An Andalusian Dog
Un Chien Andalou
Written and directed by
Luis Bunuel and
Salvador Dali.
Score by
Richard Wagner.
Cinematography by
Albert Duverger.
Cast includes Pierre Barcheff as The Cyclist, Simone Mareuil as The Woman, Luis Bunuel as The Man with the Razor, also
Dali and Jaime Maraville as The
Marxist Monks.
This is a 1929 silent, black and white film, which featured the collaboration of two great minds, Luis Bunuel, and Salvador Dali. The movie itself is 17 minutes long.
Originally, Bunuel had written a short screenplay for a film which he planned to make with money from his mother. Dali had seen this screenplay, but found it mediocre. He informed Bunuel that he himself had written a short screenplay which had the touch of genius, and deliberately countered the contemporary cinema. Together, Bunuel and Dali worked out several ideas, and the title, Le Chien Andalou.
Originally Bunuel had taken on the directing, casting, staging and production, but later Dali moved to Paris and kept in close touch with progress or the film, and took part in directing. Bunuel without question accepted every idea and suggestion by Dali, and incorporated them into the movie.
Even before the making of the movie began, the two artists had agreed that they will not accept any idea or image that was susceptible of rational, psychological, or cultural explication. The film was meant to break away from avant-garde tradition by focusing on content and meaning of the images, as well as cinematic content. At the time, the film was accepted as anti-bourgeois. Dali and Bunuel were out to open a door into the irrational, and in accepting the striking images for the film they were not concerned about the possible rationale of the images. The man dragging a piano, for example, was meant to question man's progress in life, being hindered by the baggage of conventional society.