June 04, 2005

Un chien andalou (NSFW? spoiler alert) is a silent film made by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali.
posted by Jerry Junior 18 years ago
  • Debaser!!!!! :)
  • I still remember the scene with the razor and the eyeball *shudder*.
  • Jerry, don't post again today, there's a good chap.
  • Whatever today is wherever I won't, Chyren. Not to worry.
  • Good lad.
  • Excellent post. Ubuweb is a bloody brilliant website. Its quite a shame that its died, recently UbuWeb | 1996-2005 Dear Friends, The UbuWeb Project -- a decade-long experiment in radical distribution of avant-garde materials -- has finished. Founded in 1996, the project has been a success beyond anyone's wildest expectations. As of Spring, 2005, it averaged over 10,000 visitors daily and hosts nearly a terabyte of artworks in all media by over 500 artists. The site will be donated to a university shortly, where it will be archived intact for posterity. Please note that the site will no longer be updated. A URL linking to the archive will be posted on this page. The editors wish to thank you for supporting this experiment and, as a result, may a thousand flowers bloom in its wake. Sincerely, The Editors 9 years is a pretty good life span for a website, though
  • Oh, that was Jerry again? Hope things have settled down....
  • Oh boy, this is great. I got some of the Fluxus clips some time ago somewhere else, but the wealth of stuff in there... thanks. Ha, they even have Cage's 4'33". And they don't charge 99 cents for it... : )
  • Sorry, folks. I constructed the post before the catficght. Mea maxima culpa.
  • I personally think the film is more Buñuel than Dali, even though Dali claimed that he was the major creative force (he was a fucking egomaniac albeit a hugely talented one). I have always felt this. Although some of the elements turn up in later Dali works (ants puking from wounds etc) Buñuel's films seem to show more continuity from these beginnings with this feeling of fractured time, a sort of kaleidoscopic reality. The slit eye was that of a cow, btw. I love the moon/eye analogy with the cloud/blade. That is fucking brilliant. It's just awesome. Truly a dream image. My favorite Buñuel film is Simon of the Desert. Very good post.
  • What did I kill the fuckin thread, again????
  • Ah, Berkeley, California, in the late 1950s/early 1960s, at the Cinema Guild for which Pauline Kael picked the films, was my introduction to movies that weren't standard Hollywood fare. Los Olvidados was the Buneul film which affected me the most. Un Chien Andalou was startling, but Olvidados was riviting. I'm sure I would never have seen any art cinema if it weren't for Kael.
  • My favorite is Exterminating Angel, with El and That Obscure Object of Desire running a close second and third. He's one of my cultural touchstones.
  • Mine too -- thanks for this post! (I'm sorry to hear about UbuWeb, but I'm glad it will still be around, even if frozen in time.)
  • Brrrr, cool memories. Don't get me started on Belle du Jour. Or Eraserhead.
  • Awww... my current sig other and I got kinda close for the first time during a screening of this film...
  • Ubuweb had been a touchstone for me. I am sad to see it go--but like others, am glad that it will be preserved. If you haven't dl'ed any of the mp3s from the 365 Day Project from the "Outsiders" portion of Ubuweb, hie thee quickly. Where else might you discover such treasures?
  • Thanks for telling me how the slit eye was done. I've been haunted by that forever. AAHAHAH I still am. AAAAAAAAjfewn
  • Great, great post!
  • Mr. Koko (who was reading over my shoulder) says the creativity was pretty much divided evenly between Buñuel and Dali. Buñuel just happened to direct it. Nice post.
  • Good post. This film was strange enough to watch twice in a row, once with the original st, the other with some windbag doing commentary. The film was great. The windbag was something else...
  • Gotta second Path on Los Olvidados. I saw it for the first time while taking a narrative strategies class as an undergrad. Blew me away. I consistently reccomend to people as a masterwork of film. Go see it now. did I mention that I think it's good?
  • Also, read Buñuel's autobiography, My Last Breath, if you like teh funny.
  • Interesting movie, neat visuals, but that is as far as I can take it. I was always terrible at extracting any sort of meaning or analogies from movies unless they are very, very obvious. I prefer boobies, explosions, and weak plots.
  • There is no meaning in surrealism.
  • Yes, it's as beautiful as the chance meeting on a dissecting-table of a sewing-machine and an umbrella. /sarcastic rejoinder
  • Or on a bombing run of a mule and a stethoscope. /sarcastic re-rejoinder?
  • ah, smith, don't change