Surrealism

 

 Surrealism has been easily the most interesting genre of film our class has studied yet.  It includes some of the most nonsensical scenes that could ever make it on camera...but even in it's purposeful nonsense, potent thoughts can be aroused. 

"The Seashell and the Clergyman" was a very odd film by Germaine Dulac.  It seemed to include a man going through extreme sexual frustration while trying to chase down a girl.  She was protected by some sort of military man who then becomes a priest.  Eventually the sexually frustrated man attempts to kill the military man/priest by both strangling him and throwing him off a cliff. 

I believe it had something to do with wanting a woman who was already in a relationship that you could have no control over.  The woman constantly running from the pent up man stuck her tongue out at him in points of the film, and in one scene a pounding of fists on the table seemed almost masterbatory.

There were some new camera techniques that I haven't seen before in our films such as some cross fading used throw a street chase scene and the illusion of the priest's head splitting in two.

The most intriguing part of the "The Seashell and the Clergyman" was the combination of scenes where in the beginning of the films, the frustrated man fills glass beakers with a fluid, only to break them.  Then, the last scene of the movie has him lifting the plate he was using to fill the beakers to his own mouth.  Was he going to smash himself next?  Suicide resulting from his failure in securing his girl?  It's quite a bit to digest.

Un Chien Andelou by Dali and Bunuel was also cool but mostly just because of its strangeness.  I didn't pick up any message really....except for some visual connections  But man, that eye slice!