Cinema
An Andalusian Dog
Un chien andalou
Luis Buñuel · 1929
Synopsis
A man sharpens a razor, then slices a young woman's eye. “Eight years later”, announces an intertitle: a cyclist dressed as a nun falls in the street, ants crawl out of the palm of a hand, a man drags two pianos loaded with dead donkeys and priests. The intertitles give out indications of time that do not follow one another, and no image is explained: the narrative follows the logic of a dream rather than that of a story.
Context
The screenplay arose from a conversation between Buñuel and Dalí, who told each other their dreams, among them one of a hand covered with ants, and was written in a few days, rejecting any image that could be given a rational explanation. The film was presented on 6 June 1929 at the Studio des Ursulines. Buñuel, who expected a scandal, had stones in his pockets; the reception was favourable, and the film then ran for eight months, despite complaints lodged with the police.
Who it is for
A silent short film of about twenty minutes; there is no story to follow, only images that follow one another.
Prizes and reception
Shown to the Surrealists, it ran for eight months in cinemas and remains the founding image of Surrealism in cinema.
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