Un Chien Andalou (1929)

 Luis Bunuel's "Un Chien Andalou"

In 1917, while Luis Bunuel was attending the University of Madrid, he developed a very close relationship with soon-to-be famed painter Salvador Dali that lasted many years. After seeing Fritz Lang's "Destiny" in theaters in 1921, Bunuel decided that film was his passion. He enlisted Bunuel to help him make his first film, and using Bunuel's mother's funds, made a 16 minute film that make a significant imprint on the landscape of film all together, "Un Chien Andalou."

To describe the plot of "Un Chien Andalou" would be a difficult task, as the film has no plot in the conventional sense of the word. It features disjointed chronology, surruealist imagery, and hold no rational basis. The dream logic that Bunuel and Dali employ stems from the then-popular Freudian free association expression. The scenes in the film are tenuously related and create allow the viewer to pull abstract impressions from their own subconscious. To encapsulate the intentions of the film, Bunuel stated, "In the film, the aesthetics of Surrealism are combined to some of Freud's discoveries. The film was totally in keeping with the basic principle of the school, which defined Surrealism as 'Psychic Automatism,' unconscious, capable of returning to the mind its true functions, beyond any form of control by reason, morality or aesthetics."

In making this film, Bunuel was deliberately going against the approach to filmmaking that was used by his peers and mentors. While working as an assistant for famed French director Jean Epstein, he was taught that nothing in the work could be left to chance and that every decision in the film must have a rational explanation so that an audience could clearly connect each moment to the whole. When Bunuel was tasked by Epstein to go and work for Abel Gance on his masterpiece, "Napoleon," Bunuel refused. Angry, Epstein replied, "How can a little asshole like you dare to talk that way about a great director like Gance?" adding, "You seem rather surrealist. Beware of surrealists, they are crazy people." Rejecting everything he had been taught, Bunuel wanted to construct something that outraged the self-proclaimed artistic vanguard of his youth. 

Because Bunuel and Dali eliminated logical associations, they were able to construct a series of scenes and images that were purely untethered. This untethering of convention, logic, and association allowed for audiences to freely associate, therby becoming participants in the story by using their own subconscious associations to project a sense of personalized meaning to the work. 

Both Bunuel and Dali wanted the reaction to the film to be outrage. They envisioned themselves as rebels against the stuff artists of their time and for their film to be a weapon against the artistic movements of their time. However, quite on the contrary, "Un Chien Andalou" was received with massive praise from the artistic community. When the film was released in 1929 at Studio des Ursulines, some notable attendees included Jean Cocteau, Christian Berard, Georges Auric, Andre Breton, and Pablo Picasso. Bunuel and Dali believed the screening would ingnite a riot. However, the 'intellectual bourgeoisie' that Bunuel and Dali felt they were trying the shock and insult actually lauded the film. The periemer was a triumphant success, which Dali later stated was "less exciting."

On the other hand, the general public had more of the reaction that Bunuel and Dali were expecting. During its eight month run in 1929, many went to the police to demand the 'indecent and cruel' film be banned. Bunuel received insults and even death threats over his film. There was even an outlandish claim that two miscarriages occurred while watching the film. Despite the uproard and protest over the film, it was never banned.

Today, "Un Chien Andalou" is considered of the most important films ever made. It is the seminal work in the genre of surrealism and stretched the boundaries for future films. Film scholar Ken Dancyger argues that the film might be the genesis of the filmmaking style used in the modern music video. Roger Ebert considers the film to be the inspiration for low budget independent cinema, as Bunuel and Dali went outside of the studio financing system to create their own independent work for less than 100,000 francs. It is a film that went outside the scope of anything conventional about film and filmmaking, which is why it is still inspiring filmmakers to this day.