Surrealism emerged from the Dada art movement in the early 20th century. Surrealist films aimed to explore taboo topics like sex and religion by using unconventional editing techniques that juxtaposed random objects and events. Two influential early surrealist films were Un Chien Andalou (1929) and L'Age D'Or (1930) directed by Luis Bunuel, which featured surreal imagery and disrupted narrative continuity. While surrealism aimed to be free-form, filmmaking requires planning, raising questions about whether the medium is suited for surrealist ideals. The films of Jan Svankmajer provide an example of highly planned surrealism that was still anti-establishment.

1. Surrealism
Revision Presentation

2. Choice of two questions:
1) Film making techniques and MICRO features
2) Historical context/development of surrealism

3. Surrealism Revision Notes:
Emerged from Dada Art Movement
Rejects bourgeois notions of art, culture and aesthetics
Andre Breton wrote the first Surrealist Manifesto in 1924
Surrealism and Psychoanalysis emerged at the same time
Surrealist film makers saw cinema as a way to explore
taboo topics such as sex, sexuality, religion. They saw
surrealist film as allowing them to explore hidden and
forbidden desires. This links with the emergence of
Freudian psychoanalysis.

4. In his youth Andre Breton used to go to random screenings of
films; watching an assortment of disconnected films –
sometimes entering the cinema mid-way through a film and
leaving before the end.
This informed the narrative style of surrealist cinema; the
juxtaposition of random objects or events that are designed to
disorientate the spectator.
Films like Un Chien Andalou and L’Age D’Or often use
traditional continuity editing techniques which are then
disrupted by a surreal image. E.g. the eye-cut scene in Un
Chien Andalou.

5. Andre Breton and Luis Bunuel believed that surrealism should be a
random organic process; something free form, unplanned and
unscripted.
A talking point is whether film really lends itself to surrealism. By its
nature film requires planning and collaboration. It is a technical
discipline that perhaps required the surrealists to ignore certain
surrealist ideals.
Jan Svakmajer’s work is anti-establishment however it is also
incredibly intricate and planned out.

6. Know your films:
Un Chien Andalou (1929)
L’Age D’or (1930)
&
Your Svankmajer selection

7. Know your films:
• Themes and issues;
• Links with surrealism;
• Specific MICRO features and what you think
they mean;
• How do your films link with one another?
Are there any similarities and differences in
terms of visual style?
• Context of production – Bunuel versus
Svankmajer – what was happening when
they made these films? In what ways are
their films a critical of society at the time?