Un Chien Andalou
Dir: Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí
1929
*****
Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí's collaborative short piece is pure celluloid art. Dali & Bunuel collaborated to create one of cinemas greatest experimental films. The scene with the eye ball and the moon is what people remember when discussing the film, unfortunately it is often focused on the ridiculous question on whether it was 'real' which is totally missing the pure brilliance of the scene and it's editing. It's provocative and contradictory in it's structure, giving the illusion of plot and narrative. It is easy to wax lyrical about the film but the truth of the matter is that it is basically a merger of two dreams, one that Buñuel had (Slicing the moon in half) and one that Dalí had (Ants crawling on a hand). It has appeared on 'most shocking films of all time' lists since it was made and will continue to do so I'm sure but there is more to it. Un Chien Andalou is the birth of independent film, a deconstruction of the formula used until that point and in many respects, the template to the music video. An amazing film which I love but it doesn't deserve the attention it gets when Jean Cocteau's 1930 Blood of a Poet is so often overlooked.