Contexts- surrealism

How does the author, Kristy Worrow, describe Un Chien Andalou in their opening?

An experimental surrealist short that is arguably the most visceral and shocking film of the silent era and it an iconic work of the Surrealist movement

Explain the creative context to the film.

Surrealist artists aim to bypass rational thought processes to represent their repressed desires. In doing so they want to challenge the values of bourgeoise European society.

What do you need so it's not nonsensical?

Needs to be viewed through a Freudian lens.

What is Jean Vigo’s interpretation of the eye being cut in the first scene

Jean Vigo offered this interpretation: “It tells us in this film we must see with a different eye”. Explain. It tells us that we must view the film through a different eye, to give way to the irrational, the destruction of the conventional eye.

How is psychoanalysis a useful tool to understanding surrealist content?

Views films as expressions of the subconscious minds of their creators and have considered how personal desires and anxieties are revealed through film works

Explain why Freud’s work is important to film and film studies

Surrealism was the art world’s response to Freud, with many artists using his therapeutic techniques in the creation of their works, Hitchcock was also inspired by Freud in his works.

What is Sabina Stent’s interpretation of the film?

Hands a symbol of fetish which highlight what hands can do and how they can generate both intense pleasure and intolerable pain. Therefore they connote male sexual desire and are phallic symbols.

When ants appear out of Batcheff’s hand, what symbolism is attached

Connotes death and decay perhaps . 1929 anxieties around the impact of aging on sexual potency is a common male neurosis according to Freud. However it can commonly be read as a symbol of masturbation. The hand phallic, and the hole represents the female yoni. Ants are a symbol of productivity, but in this trinity of symbols productivity is sinful.

Explain the use of severed hands in the film

Alludes to the threat given to boys to stop them from masturbation, chopping their hands off. Later, Batcheff and Mareuil witness a severed hand in the road bellow the apartment. A young, fashionable androgynous woman pokes it with a stick. The disembodied hand had been widely viewed as a symbol of Freud’s idea of ‘Castration anxiety’.

How would you interpret Batcheff chastising Batcheff?

Id, ego and super-ego

What surrealist signifiers are discussed when Batcheff wants to have sex with Mareuil?

The tablets- symbolise 10 commandments, grand piano represents high culture which is informed by Christian narrative, the donkeys are humble and associated with biblical texts

As enlightened artists what were Bunuel and Dali aware of?

How traditional Christian dogma hegemony of Europe judged their respective sexual choices