10 Mind Meltingly Surreal Films

Some movies are just too far out there to explain.

Eraserhead There are very few directors who have worked almost entirely within the field of surrealism. But the directors we most associate with this style of film, are Luis Buñuel, a Spanish director who had a lengthy career producing surreal films and David Lynch who is known as the Modern Master of Surrealism. But basing the whole list on the works of Buñuel and Lynch would be to ignore the other great contributions to the canon of surrealism. They deserve as much exposure as the directors who work with surrealism as their primary medium of art. Some pretty far out films have been produced by directors embracing surrealism and ten of them are listed below for your perusal.

10. The Seashell And The Clergyman (1928)

Seashell Clergy A priest suffers a lot of bizarre erotic hallucinations and dreams about a general's wife whom he is lusting after. Banned by the BBFC because they couldn't find a meaning to the film, and they stated that even if there was a meaning it was doubtless 'objectionable', Antonin Artaud - bona fide surrealism practitioner - wrote the script to The Seashell and the Clergyman. It was directed by Germaine Dulac, often referred to as the mother of surrealism and she is regarded as a pioneering feminist film maker. There is a strong anti-clerical theme to the film, which was a popular topic among the surrealists. The images in the film are often indecipherable and it is difficult to know what the heck is going on. The music is haunting in The Seashell and The Clergyman and as a piece of avant garde film making - it has some very impressive visuals such as the priest crawling on the streets of Paris. It is, essentially, an attempt to pull apart the priest's subconscious and it succeeds in this regard, because surrealism is probably the most honest and effective method of art when it comes to exposing all things to do with the mind.
 
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Contributor

My first film watched was Carrie aged 2 on my dad's knee. Educated at The University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. Fan of Arthouse, Exploitation, Horror, Euro Trash, Giallo, New French Extremism. Weaned at the bosom of a Russ Meyer starlet. The bleaker, artier or sleazier the better!