Un Chien Andalou (1929)
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Written by Salvador Dalí
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| Offical poster of the movie |
Un
Chien Andalou or An Andalusian Dog in English is an art piece that proves how
timeless art and artists are. This 1929, 21 mins short film is a freak ride,
and a bunch of non-sync scenes put together, yet made incredible sense. I tried
to find a structure, a story, a plot, and the usual "rule of cinema".
But all I found was a very unsettling amusement. As I was watching the film I
was curious and thrilled, I had felt like experiencing a very surrealistic
painting. Of course the overly used word for this film, "surrealistic".
This movie defines what a movie could sell, it's a tight slap right on my face
who believes that movie is a scientific procedure than art. Agreed that each
movie has its school of thought but this movie spoke too effortlessly. Un Chien
Andalou's conspicuous sense makes an intimidating conversation with the
audience. It's a confrontation with the makers of the film, Luis Buñuel, and
Salvador Dalí. The most powerful minds ever existed, period. As an aspiring
filmmaker, I wouldn't have the balls to make such an attempt. For that, I'm
most inspired and dedicate huge respect to the makers.
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| Fan-made poster |
The movie opens with a bizarre sequence, where a man
slices a woman's eye with a razor blade, then cuts to "8 years
later". This movie peculiarly handles time and the characters seem strange
over time. The male character is introduced in a female dress code carrying a
striped box on his neck. The strip box confronts the audience multiple times,
implying the secrets of the characters. We also see bugs crawling out of the
man's hand, this is one of my favorite shots. It looked very fascinating,
knowing how the ugly inner self was beginning to develop. Then the bugs
crawling image dissolves to a women's armpit, then to a sea urchin. I couldn't
connect the dots, but it's said that this part is where the male desire
awakens. The perverted make desire starts to grope the woman and imagine her
naked. The disturbing image of the man being in a rhapsodic state while he is
groping her conveys the ugly pathetic male desire. The woman tries to protect
herself with a tennis racket, the man pulls up two ropes that are attached to
two heavy pianos with dead donkeys on them and two men who dressed like 80's
priests hanging to the ropes. The fun fact is these two men are the makers,
Luis Buñuel, and Salvador Dalí (Source:
the90'schannel, Youtube). On
a lighter note, this scene portrays how the rules of society stopping the true
man or the true self to come out. Then this scene connects to a well-dressed
man yelling at the other man in the room, wearing female clothes. He throws
those clothes out the window and gives him a time out, to stand at the corner
of the room facing the wall. Well, this kind of gives a fatherly character's
image. He forces the man to read some books and hands him papers. We start to
notice that both the man are the same guy. The man who is in time out turns his
books to guns and shoots the fatherly character, this seems more like the toxic
self is killing the other-self. As the man dies he falls next to a naked
women's back, trying to feel her or asking for help. Slowly the woman
disappears. By this point, I was speechless, experiencing a roller coaster ride
of different emotions. We do feel that the director is trying to say something
but we hardly connect the dots, it's just an open interpretation. Then comes
the moth on the wall, with a skull image on its back showing signs of death and
ending. The man's lips start to disappear and get replaced with armpit hair.
The woman gets angry, makes faces, and leaves to her man who is waiting at the
ocean bay. They seem happy leading their life, sort of happily ever after but
no. The makers hit us again with a surrealistic scene, "In the
spring". The movie ends with the couple half-buried and dead in the sand.
For me, this ending looked like a satire about strong relationships. However,
this movie is not for everyone, it's the weirdest nightmare. It's nothing but a
visually appealing dream sequence. Open to interpretation and fun to watch.
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My small illustration of the movie
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