Un Chien Andalou

No words were uttered, yet, Un Chien Andalou is one of the most powerful, shocking, and confusing films I have ever seen. 

The film opened with a man, portrayed by its director, Luis Buñel, sharpening a razor, then tests the razor in his own thumb. It seems that this prologue prepares us for what is yet to come. Un Chien Andalou, is a film that has no plot and jumps into one scene from the other. A classic example of a Surrelist film, Un Chien Andalou is irrational, unconventional, and undoubtedly weird.

eyeball slitting scene from Un Chien Andalou

The film continued with Luis Bunuel going to his balcony then stares at the moon and clouds. He then slid his razor through the Woman's eyeball, and weird enough, the woman seemingly accepts what was happening. We are yet only in the first part of the film, but, Un Chien Andalou already shocked the audience. The story is just about to unfold, but it seems like Luis Bunuel already brought us to the climax. 

Because of my knowledge that this scene is about to come, I braved myself and kept my eyes open while this scene is playing. I don't know if it was a good decision, but it my second time watching this film, I skipped this part. One is enough for me.

still from Wikipedia

In the next scene, we see  a Man wearing a nun's habit, with a box with diagonal designs that he was wearing around his neck. The Woman I saw earlier is alive sitting in a room. It seemed that she was anticipating for the Man to come. She looked at the window and saw the man collapsed on the ground. She rushed to him and kissed him all over his face. We were brought back to the Woman's room with the Man's clothes placed on the bed. The Woman opened the box with diagonal designs and got the necktie out of the box the put it together with the other clothes. She sat and stared at the bed. The necktie moved on its own tying itself to the polo. We then see the guy who was wearing a nun's habit earlier, now wearing coat and tie, standing inside the room. He was deeply staring at his hand. His hand was focused and there were ants coming out of his hand. 

The next scene is at the road down the room with a lady moving a cut hand with a stick. She was surrounded with people trying to know what was happening, while there are policemen trying to stop them from interfering. One police took the hand and put it inside the box with the diagonal designs. How did the lady get the box? She hugged the box and stood in the middle of the road. The people and policemen left her. We then see the Man and the Woman watching what was happening. The Man was watching the lady and it seems that he was anticipating for a car to hit the lady. And true enough, the lady was hit by a car.

Then the scene was back to the room. The Man assaulted the Woman. He wants to get her on bed but she fought back. He felt her breasts but the Woman was stopping him. But a little later, she allowed him to. The Man started imagining himself touching the Woman's breasts with no clothes on. His eyes were up, seemed like he was having a high fever or something, while blood is dripping from his mouth. Do you really bleed while having so much pleasure?  Then back to reality, the Woman stopped him, she ran to one corner, took something that what looking like a tennis racket and was ready hit him. The Man stepped back and started pulling two grand pianos, with animals that looked liked donkeys, that seems to be rotting and their eyeballs missing and with blood on their eye sockets, atop of the piano. Plus two priest tied together. The Woman got to escape on the door near her, and she caught the Man's hand on the door. The hand that was caught was the hand with ants coming out of it.

still from Wikipedia

In the next scene we see the guy back in a nun's habit lying on the bed. Then a guy came, dragged him out of the bed, took off the nun's habit and threw it all out of the room. He made the Man faced the wall with his hands up. The guy's face was not being shown. Who is he? When the guy's face was shown, he looked exactly like the Man. The guy gave the Man books to hold on to. When the guy was about to exit the room, the Man faced him, the books turned into guns. The Man shot him. The setting changed and the man fell in an outdoor place. He hold on to a lady's naked back before he totally fell on the grass. The woman faded away, then a group of men found him lying on the grass field. Then  two men walking was shown. One men from the group sought help from the two men. They seemed not to entertain him, then on the next scene we see the two men together with the group, the the men bought the man and took him away. 

still from Wikipedia

The next scene is back to the Woman. In the room, she was staring at a butterfly. The Man was there, he covered his mouth, when he removed his hand, his mouth was gone. The Woman started to put lipstick on. The Man's gone mouth became black and the Woman put out her tongue to tease him. He went out of the door and we were brought into a beachfront. Where wee see her lover waiting for her. Was this all a dream? But while walking by the sea, they saw the box with diagonal designs at the shore. It was drifted by the water towards the shore. The couple continued to walk. The end.

When the scene of the Man came, in my mind I was thinking that this is the start where something about the eyeball slitting would make sense of. But rather than my question being answered, as the story progresses, I just added more questions to my list. I kept faith that it will all make sense at the end of it all. I've waited until the end, yet all I've got were questions and no answers. None at all. And the end of the movie, I was like "What the hell happened? Someone explain this to me." I am trying to process in my mind what it is all about. Are they symbolism? If they are, what do they symbolize? Are they dreams put together? Dreams that have deep meanings? And my question that certainly needs to be answered, what is the message of the film? I think it is the first film that I have watched that I understood almost nothing at all. I will not pretend to be intellectual and analytic, I did not get it. This surrealist film is indeed surreal. 

I may need to read more about the film, surrealism, Luis Bunuel, Salvador Dali and other things from this film to be able to decode it, to be able to make sense of it.

My mind is really trying its best to give a coherent explanation about this, but this is the only answer that satisfied my need of explanation:

“When everything gets answered, it's fake.” 
― Sean Penn

People always seek answers to questions. We want explanation of things we do not understand. If we get no answers, we try to make our own explanation of things. We always want validation. We want concreteness, security, assurance. Maybe what Un Chien Andalou is trying to tell us is that you don't always need answers  to everything, that science not applicable to everything. You have to accept that there are really things that are existing with no answers why they are existing; or why something happens out of the blue. The are unanswered questions, and let them be. And why? Because mystery adds beauty to life.

You may watch the film here and please do share your thoughts below!