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
Sixteen minutes of dream logic sever cause from effect and make familiar objects suddenly unsafe.
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.
Open 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
Credits & versions
- Screenplay
- Luis Buñuel · Salvador Dalí
Version map
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