Why did the film "Andalusian Dog" cause an aesthetic shock in the viewer?

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The brightest example of surrealist cinema - the film "Andalusian dog" - just "explodes the brain" when viewed. It seems that this is a challenge not only to personal perception, but also to the entire logic that strictly determines our human consciousness. Perhaps, an ordinary viewer, the same as the author of this publication, due to limited perception or generally accepted intellectual clichés that are formed in society, culture, is unable to appreciate the entire author's message, intention. But the fact that this picture is worth watching, that's for sure. Personally, my mind, bound by the limited framework of the existing insignificant life experience, while watching, constantly repeated, rather yelled: “What nonsense!?”. And the subconscious, greedily listening to the hidden meaning, whispered: “Delightful!”.

While watching the film "Andalusian Dog" it is impossible to break away from what is happening on the screen. Even the famous opening sequence - cuttingeyes, during which the female face transforms into a dog's face, does not frighten, does not cause disgust and the desire to immediately stop watching. Watching the film further, I could not catch even a weak logical chain connecting what was happening together. And then, remembering the dreamlike nature of the images of the film, I took out the Dream Interpretation.

A film without a storyline

In this short film, there is no storyline in the usual sense for us, although Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali had something remotely resembling a script. "Andalusian Dog" is pure surrealism, in which every viewer can find or think of something of their own. After viewing the interpretation of some symbolic images by the Dream Interpretation, for me this picture is about human sins: lust, revenge, pride, indifference. And about madness! I can’t say that the film “Andalusian Dog” is madness, but it is definitely about madness. Outrageous creators - the corresponding picture - a shock to a wide audience. In the film, the unconscious is consciously turned into the main field of artistic research. It makes no sense to retell, and it will not work. The only thing I can say is that if the first part of the film can still be connected somehow, then the second part can only be observed, it is simply unrealistic to connect what is happening on the screen into a single whole. This is where you remember Buñuel, who was equally contemptuous of those who were outraged by his creation, and those who were madly admired by it.

Revolutionary renewal of consciousness

In any case, each image that appears in the film causes a surge of the subconscious, and instead of the usual logic, they are interconnected, where at any next moment each shown element can be replaced by its own analogue. Such a chain of substitutions: ants - blood, death - erotica. As a result, "Andalusian Dog", a unique experiment of young Spaniards, is still considered not only the most radical experience, but also one of the most utopian, clearly oriented to the renewal of consciousness, including cinematographic, film. And even if it remains incomprehensible to most viewers, it should be so: surrealism, nothing else.