Product Description

Filmed in Paris in 1929, UN CHIEN ANDALOU is regarded as the first film produced purely from within the Surrealist movement and is a landmark in the history of cinema. Loving treatment to DVD includes, as bonus material, an interview/documentary with Jua

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12201 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-12-26
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, Full Screen, Silent, NTSC
• Original language: French
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 55 minutes

Amazon.com
Un Chien Andalou remains a startling artifact suggesting ways in which film can express the subconscious. The result of Luis Bunuel's collaboration with Salvador Dali, the 17-minute, 1929 film was designed expressly to shock and provoke. Opening with the canonical eyeball-slashing sequence and divided into baffling "chapters", this is a work of art obsessed with religion, lust, decay, violence, and death. Un Chien Andalou isn't simply one of the great works of the surrealist movement, but a segment of cinematic DNA that irrevocably altered the aesthetics of film. In its tangled corridors you find the seeds to the disappearing-mouth bit in The Matrix, the carcasses strewn through Peter Greenaway's A Zed and Two Noughts and pretty much the entire oeuvre of David Lynch. --Ryan Boudinot

DVD features
Since a 17-minute film on DVD is almost obligated to include featurettes, Un Chien Andalou includes interviews with Bunuel's son Juan-Luis, archival sketches, and some rather dreary commentary by author Stephen Barber. Most illuminating is Juan-Luis Bunuel's explanation of his father's and Dali's working methods in which any rational idea was left on the cutting room floor. Somewhat inappropriately, one of the extra features appears to be statement and portfolio by the fellow who designed the cover. Its inclusion defies rational explanation, but hey, maybe that's the point. --Ryan Boudinot

Customer Reviews

deserves better treatment for DVD
The Facets DVD of Un Chien Andalou is a disgrace. The frame was severly cropped at the top (some scenes feature actors lopped off at their foreheads). Contrast was boosted to the point where significant detail is lost. As if this weren't enough, there is a wide unsightly glitch running horizontally across the screen that lasts for 5 or so frames. Despite the interviews with Bunuel's son which are the only things worth the time here, I would avoid this disc. The film itself I think is great. It's a shame that a staple of art cinema has been handled so poorly for DVD.

Mesmerizing Surrealistic Short
Luis Bunuel made his directorial debut with 1929's "Un Chien Andalou" -- a 17 minute short film. The film was made in collaboration with the great surrealistic artist, Salvador Dali; this pairing was repeated for the 1930 masterpiece "L'Age D'Or." Viewing the first tentative steps of two giants is obviously fascinating, which is enough to recommend "Un Chien Andalou."

As with other great surrealistic films, the plot, such as it is, does not make any sense. Of course, themes can be derived from the work, although surrealism essentially is meant to be non-thematic. Some of the images from "Un Chien Andalou" are shocking and justifiably famous -- most notably a scene depicting a straight razor slicing into a woman's eyeball. Yes, these scenes are somewhat disgusting but also amazing for a film over 75 years old.

The film has not been updated or cleaned up at all, so the DVD image is somewhat murky. Bunuel added a music track in 1960 to what was originally a silent film; the score works beautifully. The DVD extras include an interview with Bunuel's son in which he discusses "Un Chien Andalou" as well as his father's rather tumultuous relationship with Dali. An audio commentary by Spanish surrealism expert Stephen Barber is also included; unfortunately, this track is pretty much unlistenable as Barber drones on about the history of surrealism in a deadly dull manner. Skip the audio commentary and just enjoy Bunuel's work as is.

simple yet effective
The film is most easily viewed when you take each scene as being essentially a work unto itself. However, there is a point to the film . It is about a man's struggles with sexual and religious repression and his quest to rid himself of both by killing. The ant in the hand symbolizes a french expression for murder. dragging the preist around deals with his religious hang ups and his fantasies of the girl have very obvious overtones of sexual repression. As for the eyeball slicing ......Dali liked to use the distorion (or in this case) destruction of an image of an eyeball to signal the warped ,surrealist, dimension he dealt with and Bunuel merely adopted this idea.