An Andalusian Dog
1928
What the fuck was that????
So this is one of those surrealist films that is "artsy and sophisticated" that no one really understands but they pretend to. It is a sixteen minute long French (of course) movie that just shows a series of weird, disturbing images in hopes of getting some sort of reaction. You have probably heard about the famous eye-splitting scene. That isn't the disturbing part. The ants are the disturbing part. There is a hole in this one guys hand where ants come out. Now I have been scared of ants since I stepped into an ant hill while volunteering for a park when I was younger. You should be too! Here are some scary ant facts.
1. The Argentian ant is a type of ant that lives in a global colony. That means that if an Argentian ant from Mexico and one from New Zealand met each other, they would work seamlessly together. A global colony!
2. They have been known to attack villages during droughts and then to eat babies and chickens.
3. They are superorganisms!!!
Anyway, back to the movie. Disturbing for disturbance's sake. I have seen a lot of better ways to communicate a message than just putting together a bunch of random scenes. Still, if you want to watch it, at least it is short.
RATING: *----
Interesting Facts:
Salvador Dali cameoed.
This is the shortest movie in the list.
Voted as one of the most dangerous movies by Premiere magazine.
The eye that got sliced was a cow's eye.
Available to watch on YouTube:
When I first read the 1001 book in 2009, this was one of the first films I saw (presumably because of its short length). The facts you mention are interesting, but the most noteworthy trivia to me is that both leads committed suicide. The man, played by Pierre Batcheff, overdosed in 1932. The woman, played by Simone Mareuil, set herself on fire publically in 1954. Yikes. :o
ReplyDeleteNick
I don't think I knew that (or if I did I forgot it). That's strange. They seemed so happy in the film...
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