Sacred Love in Metaphor | "Un Chien Andalou"

Un Chien Andalou - 21 minutes

The story follows two individuals falling in love and in the process overcoming their own vulnerability and human imperfections. The film is without dialogue or diegetic sound and instead conveys emotion through gestures and visual allegories, along with a soundtrack to enhance the mood and signal shifts in emotion.

The intro sequence depicts a man sharpening a razor blade and serves to introduce the filmmaker’s presence and the dream logic of the film. The sharpening and cutting of his nail alludes to the editing and preparations to start the film itself. The backdrop is a curtain door, which evokes a stage and once the man exits the door, behind the curtains, then he stands on a balcony facing the camera and audience. The razor blade is then used to cut the woman’s eye to establish the surreal and emotive gestures that will drive the film. The cutting of the eye is experienced viscerally by the viewer and it’s as if our eye is cut. The viewer or camera inhabits the point of view of both characters, and the eye acts as a medium through which the viewer connects. First the camera points to the moon and clouds from the pov of the man, and then when the woman’s eye is cut, she is staring right at us and establishes a connection with the viewer such that we feel the sharpness just as she would.

The beginning sequence with the man bicycling establishes the camera as functioning both an observer and also the point of view of the man, and therefore sets up the dream logic in which the film moves through the characters' mindspace. Both characters inhabit this space as we see when they both watch a girl hold the dead hand in the street, as they both look up in different directions indicating that they are sharing a moment.

The ants in the man’s hand represents his impurities and imperfections. One’s reaction to the close up is grossed out and rejection. The woman’s vulnerability is interestingly her arm hair, which is alluded to by dissolving from the man’s hand and her armpit on the beach. Then it dissolves to a sea urchin stating that these imperfections are natural, innocent, and a part of nature just like this animal. The beach environment is important here because it is introduced as a space where both the couple’s insecurities are shared.

Interactions between the man and woman are represented and acted out in surreal and emotive sequences. For instance, as the woman is comforting the man, lying on the street after crashing his bicycle, the film cuts to her opening a box and laying out his clothes in her bed with tenderness. The striped box is a metaphor for the man’s heart, and inside is a tie which signifies his manhood, maturity, and individuality. At the end of the film when the couple is happily walking a beach, the woman picks up pieces of the broken box and fragments of his childish clothes and hand them to the man in a compassionate way, as if helping the man accept these parts of himself and unattach himself. This action affirms the couples love and acceptance for each other.