Un Chien Andalou (1928)
A film by Luis Buñuel
The initial seeds of surrealism begin to grow. You have to admire the temerity of Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali to create this piece of material circa 1928, when it was going to cause an outrage in that taboo period. Buñuel allegedly took stones to the premiere to throw at the critics. The film opens with Buñuel in the infamous scene where he slashes the eyeball of a woman with a razorblade. After this initial disturbing image, the rest of the film has other dreamlike sequences, which cannot be easily explained. But it's a very accomplished piece of filmmaking - well crafted, and displayed the promise of Buñuel and set him on the road to his legendary career. A magnificent landmark and watershed of artistic filmmaking.
You can read the original shooting script here
You can see some frame enlargements here
You can download Un Chien Andalou here or here
"I suggested that we [the surrealists of 1929] burn the negative on the Place du Tertre in Montmartre, something I would have done without hesitation had the group agreed. In fact I’d still do it today; I can imagine a huge pyre in my own little garden where all my negatives and all the copies of my own films go up in flames. It wouldn’t make the slightest difference. (Curiously, however, the surrealists vetoed my suggestion)." - Luis Buñuel, in his book My Last Breath (p. 110)
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"A movie like this is a tonic. It assaults old and unconscious habits of moviegoing. It is disturbing, frustrating, maddening. It seems without purpose (and yet how much purpose, really, is there in seeing most of the movies we attend?). There is wry humor in it, and a cheerful willingness to offend." - Roger Ebert ****
"A masterwork from every aspect: its certainty of direction, its brilliance of lighting, its perfect amalgam of visual and ideological associations, its sustained dreamlike logic, its admirable confrontation between the subconscious and the rational." - Jean Vigo
"Seventeen minutes of pure, scandalous dream imagery... reveals itself at each viewing to be richer and more indefinable, as the sensitivity of its shades of mood become apparent." - Raymond Durgnat
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
