Film Analysis 1

Dali film “Un Chien Andalou Part 1”

  This particular film was one of our main influences for this whole project. We liked the fact that it is all in black and white as it would make us think more about the lighting and props and how we could use them to our advantage. We also liked that there was no sound, leaving the viewer to concentrate more on the image and this would also give us more of a challenge when deciding how to edit the scenes and how to put across the story. In the beginning of this clip, you can see that Dali has used various clips of words, with the necessary information on it however this would also be on a normal film.

   We really liked the idea of the man smoking and thought that this would be a great way to convey the passing of time throughout our short film. Although it does not feature throughout the film, we thought it would add to the surrealism feel by cutting the scenes into short clips. The smoke in the film also has a really nice effect on the screen as it blends the white and black together, much like the collision between the two characters in our script.

   Another interesting scene in the film is where the striped box is seen in the centre of the shot and the we liked the fact that one prop could be used to symbolise a particular element in the plot.

• You can use unexplained clips in surreal films
• Imagery and props work well in close up when there is no dialogue

By Rebecca Archer