Review of Un Chien Andalou (1929) by Ivan M — 03 May 2012

Luis Bunuel's remarkably strange short film collaboration with Salvador Dali is possibly one of the most influential and well-known short films ever made. So many great directors have nodded their heads towards this experimental picture in their work.

It begins with the infamous scene where, imitating a cloud slicing through the moon, we see a razor blade slicing through a woman's eye. Bunuel and Dali have said numerous times that there is no deep psychological meaning to any of it, and it was simply an experiment in camerawork and editing inspired by two dreams that they had discussed.

The films is quite disturbing, but what I see in it is a breakdown of all the conventional aspects of film. We see a woman look out a window, shocked. Then we cut to a man, injured, lying on the street.

We are conditioned to assume that this is naturally what the woman is looking at, but in this film, for all we know the two shots could be completely unrelated. It's a film that would be a challenge to watch if it were feature-length, but at twenty minutes, it's a wonderfully peculiar, dream-like surrealist film.