Dada and Surrealism

From Dada and Surrealism A Very Short Introduction by David Hopkins

According to David Hopkins (2004) film, as a medium, was introduced by the Lumière brothers in 1895-6. The early 20th century witnessed a “massive wave of film experimentation…that drew heavily on the achievements of the avant-garde art movements,” notably the Dada films of Man Ray and René Clair in Paris and Viking Eggeling and Hans Richter in Zurich, and the Surrealist films of Salvador Dali and Luis Buñuel.

Hopkins continues by providing us with an explanation of the difference between the Dada films and Surrealist films.

Dada Films

He claims,

“Dadaist film is characterized precisely by a self-consciousness about its material nature as film and a concern with forcing its audience to appreciate this fact.”

Richter and Eggeling collaborated in pioneering abstract film between 1919-21. In Eggling’s Diagonal Symphony (1924), “abstract forms evoked musical patterns and notation.”

"Symphony diagonale" (1924) [ORIGINAL SILENT VERSION] - Viking Eggeling (2015). Chris B. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCFXSpOz490 [Accessed 28 Feb. 2020].

Similarly, Richter’s films “responded to music” but Hopkins claims that it was more visually inventive. For example, in his film Rhythmus 23 (1923) a series of square and rectangular shapes appear, merging together, splitting, enlarging, receding and disappearing in the process.

Hans Richter-Rhythmus 23 (1923). (2008). zlovitch. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCch_9q0cS-XaNpCLWyQCz8Q [Accessed 28 Feb. 2020].

There were internal divisions in Dada with the abstracting inclinations of the the Zurich Dadaists contrasting with the Parisian Dada films and their “anti-bourgeois content.”

René Clair’s Entr’acte (1924) uses narrative conventions, however, there is a distinct lack of continuity with regard to storyline, typical in the Hollywood silent films of the day. Disruption of the narrative in Clair’s film is caused by “dramatically angled shots, superimposed images and slowed-down or speeded up cinematography.” In addition, Clair uses “montage editing” which, Hopkins explains is a technique that involves “the dramatic juxtaposition of shots to create strong emotional or intellectual effects in the viewer.”

Francis Picabia collaborated with Clair on this film, restraining his “formal cinematographic concerns” by interspersing Clair’s “more overtly experimental sections with slapstick sequences,” reminiscent of the typical irreverence of Dada.

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Man Ray’s five-minute Dada film, Return to Reason (1923), according to Hopkins was “more formally restrained than Clair and Picabia’s Entr’acte, but no less anarchic.” Here Man Ray scattered a variety of objects such as thumbtacks and pins on the celluloid which was then exposed producing a moving image similar to his photographic ‘rayographs.” These images contrasted to other objects such as the woman’s naked torso and the merry-go-round which appeared to rotate slowly.

Hopkins concludes by saying all the above Dada films “resist any straightforward imaginative entry by the spectator.”

Surrealist Films

Hopkins argues that,

“a different logic underlies the small group of Surrealist films produced between 1927 and 1930 by two pairs of collaborators: the French dramatist and filmmaker Germaine Dulac, on one hand and the Spanish artist Salvador Dali and filmmaker Luis Buñuel, on the other.”

In these films, the psychological engagement of the audience is generated by elements of narration and the focus on the actor’s emotions. However, Hopkins maintains that this psychological relationship is frequently disrupted by “dislocating or shocking images” and by “rapid montage editing.” He claims that the first Surrealist film, The Seashell and the Clergyman (1927) by Artaud and Dulac with its “gentle ‘poetic’ ambiance” is “a Freudian study of the Oedipal rivalry between an older and a younger man for an enigmatic woman” which was “overshadowed by the visual pyrotechniques of the Dali/Buñuel collaborations.”

The Seashell and the Clergyman 1928 (Restored Full Movie). (2016). Mike Kesidis. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypseXIQVaF0 [Accessed 28 Feb. 2020].

The opening sequence of Un Chien Andalou (1929) is notorious - a man, played by Buñuel himself, is standing near a window sharpening a razor. He sees a wisp of cloud gliding across the moon, which is followed by him slicing the eye of a woman who is sitting passively infront of him.

Best Horror Scenes - Un Chien Andalou. (2016). Sergia V. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjWhr9t3Qao [Accessed 28 Feb. 2020].

Hopkins discusses how this horrific prologue might be interpreted. He suggests that it could be regarded as

“a metaphorical assault on the audience’s vision and, by extension, an assault on cinematic conventions as such - the ‘cutting’ of a film could well be indicated.”

Hopkins then turns to the interpretation proffered by film historians such as Linda Williams who see the scene in Freudian terms as “a symbolic displacement of castration anxiety.” Hopkins argues that this view is reinforced by

“ Buñuel himself who once said that the only way of interpreting the film would be psychoanalytically.”

The case is further strengthened by Williams who refers to “other sequences in the film where the male hero’s castration anxiety is evoked via mutilated body parts.” For example, there is

“a dramatic series of disorientating close-ups, from an image of a hand trapped by a door - with a stigmata-like wound in its palm pouring forth - to an image of a woman, seen from above, poking a severed hand with a stick.”

Dali and Buñuel’s second film L’Age d’Or (1930), according to Hopkins, deals with the “real world”, however, he argues, “its images are no less shocking.” The main theme is “the social repression of desire,” particularly with regard to Catholic dogma. The grand finale of the film consists of

“a lengthy intertitle announcing the imminent emergence from Selling Castle of the libertines who have engaged in the Marquis de Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom.” As the castle doors open we see that the first of the sodomites is Jesus Christ.”

L'Age D'Or (1930). (2014). Eric Trommater. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDbav8hcl5U [Accessed 28 Feb. 2020].

Whilst Dadaist film, with its subversive content, aimed at drawing “attention to itself as film”, the aim of Surrealist film, in Hopkin’s view, was to make viewer forget the medium, thus transforming ‘consciousness.’ In terms of art history, Dada’s legacy was

“an avant garde or ‘underground’ tradition that reached fruition in the experimental films of 1950s and 1960s filmmakers such as Stan Brakhage or Andy Warhol.”

On the other hand, Surrealism had “a greater impact on mainstream film where the audience is aimed for imaginative release.” Buñuel continued to have great success with a number of significant films such as The Exterminating Angel (1962) and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoise (1972). In addition to this, significant international filmmakers, such as American David Lynch and the Czech film animator Jan Švankmajer’s film Mulholland Drive (2001) “demonstrates the extent to which lavish Hollywood production values powerfully enhance Surrealist effects.” Hopkins concludes that mainstream film, “with its thirst for evermore startling juxtapositions of imagery, has effortlessly absorbed the techniques of realism.”

Hopkins argues that in Surrealism,

“there was a tendency to allow the filmic medium to operate ‘transparently’, in other words, not to intrude too insistently on the Spectator’s aesthetic expectations in order to effect a psychic transformation. This was easier for mass culture to assimilate than Dada’s insistence on the disruption and negation of the spectator’s pleasure.”

In addition to having an impact on the film industry, Hopkins points out that Surrealism has had an enormous impact upon graphic design and advertising to this day, giving as an example, “the playfully surreal Benson and Hedges cigarette advertisements of the 1970s.” Hopkins concludes by pointing to critics such as Fredric Jameson who have noted that both

“the Surrealist cult of desire, along with the visual techniques fostered to give it expression, has been hijacked by the market system to cater to the ‘pseudosatisfactions’ of capitalist consumerism.”