Review: An Andalusian dog (1929)

Director: Luis Buñuel | 16 minutes | short film, fantasy | Actors: Simone Mareuil, Pierre Batcheff, Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí, Robert Hommet, Marval, Fano Messan, Jaime Miravilles

Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí co-wrote the screenplay for this short film that is primarily intended to shock the audience in an artistic way. They have succeeded masterfully in this set-up. Just as Sergei Eisenstein did in ‘Bronenosets Potyomkin’ (1925), they beautifully interweave dream images and visions with images from reality. At least, Buñuel and Dalí go one step further by stretching the concept of ‘reality’ in such a way that no logic whatsoever exists, except that the absence of any logic and reality turns out to be only a limited concept.

Especially notorious is the scene in which a man cuts a woman’s eye. If you look closely, you can see that the eye being cut is in fact a cow’s eye. But most importantly, however shocking the scene is, it is not gross or gross to watch, but has a special kind of beauty. Even with an aversion to horror films, you cannot but acknowledge that it is a very beautiful image. The other scenes are no less intense and at the same time are and are not connected with each other, whereby a recurring element is the violence in many forms.

The impact this film had on release is obvious, as well as the influence on later generations of filmmakers. Regardless of the innovative aspect, where much of what now seems so obvious then seemed to come from another planet, the film is surprisingly modern and still incredibly intriguing to watch. So you don’t always have to think about how old he is to like him very much.

‘Un chien andalou’ is a brilliant, groundbreaking film. The violence is stylized and beautifully portrayed, the acting fantastic and the (non-) story timeless. A special and impressive experience awaits every film lover who has not yet seen him.