UN CHIEN ANDALOU (1929) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge
Director: Luis Bunuel Writers: Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali Starring: Pierre Batcheff, Simone Marieuil, Robert Hommet, Marval, Fano Messan, Jamie Miravilles, Luis Bunuel, Salvador Dali
A man (Pierre Batcheff) holds a razor in his hand, and looks out his window. His wife (Simone Marieuil) sits in a chair behind him, pretty much doing nothing. The man turns around, walks over to his wife, holds the razor to her eye, and then slits it fully open with the razor. The audience perks up as they all shriek, scream obsenities, or just go "EW!!!" But nevertheless, this film has our full and complete attention for the following surreal-as-hell 16 minutes.
I watched this film in an auditorian full of students in film class a couple hours ago, and the whole experience has yet to really leave me. I'm not only talking about the disgusting beginning (I'm not easily grossed out, but that literally turned my stomach...then made me laugh), but the rest of the 16 minutes (which isn't nearly as gross as the beginning part), which is an exercise in a dream-like state, resulting in the most surreal film ever made.
David Lynch has tried this more than once (most recently with "The Lost Highway," which just was actually too structured for the nightmare it seemed to want to be), but if you want to see it done right, watch the first film by famed director, Luis Bunuel (who would also go on to make, among others, "Belle De Jour"). Every scene is surreal as an actual dream. None of the sequences have any real connection with the others, except for maybe similar characters. For instance, a woman opens a door in a room, then finds herself on a beach. At first, this just seems like it's out to shock us. Then we get into it, and feel like we're in some kind of weird dream.
There are tons of bizarre scenes going on throughout, none linked to the other. Other than the stunning beginning, we also get: scenes where a man makes fun of a severed hand on the street; a man stands in the middle of the street, then is run over by a careless driver; a man chases a woman around a room, then feels her up, imagining her naked; the man later tries to reach that woman, but for some odd reason, feels the necessity to pull a rope that holds not one, but two pianos, two men, the ten commandments, and some dead animals; etc, etc, etc.
These images are open for interpretation. One could probably find some kind of meaning to the whole film (there are some constants: a husband and wife are recurrently present), but that would probably spoil the fun of the film. If you let yourself go, you find yourself in the most surreal dream sequence ever. And that's exactly what Bunuel, and his co-writer (and painter) Salvador Dali were going for.
"Un Chien Andalou" is the most surreal film I've ever seen, and this is after several bizarre-as-hell films I've seen (i.e. Dudley Murphy's "Ballet Mechanique," which we also watched today in class). It's not only that, but it's a near perfect exercise in crafted filmmaking.
MY RATING (out of 4): ****
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