Un chien andalou

Infobox Film
name = Un chien andalou


caption = The French poster for the film.
amg_id = 1:51646
imdb_id = 0020530
director = Luis Buñuel
producer = Luis Buñuel
writer = Luis Buñuel
Salvador Dalí
starring = Simone Mareuil
Pierre Batcheff
Luis Buñuel
Salvador Dalí
Jaime Miravilles
music =
cinematography = Albert Duverger
Jimmy Berliet
editing = Luis Buñuel
released =
runtime = 16 minutes
country = France
language = Silent
French intertitles
budget = < 100,000 francs
preceded_by = none
followed_by = L'Âge d'or
mpaa_rating = unrated
tv_rating = unrated

"Un chien andalou" ( _en. An Andalusian Dog) is a 1928 short surrealist film made in France by two Spanish auteurs: the Aragonian director Luis Buñuel and the Catalonian artist Salvador Dalí. It was Buñuel's first film and was initially released in 1929 in Paris only for a limited showing, but became popular and ran for eight months. [cite web|url=http://www.filmreference.com/Films-Ca-Chr/Un-Chien-Andalou.html|title=Un Chien Andalou|accessdate=2008-07-08] It is one of the best-known surrealist films of the avant-garde movement of the 1920s.

The film has no narrative, in the conventional sense of the word. There are two central characters, an unnamed man and woman, who seem to be having an affair. The film could be seen as a symbolic study of the emotions and societal pressures that cause their separation and the ending of their affair, and the fateful consequences of their discovery by the man's "father" and the woman's "husband".

The chronology of the film is disjointed, jumping from the initial "once upon a time" to "eight years later" without the events or characters changing that much. It uses dream logic that can be described in terms of then-popular Freudian free association, presenting a series of tenuously related scenes that attempt to shock the viewer's inner psyche.

ynopsis

"Note: For descriptive purposes, the main characters shall be referred to in the summary as, in order of appearance: the husband, the wife, the lover, the detective, and the father."The film opens with what may be the film's conclusion; an older man, the "husband", (played by Luis Buñuel) sharpens his razor at his balcony door and tests the razor on his thumb. He then opens the door, and idly fingers the razor while gazing at the moon, about to be engulfed by a thin cloud, from his balcony. There is a cut to a close-up of a woman, the "wife", (Simone Mareuil) as she calmly stares straight ahead. Another cut occurs to the moon being overcome by the cloud as the "wife's" eye is slit by the "husband" with his razor.

The subsequent title card reads "eight years later". A slim younger man, the "lover" (Pierre Batcheff), bicycles down a calm urban street wearing what appears to be a nun's habit and carrying a locked box with a strap around his neck. A cut occurs to the "wife", who has been waiting anxiously in a well-furnished upstairs room, hears the "lover" approaching on his bicycle and throws aside the book she has been reading to look out the window. She emerges from the building and attempts to revive the "lover" after witnessing him collapse.

Later, the woman assembles pieces of the "lover's" clothing on a bed in the upstairs room, and seemingly through thought, causes the "lover" to appear near the door. The "lover" and the "wife" analyze his hand, which has a hole in the palm from which ants emerge. A slow transition occurs focusing on the armpit hair of an unknown figure and a shrub at a sandy location, then showing an androgynous blind figure, the "detective", who is poking at a severed hand in the street below with a cane while surrounded by an upset crowd and the police.

, and two rather bewildered priests (played by Jaime Miravilles and Salvador Dalí) who are attached by ropes. As he is unable to move, the "wife" escapes the apartment.

A transition to "three in the morning" occurs. The "lover" is roused from his sleep in the apartment by the sound of a doorbell (represented by the shaking of a martini shaker by a set of arms through two holes in a wall). The "lover's" "father" (also played by Pierre Batcheff) seemingly arrives to punish him for his lecherous actions against the "wife", and a chase around the apartment ensues. The "lover" eventually shoots his "father" with two books he picks up that abruptly turn into pistols; the "wife" comes into the apartment to confront the "lover" and is shocked by what has happened. The "lover" subsequently makes her armpit hair attach itself to where his mouth should be on his face through gestures. The "wife" looks in shock and disgust at the "lover", and leaves the apartment sticking her tongue out at him.

As she exits her apartment, the street is replaced by a coastal beach. The "wife" meets the "husband" on the beach. They seem to walk away clutching each other happily in a long tracking shot. However, the film abruptly cuts to the final shot, showing the couple buried in sand up to their shoulders, presumably dead after the unknown events of the opening scene, bringing the film full circle.

Production

The idea for the film actually began when Luis Buñuel was working as an assistant director in France. Luis Buñuel told Salvador Dalí at a restaurant one day about a dream in which a cloud sliced the moon in half "like a razor blade slicing through an eye". Salvador Dalí responded that he'd dreamed about a hand crawling with ants. They were fascinated by what the psyche could create, and decided to write a script based on the concept of suppressed human emotions.

was left out due to budget limitations.

Given the general French public's distaste for surrealism, Buñuel and Dalí carried sacks of rocks in their pockets on opening night as self-defense, expecting a negative response from the audience. They were disappointed when the audience enjoyed the film, making the evening "less exciting", according to Dali.

The movie contains several thematic references to Federico García Lorca (who was in love with Salvador Dalí) and other writers of that time. For example, the rotting donkeys are a reference to the popular children's novel "Platero y yo" by Juan Ramón Jiménez, which Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí hated. Both of the leading actors eventually committed suicide; Batcheff overdosed on Veronal on April 13, 1932 in a hotel in Paris and Mareuil committed self-immolation on October 24, 1954 by dousing herself in gasoline and burning herself to death in a public square in Perigueux, Dordogne.

oundtrack

Modern prints of the film feature a soundtrack consisting of excerpts from Richard Wagner's "Liebestod", the concert version of the finale to his opera "Tristan und Isolde", and a recording of the Argentinian tango "Ole guapa". This is the same soundtrack that Buñuel chose and played live on a phonograph during the original 1929 screening in Paris. They were first added to a print of the film in 1960 under Buñuel's supervision. [Buñuel, 1968]

Analysis

In spite of varying interpretations made since the film originated, Buñuel made clear throughout his writings that, between Dalí and himself, the only rule for the writing of the script was that "no idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation of any kind would be accepted." [cite book |first=Luis|last=Buñuel|authorlink=Luis Buñuel|others=Abigail Israel (trans)|title=My Last Sigh|publisher=Knopf|location=New York|year=1983|isbn=0-394-52854-9] Moreover, he stated that, "Nothing, in the film, symbolizes anything. The only method of investigation of the symbols would be, perhaps, psychoanalysis." [cite book|last=Sitney|first=P. Adams|title=Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|year=1974]

Legacy

Film scholar Ken Dancyger has argued that "Un chien andalou" might be the genesis of the filmmaking style present in the modern music video. [cite book|last=Dancyger|first=Ken|title=The Technique of Film and Video Editing: History, Theory, and Practice|publisher=Focal Press|month=July | year=2002|isbn=0240804201] Roger Ebert has called it the inspiration for low budget independent films.cite web|url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20000416/REVIEWS08/401010369/1023|title=Un Chien Andalou (1928)|last=Ebert|first=Roger|date=2000-04-16|accessdate=2008-02-28|authorlink=Roger Ebert|publisher=Chicago Sun-Times] Premiere ranked the opening scene as 10th out of "The 25 Most Shocking Moments in Movie History". [cite web|url=http://www.premiere.com/best/2246/the-25-most-shocking-moments-in-movie-history-page11.html|title=The 25 Most Shocking Moments in Movie History|accessdate=2008-07-08]

As of July 2008, the film has an 8.1 out of 10 on the IMDb [imdb title|id=0020530|title=Un chien andalou] and a 100% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. [ [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/un_chien_andalou/ Un Chien Andalou Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes ] ]

Un Chien Andalou was mentioned in the book "How To Become Famous and Influence People", by Adam Selzer. The movie serves as inspiration for the main character, Leon Harris.

Un Chien Andalou is referenced in the Pixies song 'Debaser', and is cited as Frank Black as being a major influence on the band's work.

Notes

References

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External links

* [http://www.archive.org/details/Lu_sBu_uelySalvadorDal_UnChienAudalou Download or watch "Un chien andalou"] Dead link|date=September 2008 at The Internet Archive
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* [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20000416/REVIEWS08/401010369/1023 "Un chien andalou"] reviewed by Roger Ebert
* [http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/01/12/chien.html "Un chien andalou"] analyzed by Michael Koller