The success of a scandal: Un Chien Andalou (film review)

Un Chien Andalou is considered to be the first and most significant surrealist film of all time. But why is this?

The film was released on 6th June 1929. It was Luis Bunel’s first film - collaborating with artist Salvador Dali. Initially the film was released with a limited showing at Studio des Ursulines in Paris because Bunel also did not have much money left to finance it. Because of the low budget, he had to edit all of the film himself and it was claimed he did this in his kitchen.

This 16 minute short film opens with the shot of an eye being slit. For the time, this was shocking imagery and still is, but this is exactly what directors Bunel and Dali wanted. They made the film to become known for creating a revolutionary shock to viewers. But they were surprised to find that the public loved it and the film became so successful that it ended up running in cinema for 8 months! "For the first time in the history of the cinema," wrote the critic Ado Kyrou, "a director tries not to please but rather to alienate nearly all potential spectators."

While Dali was pleased with the reception, Bunel was disappointed as he expected backlash and had his pockets filled with rocks in case he needed to defend himself from the audience. The film not only contains the disturbing slitting of an eye but also ants crawling out of a hand, a severed hand, two dead mules and an image of both the protagonists dead and buried in sand at the end of the film.

Un Chien Andalou sets the conventions of what a surrealistic film should be like and explores them very well in its unconventional narrative. Before the movement of surrealist films, the storyline of a film was very linear and realistic as films were very much like plays with no flashbacks or anything that doesn’t make sense. Un Chien Andalou completely juxtaposes these traditional conventions with its combination of dream and reality.

Through this the externalisation of the subconscious is explored which was very powerful and is shown in the most significant part of the film - the opening, comparing a cloud seemingly slicing the moon by overlapping it, and the eye getting slit soon after. There was a lot of controversy about this to how they got that shot and which animal was used for it. This was kept a secret for many years until Bunel finally revealed it was a bleached calf. There was also backlash against by people who found the film inhumane and around 40-50 informers complained to the police with a demand to ban the viewing of such an "indecent and cruel" film.

The dream-like visuals of this film surprisingly makes this film more of a nightmare which could be exploring the imperfection of humans and issues in the deepest part of the brain - awakened when dreaming. Here in the film the main themes are of desire and death which again are tropes which can be associated with nightmares or juxtaposingly, desire as a dream you would want to have. These nightmare-ish qualities were enhanced particularly to appaul the French Bourgeois as the two filmmakers at the time detested them and what they stood for. However, like many others, the Bourgeois loved this film, much to the dismay of Bunel and Dali.

Another element of surrealist films are irrational juxtapositions - mainly by the use of sound of Un Chien Andalou. The sound throughout this film is very major and uses ascending chords and wind instruments and really contrasts to the disturbing imagery in the film. Usually music in a silent film would determine the emotions of a character in their form of dialogue as that was not yet developed. This makes the film even more confusing as the visuals contrast to the happy light mood of the music. But as Bunel and Dali wanted to oppose all conventions of film, this music makes sense as it completely denies the visuals and the traditional way of making films.

Overall, although this film is disturbing, it is also very interesting and the fact that this single low budget film created a whole new movement of surrealist films is very impressive. It has also influenced a lot of later films and modern films to this day. Un Chien Andalou is also revolutionary in the way that it completely goes against any conventional film and therefore although it had a confusing plot and storyline, it really explores the subconscious and things not explored by any filmmaker before. So, I would definitely recommend this film to watch, even though it is controversial, it is a film significant in cinema history which should be acknowledged and remembered.