Un Chien Andalou
Un Chien Andalou
As I viewed Dali and Bunuel's Un Chien Andalou, the second scene, in which a woman who appears to be a housewife looks out her window and watches a bicyclist fall off his or her bike, stood out to me as a series of potentially meaningful images. Directly following the close-up shot of Bunuel’s cutting of a woman’s eye, I, as the viewer, found myself invited to look beyond the surface of this scene and make associations with the images represented therein.
The scene begins with a shot of a bicyclist from behind, riding through a city street. Without seeing the face of this person, I immediately assumed that this was a woman, due to the ruffled hat, color, and peplum that she was wearing. However, the next shot reveals that this is a man wearing these feminine articles of clothing. The subsequent cross-cut relates a middle-aged housewife-esque woman reading a book inside her home. She suddenly looks up from the book and rushes to the window, through which she sees the bicycling man. What seems particularly striking is that she looks shocked and appears to say something like “Oh my God,” but that this occurs before the man falls off the bike. What would be more logical, of course, would be if her shock came as an effect of the fall, but the idea that the woman could have, in a sense, predicted the fall is more disturbing and aligns with Bunuel’s intention to shock his audiences After the man falls, the woman steps away from the window and appears to be hesitating before going downstairs to help the man. By the time the woman arrives at his side, the man’s feminine articles of clothing are no longer prominent. The bonnet has fallen off, the peplum is no longer visible, and due to the lighting and lack of visual contrast in the shot, it is difficult to see much of the white collar.
Having read about some common Freudian associations in Easthope, I particularly noticed this tension of masculine and feminine qualities in the bicyclist,
As I viewed Dali and Bunuel's Un Chien Andalou, the second scene, in which a woman who appears to be a housewife looks out her window and watches a bicyclist fall off his or her bike, stood out to me as a series of potentially meaningful images. Directly following the close-up shot of Bunuel’s cutting of a woman’s eye, I, as the viewer, found myself invited to look beyond the surface of this scene and make associations with the images represented therein.
The scene begins with a shot of a bicyclist from behind, riding through a city street. Without seeing the face of this person, I immediately assumed that this was a woman, due to the ruffled hat, color, and peplum that she was wearing. However, the next shot reveals that this is a man wearing these feminine articles of clothing. The subsequent cross-cut relates a middle-aged housewife-esque woman reading a book inside her home. She suddenly looks up from the book and rushes to the window, through which she sees the bicycling man. What seems particularly striking is that she looks shocked and appears to say something like “Oh my God,” but that this occurs before the man falls off the bike. What would be more logical, of course, would be if her shock came as an effect of the fall, but the idea that the woman could have, in a sense, predicted the fall is more disturbing and aligns with Bunuel’s intention to shock his audiences After the man falls, the woman steps away from the window and appears to be hesitating before going downstairs to help the man. By the time the woman arrives at his side, the man’s feminine articles of clothing are no longer prominent. The bonnet has fallen off, the peplum is no longer visible, and due to the lighting and lack of visual contrast in the shot, it is difficult to see much of the white collar.
Having read about some common Freudian associations in Easthope, I particularly noticed this tension of masculine and feminine qualities in the bicyclist,