FREAKS

Preceded by the short film UN CHIEN ANDALOU by Luis Buñuel

1929 – France – 16 min. Silent original version (OV)

With Pierre Batcheff, Simone Mareuil, and Salvador Dalí.
Trailer.

Freudian dream imagery, amorphous space/time, and absurdist humor combine in this drawn out mating ritual between a confused cyclist and the female he pursues.  Sensual, shocking and deeply subversive, Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali's surreal short is a masterpiece of provocation: one of the few films - arguably the only film - really to use the medium's potential for pure anarchy.

‘’What made Un Chien Andalou memorable was shock value. There was a belated reaction against the film, with calls for its ban, and even claims that it caused a couple of miscarriages.  It must be the most famous shocking film of the silent era. It includes such images as an eyeball being slashed by a razor and ants crawling out of a hole in a man’s hand. It would be several decades before filmmakers realised that there was a commercial appeal in images of extreme horror and violence, and these images would become more common on our screens. Yet here we have a taste of what is to come in a short art-house movie lasting less than twenty minutes.’’ (MOVIE-SCREEN-SCENE)