Un Chien Andalu

As we learned from our previous lessons, Surrealist films are characterized by expressionistic and surreal imagery. We also learned that it has no cause and effect sequence, making its causality evasive. Un Chien Andalu is a great example of a Surrealist film. We were able to watch it last meeting on our cinema class.

At first I don’t have any idea of what we are watching. We didn’t understand what is being labeled because it was subtitled in a foreign language. But it’s a silent movie, so we just watched and tried to understand the scenes. We weren’t prepared of what to be expected that’s why we were shocked at some scenes, especially when the man slits the woman's eye with the razor. I really can’t move on with that scene.

Aside from that scene, different emotions ran out from our class as we watched the movie. It was weird, because we didn’t understand what the message of the short film was. Various scenes were weird, sexual and surreal, and the chronology of the film was disorganized, making it confusing to watch.

Un Chien Andalu was the first film of Luis Buñuel, and was co-directed by Salvador Dali. According to Wikipedia, Buñuel said that “it uses dream logic in narrative flow that can be described in terms of then-popular Freudian free association, presenting a series of tenuously related scenes.” He also said that nothing in the film symbolizes anything.

But aside from its weirdness, I think that the film was also great. It was unique. At some point I was also amazed because I can picture some ideas from the Surrealist painter Salvador Dali. This film would really make you think and would drive you into different emotions. Try watching it and maybe it would change your perspective about Surrealist films!