Un Chien Andalou

One interesting aspect to be noticed on this movie is its linearity. The film purposely does not follow a linear and chronological narrative of the facts, which leads the viewer to the feeling of doubt and curiosity. This element was well explored by the director, thus creating a greater dynamic to a story apparently simple and easy to be told.

Surrealism is a movement that built off of the burgeoning look into art, psychology, and the workings of the mind. Popularly associated with the works of Salvador Dali, Surrealist art takes imagery and ideology and creates correlation where there is none, creating new forms of art. In this essay I will look to explore the inception of the surrealist movement, including the Surrealist Manifesto, to stress the importance of these artists and their work in the 20th century and beyond. I also will look to films from our European Cinema course to express how films incorporate the influence of surrealism both intentionally and unintentionally.

This film is a black and white film and the lighting is more towards dim effect which terrified the audience. Music plays the biggest effect in the film. Bernard Hermann’s theme is used for this film because it uses mostly high-pitched string instrument notes so the suspense and horror mood can be formed to the audience.

The surrealist movement of the 1920s-1930s was largely based on the notion that excessive rational thought is a catalyst of conflict and war throughout the world. Salvador Dali’s The Persistence

Impactful across the globe, both Dada and Surrealism were artistic movements created in the early 20th century that were significant in redefining modern art today. The Dada movement came about in 1916 through the performance of Hugo Ball’s sound poem “Karawane” at the Cabaret Voltaire that he opened with his partner, nightclub singer Emmy Hennings, in Zurich, Switzerland. The poem made absolutely no sense, purposely, and it didn’t have to. Ball would also dress in wild costumes for his performances as seen below:

André Breton ran the Surrealist Movement with impressive discipline and rigidity, making an interesting contrast between what the Surrealists preached and the management style of its leader. An interesting story, for example, tells how Salvador Dalí, one of the most prominent members of the Surrealist movement, attended a New York costume party dressed up as Charles Lindbergh’s son, who had been recently kidnapped and murdered. New York’s society did not take the statement well and eventually made Dalí apologize for his behavior. Breton, however, almost dismissed him from Movement because he claimed that “no one should excuse himself for a Surrealist act[6].” This anecdote demonstrates the seriousness of Breton and his Movement towards its final objective: revolution and the slashing of society’s conventions in the interest of a subconscious reality.

The film also utilizes a bit of naziploitation during its more sexually charged scenes and it’s factoring in of the Lebensborn program with Leni. The filmic techniques used were very sturdy throughout the film and the use of close ups and medium shots assisted in conveying the character's emotions and helped to more visually place them into certain tropes. The longer cuts also helped in allowing the film to build tension and

The idea of borrowing fragments of work from various movies or worldly events and using that as a foundation to place original work around is a definite teller of the postmodernist genre. The apparent use of bricolage is used during this scene. The Dude is inside Jackie’s house, which is void-like, open and cold. The architecture of this home The Dude is in pays homage to the film Scarface which was released in the 80’s. When the Dude first enters his fantasy, the audience is welcomed into a reference back to the counter-culture of the 1960’s, characterized by the naked woman and freedom of the body, the hippie culture of the stoned partiers and the care free lifestyle the people partying is abiding by.

Director Jean-Paul Rappaneau intended this 2 hours, 18 minutes, PG-rated dramatic comedy to feed the eyes and ears of young adults. His cinematic adaptation remained loyal to the original play: the movie starts off with the hero of the story Cyrano (Gerard Depardieu) falling in love with his cousin Roxane (Anne Brochet). Our unfortunate hero was born with an absurdly large nose, which makes Cyrano ferociously convinced that Roxane will never grow to love him. This changes when Christian (Vincent Perez), a colleague of Cyrano in the same

The widely seminal work by Maya Deren, titled Meshes of the Afternoon, starts when an artificial looking hand puts down a flower on the pathway. The hand, including the attached arm, then pops out of existence, which immediately alerts the viewer that the film is not a literal storytelling piece of work. they symbols within the following fourteen minutes further drill holes into the viewers subconscious, in which images speak louder compared to words, which created among the most well-known short films of all times. The film is an effective piece of art of all times, which brought a unique interpretation of storytelling within the film industry.

Un Chien Andalou In Un Chien Andalou (1929), Luis Buñuel uses montage editing to put together a series of surreal images to create what the audience can interpret as a love story. The theme being expressed in Un Chien Andalou is that love is something that is irrational, unexplainable, and considering the fact that it is a surrealist film, love is surreal. Along with the montage technique, I will also discuss Buñuel’s use of camerawork like the long shots used throughout the film, music, acting style, costume (like having the female character read a book in which the same outfit is seen that the male character is wearing), editing techniques such as point of view shots, and, finally, dream and fantasy sequence.

Another critical element is the music, music is used to create a focused feeling for the audience. The Music was also creating a dark tone within the film. It seemed brooding moving slowly, then went higher to create an ambience of tension.

This leads to a dilemma. If the music that the world calls “Andean” is a mere facade meant to earn money, then what is true Andean Folk music? For many years this has been an issue, however, in more recent years more efforts have been made to present the music of the Andean people in a more true sense. However, this still presents a problem to the study of this music, as we cannot simply place it into a box, and say that the music follows the same rule. It can also not be perfectly transcribed, so the student of this music can only make observations based upon repeated listenings to various music from these countries. As such, I can only present elements that I have noticed, not ones that can be backed by fact. For the reader's benefit, I have

What is surrealism? Surrealism is a “revolution,” "pure psychic automatism," “an attack of conscience,” and a “new mode of pure expression” according to its founder André Breton. In his highly controversial texts, “Manifestoes of Surrealism,” Breton exposes us to this new term he coined along with his colleague Philippe Soupault in homage to Guillaume Apollinaire, someone whom they believed had followed the discipline, and he explains the phenomenon in detail so that more can become aware and utilize the technique. Drawing heavy influences from Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx, Breton reveals to us the limitless opportunities of surrealism and how it frees us from everyday reality, similar to how the exoteric texts challenged us to question our beliefs. I

It took us through Antoine’s school work, and showed beautiful scenes, one of my favorite being where Antoine runs through the group of doves in the streets with a giant smile on his face. In my opinion, the way that the film is pictured gives us as an audience an unbiased opinion on the film. The reason I feel that it is the techniques used in the filming of the movie were what set me apart from having a biased opinion on anything during the movie. Truffaut used natural, authentic settings that truly made me feel like I was in France while watching this film, which in a way took my mind off of even having a biased thought. In a way I somewhat related to Antoine because I disagreed with my parents about many things as a child, not that Antoine just disagreed with his parents because he did a lot more than that to make them upset (stealing money out of his mother’s wallet, lying directly to his mother’s face, wiping his dirty hands on her curtains) but that personally made me not judge him or anything that occurred during the film.