It explores dreamlike states and impossible ideas such as the pulling of a grand piano. The spacial continuity is disjointed through the involvement of various spaces of action such as when the woman opens the door from a living room onto a beach, which is entirely impossible and lacks reality. The characters consistently look off screen or directly into the camera, breaking the “fourth wall”, which subverted the golden rule of classical narrative and violated the illusion that the viewer was simply an observer and creates an unnerving sense that the characters ‘know’ they are being watched.
The editing throughout is very cutting-edge for the period. Featuring cross-cuts, fading and overlays which subvert the inconspicuous, methodical editing …show more content…
The most famous images within the film are the severed hand, a hand swarmed with ants and a hand slicing into a woman’s eyeball with a razor blade. The repetitive use of the hand within Un Chien Andalou symbolises fetish; “what hands can do and how they can generate both intense pleasure and intolerable pain.” (Hutchinson, 2014) This relates back to the themes of subconscious desires which is emphasised by the grotesque imagery which dominates the film. Dali compared the slicing with “the tenderness of gentle cuts of a scalpel on the curves of her pupils” (Elder, 2012:619) which proposes that this imagery has erogenous suggestions and “those implications explain the connection with the soft wisps of the clouds caressing the moon.”(Elder, 2012:619) It is a clear subversion from classical cinema, designed to create ‘unpleasure’ within audiences who are used to aesthetically pleasing representations. For example, the first scene shows a “large close up of a blade slicing an eye: the blade moves across the frame, and leaves the frame at the left; transparent ooze is excreted from the cut.” (Boldt, 2008) A female character’s eye is mutilated however this moment has no explanation or connection to the rest of the film, as we see the same woman with an unharmed eye in the following scenes. Its inspiration coming from Buñuel’s own dream emphasises the dreamlike nature of the film as we are unsure whether …show more content…
This is seen within the film, when for example, the male character sexually attackers and pursues the female, erotically groping her. He is relentless and ignores her rejections as she tries to protect herself, which in bourgeois society would have been deemed vastly inappropriate, and highlights Bunuel’s subversion from the safe, respected themes of classical cinema. The soundtrack signifies a sense of black humour as its upbeat, non-diegetic nature undermines this grotesque imagery.
“Historically, this film represents a violent reaction against what at the time was called ‘avant garde cine’ which was directed exclusively to the artistic sensibility and to the reason of the
The editing throughout is very cutting-edge for the period. Featuring cross-cuts, fading and overlays which subvert the inconspicuous, methodical editing …show more content…
The most famous images within the film are the severed hand, a hand swarmed with ants and a hand slicing into a woman’s eyeball with a razor blade. The repetitive use of the hand within Un Chien Andalou symbolises fetish; “what hands can do and how they can generate both intense pleasure and intolerable pain.” (Hutchinson, 2014) This relates back to the themes of subconscious desires which is emphasised by the grotesque imagery which dominates the film. Dali compared the slicing with “the tenderness of gentle cuts of a scalpel on the curves of her pupils” (Elder, 2012:619) which proposes that this imagery has erogenous suggestions and “those implications explain the connection with the soft wisps of the clouds caressing the moon.”(Elder, 2012:619) It is a clear subversion from classical cinema, designed to create ‘unpleasure’ within audiences who are used to aesthetically pleasing representations. For example, the first scene shows a “large close up of a blade slicing an eye: the blade moves across the frame, and leaves the frame at the left; transparent ooze is excreted from the cut.” (Boldt, 2008) A female character’s eye is mutilated however this moment has no explanation or connection to the rest of the film, as we see the same woman with an unharmed eye in the following scenes. Its inspiration coming from Buñuel’s own dream emphasises the dreamlike nature of the film as we are unsure whether …show more content…
This is seen within the film, when for example, the male character sexually attackers and pursues the female, erotically groping her. He is relentless and ignores her rejections as she tries to protect herself, which in bourgeois society would have been deemed vastly inappropriate, and highlights Bunuel’s subversion from the safe, respected themes of classical cinema. The soundtrack signifies a sense of black humour as its upbeat, non-diegetic nature undermines this grotesque imagery.
“Historically, this film represents a violent reaction against what at the time was called ‘avant garde cine’ which was directed exclusively to the artistic sensibility and to the reason of the