1
Louis Buñuel:
Un Chien Andalou
and
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Modern filmmaking has told us one basic thing—it issimple, and not to be questioned. In “popcorn films”everything is right in front of you. The characters and plotlinesare shoved down your throats, while there are no questions leftunanswered. This is the exact “evil” that Luis Buñuel tries tofend off in his landmark films,
Un Chien Andalou
and
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.
Both films question themode of discourse known as narrative, the art or process of telling a story or giving an account of something.
Andalou
and
Bourgeoisie
, although they were made 43 years apart, do inessence, the same thing: whatever the director wanted.In his first film, Louis Buñuel collaborated with well-known surrealist SalvadorDali to create what Roger Ebert, the film critic who pioneered the ever so famous “twothumbs up,” would later call a “masterpiece.” So what makes this plotless cacophony of disjointed shots so impressive? Buñuel himself avowed that "No idea or image that mightlend itself to a rational explanation of any kind would be accepted [into the film]." Thefilm is meant to confuse and shock its audiences. That’s it; no fluff, no real literary,allegorical or, the always so easily assumable, symbolic, purpose, just visualrepresentations of actual dreams that both of the twenty-something year old, rookiefilmmakers had and remembered. Buñuel, when asked what he would do if he knew heonly had 20 years left to live, responded by saying that he would like 2 hours a day of activity, and 22 of dreaming—as long as he could remember what it was he dreamt about.The film’s opening sequencecontains one of the most well knownshots from its generation. Preceding theinfamous shot is one of a cloud almost“slicing” through the center of themoon.” Then, like something out of fear factor, a man slices open the eye of an unflinching young woman. Asshocking as this concept sounds, in thefilm, you actually see this take place.An actual Calf’s eye is used, to make itmore “sur-realistic.” This basicallysums up the fundamental nature of Buñuel’s shock schlock.Every movie has magic, and
Un Chien Andalou
is no exception. However,somehow, its brilliance far exceeds the realm of run of the mill 24 frame per second
Search History:
Result 00 of 00
00 results for result for
p.
Recommended
Notes
Load more
