Un Chien Andalou Shows Dalí’s Misogynistic Beliefs *spoilers*
Date Watched: December 5, 2020
Date Released: 1929
Director: Luis Buñuel
Screenwriters: Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí
Memorable Cast: Simone Mareuil (young girl) and Pierre Batcheff (man)
If art is a way to see into one’s soul, then this film can help one see a little into Dalí’s, and it’s not good.
I used to really like Salvador Dalí, him even being my favorite artist at one point. I liked his eccentric, outgoing persona and still believe his art and talent is incredible. I have always appreciated surrealistic art and he will always be connected to that whimsical world. But, learning of his troubled and problematic life was a real let down.
Dalí was a fascist who was fascinated with Hitler. Not a nice sight and not a nice guy. There have also been people who have called into question his treatment of women, which wouldn’t be that far of a stretch in my opinion. For someone who has sexualized so much of his art, why should I expect he would not sexualize the people around him as well? Especially considering how psychological his works were, being surreal, if you look hard enough, you just might see the true Dalí. It’s the closest we can do to try to get an inner working of him now, is to dissect his artwork.
Un Chien Andalou is a surrealist short film. As told by its creators, this movie is supposed to feel like a dream and be shrouded in mystery, not giving a lot of its meaning away. But, a few of its first scenes stick in my mind and, quite frankly, infuriate me when I think of this movie.
Pretty early on in the film a sexual assault encounter is shown between a man and a woman, with the perpetrator being the man. This scene made me very angry and uncomfortable. Especially since following it was a scene of said man dragging two pianos across the room with two donkey carcasses on top of them and religious figures hanging on as he is trying to move towards the woman, who has now retreated to hiding in a corner trying to protect herself with a tennis racket. Some have posited that this depiction was trying to slow down his attack and act as a final barrier between a more intense assault on the woman, especially pointing out that the religious figures could have been serving as a religious, moral effort to stop him (https://www.gradesaver.com/un-chien-andalou/study-guide/symbols-allegory-motifs). However, this description downplays the fact that this woman was already assaulted in their earlier interaction! Then to have the film end on them having a romantic interaction on a beach sealed this feeling of dislike in my mind for this film and Dalí.
Even besides the distasteful interactions shown in the film, I just don’t believe it was done well. For a surrealist film, it didn’t feel all that surreal and I thought the shots were underwhelming. Maybe considering that this was made one hundred years ago, I might be judging it harshly. But, that doesn’t give them the excuse to have made it so boring. There is a difference between bizarre art with a purpose and art that tries to be bizarre for the sake of being bizarre, and this felt like the latter. I understand that this opinion puts me in the minority when it comes to art and film lovers.
So, like many others, I am struggling with situations where I find myself struggling to see if I can separate the art from the artist. To me, I can no longer do this for Salvador Dalí. But even as I separate him, the terrible man, from this, an impactful work of surrealist art, I still think it sucks.
Rating: 2/10
I’ll give him the opening shot of the eye getting cut open, that was genius.
Some resources I found useful when researching about the not so great parts of Dalí:
https://www.vice.com/en/article/8qwp9v/its-really-surreal-how-salvador-dal-was-a-fascist-who-hit-women
https://culturacolectiva.com/art/salvador-dali-obsession-with-hitler
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2013/sep/23/salvador-dali-nazism-wallis-simpson
December 6, 2020