4. Un Chien Andalou
I cant say that Ive been an adherent Luis Buñuel fan; aside from Los Olvidados (1950) and Nazarín (1959)maybe Viridiana (1961) if it werent so hamstrung in its depiction of traditional religious valuesIve always seen Bunuels films as being unnecessarily egotistic. Take the recurring scene in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, where six people walk silently and purposefully on a long, isolated country road towards a mysterious destination. Even with these reservations, and despite the fact that Buñuels debut film is clearly his most ostentatious, Un Chien Andalou had a radical effect on cinema, when it was released, in 1929. It was made in the hope of administering a revolutionary shock to society. For the first time in the history of the cinema, wrote the critic Ado Kyrou, a director tries not to please but rather to alienate nearly all potential spectators. That was then, this is now. Today, its techniques have been so thoroughly absorbed even in the mainstream that its shock value is dilutedexcept for that famous shot of the slicing of the eyeball, or perhaps the shot of the man dragging the grand piano that has the priests and the dead donkeys on top of it. . . . From a surrealist perspectivethat is, an art movement that aimed to resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and realitythe movie couldn't have been better.