Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog) is a surrealistic film created in 1928. It was written by two young, largely unknown men, Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel, and directed by the latter. Of course, both these guys got plenty more than their fifteen minutes of fame...
Chien was Bunuel's first film. The movie was not intended to make any sense, and the title (Especially considering that there is not a single dog in the movie) illustrates this perfectly.
The film is based on dreams the two men had had - Bunuel told Dali that he dreamt he saw a moon being sliced in two by the
clouds. Dali wondered if it was like a razor cutting through an eyeball. Which got the story running. They tried to invent
shocking scenarios, and included them into the film (very much like the
video to
Nine inch Nails'
Closer, come to think of it).
The film - about 10 minutes in length - remains one of the most famous short films in the history of cinematography.
About the film
The film is highly confusing, filled with all kinds of symbolism that I personally can't make an awful lot of sense of. The first shot of the film is somebody slicing somebody else's
eyeball with a
razorblade*, and this is pretty much the tone of the film. Sections of seemingly unrelated actions -
ants walking out of a man's hand, a
sexual assault, a guy dragging two grand pianos with
donkeys and
priests on it, and hands laying around in the street. Very, very
bizarre.
*) This was of course not a real human eye, but rather the eye of a calf :-) Still gets quite a response from most people who watch the film, though.
Bunuel had on several occasions
laughed at people trying to link the
clips, and at one point said something to the effect that the analyst's behaviour is a parallel to
human behaviour; looking for things that aren't there.
This applies both for the individual
scenes, but also for the scenes themselves: where the
sexual assailant is
rejected, and afterwards starts pulling the grand pianos along;
people would normally assume that these two actions would have to have a
connection. Bunuel, however, claims this is not important, and that
actions should be seen as individual actions.
Audio:
In the 1960s,
music was added to the film, taken from
Tristan and Isolde by
Richard Wagner. The music was added because
Luis Bunuel thought that the film needed some aural inspiration as well. Strangely enough, the music fits the film very well.
Starring:
Simonne Mareuil and
Pierre Batchef.
Pictures from the film!
At this address, you can find pictures of all the keyframes in the film, and get a good idea of its action. You will still want to see the film though :)
http://www.tcf.ua.edu/Classes/Jbutler/T340/SurrealismUnChienAndalou1.htm