Created by Director Luis Bunuel and the artist Salvador Dali, 'Un Chien Andalou', is a short surreal film inspired by Freudian concepts. The film begins with imagery that creates a sense of unease and possible disgust with no real explanation. This sets the tone for the film, as it is strange and a bit disturbing. Released in 1929 it is a black and white silent film without much of a plot.
Un Chien Andalou follows a dream-like format, jumping between strange imagery without explanation or consistency. There's a slight perverse voyeuristic edge to it, with connotations of sex, desire, fear and guilt amongst other things show through disturbing imagery, such as ants crawling out of someones hand. There is obvious conflict in the piece which could be seen to relate to Freud's theory of ID, Ego and Super Ego. This theory suggests that there are three parts to a persons 'psyche', the ID which are the instinctual desires we may not be aware of, the Super-Ego which 'protects us' from the dark sides of our ID, acting as a form of moral consciousness and produces feelings of guilt and the Ego which mediates between the two.
There is a suggestion of pleasure at macabre and disturbing things, signify repressed desires and infatuations people may have which seems in keeping with the idea of the Super Ego. Specifically there is the scene where the man suddenly begins trying to make advances on the woman, imaging her naked as he does so. He then is seen dragging pianos, dead animals and priests behind him which seem to be holding him back, this could possibly indicate the ID trying to 'hold him back' from his desires, his more animalistic nature, with connotations of certain society based structures he should conform with, such as religion (illustrated with the priests). However the things he drags also have a 'dark' edge to them, for example the the priests are seemingly being hung and the cows are bleeding, so the previous interpretation could be mistaken, instead it could be seen as the man trying to show the woman his darker side and corrupt her with them.
Other freudian concepts seem to be illustrated in this film, such as gender rolls, by suggestions of a man dressed as a woman and a woman dressed in more 'masculine' way and possibly males' fear of castration, illustrated at 10:00 with a father-like figure taking control. However this is all open to interpretation.
The filmmakers were surprised when people actually liked the film, as they had expected a negative response due to it's shocking content. Even today the film still has content that makes viewers wince. Without a strong narrative or plot however it is quite hard to understand the context and overall 'message' the director and Dali are trying to convey, despite the fact that it is attempting to follow 'dream logic'. The problem is that the experience of dreaming and of watching a film are completely different, one is based in the unconscious the other is a conscious process therefore the surrealism of the film can be jarring and confusing.
There is a suggestion of pleasure at macabre and disturbing things, signify repressed desires and infatuations people may have which seems in keeping with the idea of the Super Ego. Specifically there is the scene where the man suddenly begins trying to make advances on the woman, imaging her naked as he does so. He then is seen dragging pianos, dead animals and priests behind him which seem to be holding him back, this could possibly indicate the ID trying to 'hold him back' from his desires, his more animalistic nature, with connotations of certain society based structures he should conform with, such as religion (illustrated with the priests). However the things he drags also have a 'dark' edge to them, for example the the priests are seemingly being hung and the cows are bleeding, so the previous interpretation could be mistaken, instead it could be seen as the man trying to show the woman his darker side and corrupt her with them.
Other freudian concepts seem to be illustrated in this film, such as gender rolls, by suggestions of a man dressed as a woman and a woman dressed in more 'masculine' way and possibly males' fear of castration, illustrated at 10:00 with a father-like figure taking control. However this is all open to interpretation.
The filmmakers were surprised when people actually liked the film, as they had expected a negative response due to it's shocking content. Even today the film still has content that makes viewers wince. Without a strong narrative or plot however it is quite hard to understand the context and overall 'message' the director and Dali are trying to convey, despite the fact that it is attempting to follow 'dream logic'. The problem is that the experience of dreaming and of watching a film are completely different, one is based in the unconscious the other is a conscious process therefore the surrealism of the film can be jarring and confusing.
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