Un chien andalou (1929)

Director:

Luis Buñuel

Writers:

Salvador Dalí (scenario) and
Luis Buñuel (scenario)

Release Date:

6 June 1929 (France)

Genre:

Short | Drama | Fantasy

Plot:

In a dream-like sequence, a woman's eye is slit open--juxtaposed with a similarly shaped cloud obsucuring...

Plot Keywords:

Donkey | Moon | Ants | Piano | Severed Hand

Cast

Simone Mareuil	...	Young girl (as Simonne Mareuil)
Pierre Batcheff	...	Man (as Pierre Batchef)

Also Known As:

An Andalusian Dog (USA)
Un perro andaluz (Argentina) (Chile) (Spain) [es]
Andalusialainen koira (Finland) [fi]
Den andalusiska Hunden (Sweden) [sv]
Den andalusiske hund (Denmark) [da]
Ein andalusischer Hund (Germany) [de]
Pies andaluzyjski (Poland) [pl]
Um Cão Andaluz (Portugal) [pt]
Un chien andalou (Italy) [it]

Runtime:

16 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1956 ) (uncut) | Finland:(Banned) (1962) (uncut) | Finland:K-16 (1977) (uncut) | Finland:K-16 (1962) (cut) | Singapore:NC-16 | Argentina:16 | UK:15 (video rating) (1994) | UK:X (original rating) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, France

Trivia:

In 1960, a soundtrack was added to this film at the direction of Luis Buñuel. He used the same music which was played (using phonograph records) at the 1929 screenings - extracts from "Liebestod" from Richard Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" and two Argentinian tangos.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Hell in the Pacific (1968)

Soundtrack:

Tristan und Isolde: Liebestod

Open Doors To The Irrational

Couple of weeks ago I visited Philadelphia Museum of Art. One of the reasons I went there was to try to see the Salvador Dali's exhibitions but the tickets have been sold until the end of April. While in the museum, I was able to see two films that Dali was a big part of. In the video Gallery of the museum, two intriguing projects have been running together in the continuous loop, the early "Un Chien Andalou" (17 minutes) and the recently released, animated Destino (6 minutes). This was the first viewing for me. I kept coming back to the gallery for few more times and I never was tired of both short films.

The inspiration for "Un Chien Andalou" began with the dreams of two men, two artists, and two friends. Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali exchanged the dreams they both had, Bunuel - about a slender cloud slicing the moon in half "like a razor blade slicing through an eye", and Dali - about a dream involving a hand enveloped by ants. Both artists soon began working on a film script based on these ideas.

Made in 1929, the film has not aged at all. The film's disconnected but haunting scenes and images are as shocking today (at least, for me they were) as I am sure they were 75 years ago. The reason the film is so powerful today may be in the themes of love, sex, death, and decay that are eternal and will always attract the artists and audiences alike. It is also could be in the establishing and following by both artists the certain rules, "No idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation of any kind will be accepted...We had to open all doors to the irrational and keep only those images that surprised us without trying to explain why." Perhaps, Dali and Bunuel intended their film to be experienced directly and not analyzed by the viewers.