Un Chien Andalou offers its viewers 15 minutes of purely unsettling cinema, a film which still retains just as much shock value today, as it did after the films controversial release back in 1929.
The film follows a series of disturbing and often surreal montages, yet purposely fails to bind itself to any kind of linear narrative. We are immediately introduced to the films central protagonist, as he sharpens his blade in the moonlight. The film quickly cuts to the fair face of the second character that we follow, the protagonist slowly pulls his sharpened blade across her eye; thus begins a series of somewhat disturbing events.
Our central character travels by bike to the home of his, somewhat implied, love interest. He arrives and is immediately bed ridden, due to a fall from his bike. After recuperating, our attentions are alerted to a mob which have assembled on the street below. Curious as to the mobs intentions the couple dash to the window only to see a young woman who is struck down by an oncoming car.
The man seems almost turned on by the events witnessed proceeding to attack his on screen partner. They begin to fight. Destroying the home in the process, the two seamlessly travel between eerie backdrops including surreal rooms and corridors, the woods, finally ending their struggle beside the sea. Not the easiest of films to digest, it may even leave a bitter taste in your mouth, all the same this shocking film defies every conventional characteristic of the films of its day, reason enough to indulge in its grotesque yet sublime story.
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