Un Chien Andalou and Ballet Mécanique are two short films from the 1920’s that portrayed surrealism through the big screen. Un Chien Andalou is a film about sex, horror, and sadism,. Ballet Mécanique portrays futurism in an interesting way. Un Chien Andalou is a film about the many sexual desires and fetishes that humans crave and in other cases fear. The symbolism in this film depicted through limbs illustrates the fine line between pleasure and pain. There are many scenes that emphasize the movements of hands, which are mainly portrayed in the film as a representation of what hands can do. In particular the scene of the man in the woman’s home who has ants pouring out of his right hand. The ants coming out of the hand is difficult to interpret, it can possibly suggest that something is clearly wrong, or it can simply mean ants are coming out of the mans hand. In any case, the scene moments afterwards depicts the man sexually assaulting this woman after being aroused from an accident which occurred outside. The man was a self hating sadist who tried to rape this woman but could not do it because his hands were stuck to the door which can mean that he enjoys hurting woman but also is so ashamed of it that the ants eating away at his hands are also what is stopping him.
The film is trying to show what happens to a person when they accept who they are but also how they can be deeply ashamed of it to a point where their shame devours them. Near the end of the film a second man appears who orders the first man to stare at a wall as if he was a child, the second mans swift and firm hand could possibly portray the first mans consciousness who wanted the first man to feel terrible for what he tried to do.
Ballet Mécanique is a film that flashes over hundreds of images to cause epilepsy and confusion. The film shows thing such as triangles, hardware, numbers, lights, and gears. I believe the film is illustrating futurism through its fast tempo and machines. Futurism was a movement that encouraged people to express art through technology, speed, and youth which are clearly shown throughout the film. None of the images have any coherent meaning to them which is related to surrealism since the movement was about freeing the mind and allowing it into tap into the unknown.
Great reading! Your interest in the hands in your first paragraph is really fascinating and I was hoping you’d dig a little deeper, as I hadn’t spent all too much time thinking about what the hands might signify here, since they do pop up here and there. When you say ‘something is clearly wrong’ I’m curious as to what has been disrupted, gone wrong, etc., other than the fact that ants shouldn’t be coming out of anyone’s hands. Do you see this relating at all to the sexual assault you follow with in your response? Good work. 5/5