Un Chien Andalou

“Surrealism originated in the late 1910s and early '20s as a literary movement that experimented with a new mode of expression called automatic writing, or automatism, which sought to release the unbridled imagination of the subconscious.” (Voorhies, 2004)

Surrealism in art and literature, as defined above, did not really differ from Surrealist cinema. Surrealist films also showed unrestrained imaginations and dreams and unusual imagery. These films, unlike Classical Hollywood Style films, were not narrative. Causes of events in the film were difficult to decipher giving the audience different interpretations of the film.

Un Chien Andalou was an example of a surrealist film. It was a 1928 silent surrealist short film directed by Luis Buñuel. At first, I thought that the film had no point at all. However, when I analyzed the film scrupulously and tried to connect the scenes in the film, I realized that there were many possible stories based on different interpretations that can be extracted from the film, justifying the film’s creativity.

I really had a hard time coming up with a story line because of the nonlinear presentation of events. I believe that there were scenes that were not that significant to the film but somehow complemented the idea of the film. One thing that I am certain about the film is that it was about a man who was a homosexual. He was bitter to women and as a result, he wanted to kill the woman in the film.

The man on the bicycle wearing woman's clothes

Going further with the scenes in the film, I did not understand right away the scene where the man, wearing clothes for women, was driving his bicycle towards the woman’s house. I just realized that it showed his homosexuality when the flashback was shown. Sixteen years ago, the man was scolded by his father because he was wearing clothes for women. Because of this, the man killed his own father who happened to be the lover of the woman he wanted to kill.

A scene from the film where the woman's eyeball is to be slit

The scene where the eyeball of the woman were to be slit clearly implied that the woman was desired to be killed. When the man held the woman’s breasts, it seemed that he was just molesting the woman. However, connecting it to the idea that he was a homosexual, his expressions while he was holding the breasts and the way he held it were more likely to experience how it feels like to have breasts.

On the other hand, I did not see the connection to the other scenes of the scene where another woman was poking a hand on the street. Maybe it was related to the man’s hand where ants were coming out, which was shown several times in the film.

It was quite unclear in my part on how the woman happened to be with the father of the man when there was a scene that showed that the father already died. It seemed that the woman also died to bring her to the life where the father was present. This life was represented by a beach where the woman’s clothes thrown by the father and the box containing the man’s hand in the earlier scenes were present.

The woman and the father in one of the last scenes

Finally, the film was ended with a scene showing that the woman and the father were together until they both died in their new life. It somehow implied that the homosexual man was successful in his goal of killing the woman and whoever went his way like his own father.