Un Chien Andalou - Reflective Analysis

Un Chien Andalou

Reflective Analysis

Opens with credits saying “Il etait un fois” which translates to once upon a time. This affects the audience as it gives the initial impression that the film will be innocent with the fairy tale feature. It then becomes obvious that this isn’t the case, with the first ‘scene’ of the film, with the male character sharpening a razor, followed by the shocking clip of the women's ‘eye’ being cut open. This provokes the reaction of the audience, as the once upon a time theory clearly falling through.

The slicing of the eye, despite how shocking the image may be, it is quite clearly not the eye of a human, but instead potentially a pig, or a shaven donkey face (quite possible as we see donkeys later on in the film) in the place of the woman.

By having the man coming home on the bike, suggests that perhaps the directors have tried to give the film some form of narrative, by showing that he is coming back from work as a nurse. It is possibly a visual gag by having the woman somehow sense that he has arrived home, by not having any further indications as to the fact he is just outside the house. As she throws the book back down, the shots the audience a picture in the book which shows a woman sat with a book, just like she had been doing. (Inception?) This is then followed by another visual gag of the man on the bike, just falling down onto the path, without any reason, causing the woman to go into distress. Then the woman lays out his clothes on the bed, as if hoping he will reappear in them in front of her. This fits in with the theme of surrealism, as it doesn’t make sense, by challenging the realms of reality.

After this, the man is then looking at his hand, as a swarm of ants appear out of a hole in his palm. It is believed the idea for this scene came from the dream of one of the directors had, with the same scene. This was partly the inspiration for the film.

Following this, there is a scene with a man’s hand in the middle of the road. There is a woman beside it, poking it with a shit. There is no real reason for the scene, as it has no significance. However, towards the end of the scene there is an overhead shot, showing as the surrounding crowd begins to part. It resembles the shot of the ants on the man’s hand.

The man in the next scene, begins to touch the body of the woman, but fantasises over the body being shaped differently, or thinks about a bum, and the woman’s body begins to shaped into what it is he is fantasising. However, the woman doesn’t appreciate being fondled in that manner, and tries to escape him by running around the room, with him close at her tail. She stands in the corner using a clock as her weapon, as the man tries to drag in 2 pianos, with priests attached and dead donkeys on top. This could be a reference to the bible, as the priests are a symbol of Christianity, and the donkeys are referencing Mary, travelling on the donkey to Bethlehem. As Mary was always referred to as a virgin, it is possible that this scene is trying to show that the woman was a virgin, and that is why she disagreed with him touching her, as she wishes to remain pure.

As the woman is trying to escape further, she runs into a different room, which appears to be in the same room she was in. Where the clothes were on the bed, the man has now appeared but fully dressed in those clothes just as she had hoped. This is a convention of surrealism, as this isn’t a part of the conscious mind, but in fact parts of the unconscious, by having the unusual happen.

Then, the future self of the man appears in the room, and starts yelling at his younger self, giving him a time out. The younger man then pulls a gun out and shoots at his older self. Again, this shows it is surrealism because if he shoots an older version of himself, he must die as the younger self, as that man is no longer alive.

The scenes then change, showing a forest, with a dead body in the centre. As the men gather round the body, we are reminded of an earlier scene with the hand in the road, as the men would gather around then to examine to situation. This is could possibly be visual gag as this tends to happen in real life, and therefore is relatable.

The woman is then at home, and sees a butterfly on the wall, and has a moment’s epiphany, as it appears there is a skull on the butterfly’s body. This would be a symbol of death, foreshadowing the final scene at the beach.  When at the beach, it would appear that the couple are back and are now happy, as appose to earlier when she was trying to escape him. The film then finishes with the couple presumably dead in the middle of the beach with just their heads and torsos visible above the sand. This shows that the film is surreal, as there isn’t any real narrative to the film, and the beginning scenes don’t correspond to the final scenes.