s. The film is still considered disturbing today, even though it doesn’t have all of the violence of films today. This is because like “Night of the Living Dead”, the film exploits the viewer, through disturbing images, and a hopelessness for the human race.

In addition to the film Un Chien Andalou, the DVD also contains a short documentary about Buñuel narrated by Buñuel’s son Jean-Luis, a bonus interview with Jean-Luis regarding Dali, and an audio commentary track by Stephen Barber. Barber’s commentary is couched heavily in Freudian terms of sex and death and makes constant reference to Germaine Dulac’s film (based on a work by Antonin Artaud) The Seashell and the Clergyman, which had actually been released prior to Un Chien Andalou and is therefore technically “the first Surrealist film.” Whether Surrealist cinema was actually so heavily laden with Freudian themes or it just appears so in retrospect due to these themes being contemporary with Surrealist cinema, and thus more salient to us, is never addressed by Barber. I think there is much more to this film than is discussed in the audio commentary, and the insight provided by Jean-Luis Buñuel in the documentary more than makes up for Barber’s Freudian musings, which Jean-Luis dismisses out of hand. Also, the bonus interview footage with Jean-Luis is particularly interesting, as he discusses, almost apologetically, the extent of Dali’s vainglory and why he lost all of his real friends over the years. In case you have only seen Un Chien Andalou in an art museum, the bonus materials really add a lot to this DVD, and I highly recommend it.

Then burgeoning young Spanish assistant director Luis Buñuel (“The Fall of the House of Usher” & “Siren of the Tropics”) teamed with Spanish Catalan surrealist painter Salvador Dalí for their debut which remains one of the best-known surrealist films of the avant-garde movement of the 1920s and was voted by “Premiere” as one of “The 25 Most Dangerous Movies”..

The film’s dream inspired opening scene, ranked by “Premiere” at number 10 in “The 25 Most Shocking Moments in Movie History”, gives way to a barrage of surrealist imagery involving featured performers Simone Mareuil and Pierre Batcheff dealing with dead donkeys, handfuls of ants, a death’s head moth and cameos from Buñuel and Dalí.

The filmmakers were prompted by striking dreams to engage in Freudian free association of this imagery in which “no idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation of any kind would be accepted” for film which was doubtlessly revolutionary for its time but has since been reduced to little more than a curiosity piece.

“Once upon a time…”

wow this is totally different perspective in watching movie, i mean i have had seen surrealist movie, but i never seen quite like this before.,
at first i try to understand it, but later i realize there’s nothing to be understood.,
this is eerie, strange, irrational, this is probably the most unique cinematic experience i ever had, and probably one of the most important movie in history, and that makes bunuel one of the most important director in history too..

I love this, it is so wonderfully weird. I can see why John Waters describes the dog feces scene in Pink Flamingos as influenced by surrealism – certainly, this would have been extremely shocking for its time, and the eye scene at the beginning made me cover my eyes.

To be honest, I did actually laugh out loud at the part where he’s dragging the piano with the bishops and donkeys – I don’t know why, it just looked so strange. But I enjoyed this so much, I bought it on DVD.