Un Chien Andalou (1929)
★½ — Un Chien Andalou (1929)
Co-written by director Luis Buñuel and painter Salvador Dalí over the course of a few days (the pair reportedly built the script by sharing dreams and deliberately rejecting any image that carried obvious symbolic meaning), Un Chien Andalou is widely regarded as the founding document of surrealist cinema. Buñuel was a 29-year-old unknown when he shot it in Paris in 1928, financing the roughly two-week production with money from his mother. The film screened at Studio des Ursulines in 1929 to an audience that included Picasso and Le Corbusier, and it caused enough of a sensation to run commercially for eight months, drawing the attention of the Surrealist movement's figurehead André Breton. It would be Buñuel's calling card for years before he made his first feature, L'Age d'Or, the following year.
https://youtu.be/9TWte4WjtUU?si=T24BXINUY5EEi6xk Un Chien Andalou (1929), the infamous short film by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, is less a movie and more a 16-minute punch to the face of logic, narrative, and good taste, and that’s kind of the point. It’s surrealism at its most raw, designed to shock, confuse, and provoke. And it does, especially with that opening shot: a razor slicing through a woman’s eyeball. That image alone is so bold, so grotesquely unforgettable, it guarantees the film will never be forgotten. Technically, it’s impressive for its time, dreamlike editing, striking visuals, a total rejection of reason. But beyond the shock value, it’s just a series of bizarre, disconnected images, and armpit hair. There’s no story, no character, no arc. Just dream logic run amok. You can read into it (repressed desire, religious decay, Freudian nightmare), but it feels less like deep symbolism and more like two young artists saying, “What if we made something totally random and disturbing?” As arthouse cinema goes, it’s a landmark, no doubt. It broke rules, challenged audiences, and inspired generations of experimental filmmakers. But judged as an actual viewing experience it’s pretentious, cold, and emotionally empty. The eyeball scene shocks, sure, but the rest mostly just… happens. Impressive as a statement, exhausting as a film. A museum piece dressed as art. Not for me.
Rating: ★½ | Year: 1929 | Watched: 2025-09-22
Where to watch (UK)
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Luis Buñuel: Land Without Bread (1933) · Simon of the Desert (1965) · L'Âge d'or (1930) · The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)
More from France: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Letter from Siberia (1957) · Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Here and Elsewhere (1976)
More from the 1920s: The Eagle (1925) · The General (1926) · The Docks of New York (1928) · A Throw of Dice (1929)
More fantasy: Viy (1967) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)
