Surrealism and film
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Surrealist films include Un chien andalou and L'Âge d'Or by Luis Buñuel and Dalí; Buñuel went on to direct many more, with varying degrees of Surrealism. Notable for Surrealism amongst Bunuel's later films are The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie), The Exterminating Angel (El Ángel exterminador), and Belle de jour.
Films by the Surrealist movement:
- Entr'acte by René Clair (1924)
- La Coquille et le clergyman by Germaine Dulac, screenplay by Antonin Artaud (1927)
- Un chien andalou by Luis Bu uel and Salvador Dalí (1928)
- L'Étoile de mer by Man Ray (1928)
- L' ge d'or by Luis Bu uel and Salvador Dalí (1930)
- Le Sang d'un po te by Jean Cocteau (1930)
Later directors who made Surrealistic films:
- Michel Gondry (La Science des r ves)
- Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, La Cité des enfants perdus, Amélie)
- Alejandro Jodorowsky (El Topo, The Holy Mountain)
- David Lynch (Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive)
- Guy Maddin (Archangel, The Saddest Music in the World)
- Takashi Miike (Gozu)
- Mamoru Oshii (Tenshi no Tamago)
- The Brothers Quay (The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes)
- Jacques Rivette (Céline et Julie vont en bateau)
- Jan Svankmajer (Faust, Alice)
- Shinya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo, Rokugatsu no Hebi)
The truest aspects of Surrealism in film are often found in passing frames of a larger film; the sudden emergence of the uncanny into the "normal" which may or may not be further explored in the rest of the film. The original group spent hours going from film to film, often not finishing one before seeking another, partly in hopes of catching just such ephemeral moments, and partly with the idea of stitching together a film in their own minds out of the disparate parts.
Marcel Mariën (L'imitation du cinéma), André Delvaux (Un Soir, un train) and, more recently, Jan Bucquoy (Camping Cosmos) are notable for being representational of the Belgian Surrealist school in cinema. Antonin Artaud, Philippe Soupault and Robert Desnos wrote screenplays for Surrealistic films. Salvador Dali designed a dream sequence for Alfred Hitchcock's film Spellbound. There is a strong Surrealist influence present in Alain Resnais's Last Year at Marienbad.
Surrealist and film theorist Robert Benayoun has written books on Tex Avery, Woody Allen, Buster Keaton and the Marx Brothers.
Many have described David Lynch as a Surrealist filmmaker, he is perhaps one of the best known examples of today, and most influential. For examples of Surrealism in his work, see Eraserhead, Blue Velvet or Mulholland Drive.
Elements of the late Stanley Kubrick's films have contained Surrealism.
Alejandro Jodorowsky sought to revive Surrealism in his films The Holy Mountain and El Topo.
Monty Python member Terry Gilliam is considered a Surrealist filmmaker, with his many films including Brazil, Time Bandits, 12 Monkeys, The Fisher King, and Tideland.
Czech filmmaker Jan Svankmajer has also made a number of Surrealist films.[1]
Jan Bucquoy with the movie Camping Cosmos (1996), André Delvaux (the latter in the tradition of the magic realism with the movie Un Soir, un Train (1968)) and Marcel Mariën with the controversial L'imitation du cinéma (1959), are representatives of the Belgian Surrealist school in cinema.
The animated Surrealist filmmakers Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata began to have broad international influence in the 1970s. Miyazaki’s themes of magical terrains and nature vs. man have influenced new Pop Surrealist fine artists around the world. Tex Avery cartoons originated on film in the 1930s and 1940s, but millions more know his famous characters from Saturday morning cartoons replayed during the 1970s: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, etc.
Another Looney Tunes animator, Robert Clampett, was renowned for his Surrealistic style in both story and visuals. Especially notable are The Great Piggy Bank Robbery and Porky in Wackyland.
More recently. award winning filmmakers at Peter Dizozza’s International Surrealist Film Festival have included Amy Greenfield's Wildfire (Eclipse Productions), a new film by Matthew Gray Gubler The Cactus that Looked Like a Man, Lauren Hartman's PHANT, and Susan Ingraham's GoescarGo.
