Class 1 | Assignment | Written Response
Art Movement: Surrealism
Artwork: Short Film: "Un Chien Andalou”
Artist: Luis Buñuel & Salvador Dali.
Year: 1928
“What did I just watched??!#*@!” “Huh?” “Whaaaaat?”
"Un Chien Andalou" (1928) by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali
Speechless, confused, and beyond disturbed. These are just a few words I can think of after Marina asked us after she has shown a short film "Un Chien Andalou" (1928) by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali. Even when I rewatched it a couple more times, my understanding of the short film’s plot has yet to be improved but I am left even more confused than seeing it the first time in class.
Numerous symbols and visual metaphors are used throughout the film and without realizing that I tried to relate to some of the scenes through my personal experiences.
One in particular at the beginning of the film, when the male actor sliced off a woman’s eye in a meticulous manner along with my relief when the scene was redirected to an elongated cloud slicing the moon instead, but to my surprise the white milky goo oozes out of the women’s eyeball. A sudden burst of my childhood memory came to light when I had to bisect a cold murky cow’s eyeball in Biology class in 9th Grade and came along with this recollection was the feelings of disgust just by looking at it and I knew that it was dead but I cannot help but think that it was and still is staring at me and I mean there are about 25 kids in a class, that’s a lot of staring! However, at the same time I was eager and could not wait to pop, poke, stab it to see what's inside. So I guess curiosity trumps all discomfort and on the upside, I learned what’s inside an eyeball and to shut my eyes when the women’s eye was sliced.
In addition, I noticed that the storyline was put together not cohesively as though they are a collection of different dreams stitched together or different parts of a dream that can not be remembered as a whole but in small scenes at a time. For instance, many times I dreamt, I would usually remember how I felt, a good or a bad dream. But as I attempt to think in detail of where was I? what happened? why was I there? I can never remember these detailed as a whole but only in pieces. A big chunk of missing pieces. Did Buñuel and Dali purposely make the film this way? or was it a technical limitation back in the days because if this technique was intentional I can only admire and comprehend why surrealism is one of the major art movement.
If the artist’s goal was to stir and disrupt the viewer’s perspective of looking at anything differently, then I think they have succeeded.They redefine this saying “Breaking out of your comfort zone” that I usually remind myself whenever I need inspiration or to learn something new and to embrace whatever might happen.