← Back to the films

Experimental

Un Chien Andalou

Year
1929
Director
Luis Buñuel
Length
16 minMoMA approximate 16-minute presentation record Version sources ↓

Sixteen minutes of dream logic sever cause from effect and make familiar objects suddenly unsafe.

Search for a copy ↓ Before you watch ↓

Amazon.com search · paid link. Check the edition and region before buying.

Country
France
Language
Silent
StrangeBleak Best saved for later · For patient viewers Experimental
Un Chien Andalou: Paper ants fall from a glove above a bicycle wheel, moon and surreal stairways.

Image: Monocurator · source · Original Monocurator artwork

What to expect

Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí use abrupt association, temporal contradiction, and shocking images to attack comfortable interpretation. Its brevity and precision made it a defining work of cinematic surrealism.

How to ease in

Do not search for a stable plot or symbolic key. Notice how one image provokes the next through shape, movement, or taboo, then observe your own impulse to explain it.

Heads-up

A quick, non-exhaustive note Includes graphic eye injury, dead animals, insects, severed body parts, sexual aggression, and disturbing imagery.
Momo's Note May contain spoilers Who is Momo? →
Open the note ↓ Close the note ↑

Every time I tried to decide what an image meant, the next image broke my explanation. I felt disgusted, amused and foolishly eager to connect things that refused to connect. It was less like watching a film than being shown the habits of my own mind. Perhaps the compulsion to understand everything is stranger than not understanding.

— Momo

Momo thinking about this film

Credits & versions

Credits

Version map

Where to go next

Want a gentler, shorter, or stranger next film? Ask Momo for something like this →
Momo is on shift. Visit Momo Cinema →

Continue through the catalogue →