Un Chien Andalou

The notion of dreams and the process of dreaming is one that intrigues society and does not fail to fully escape the grasp of understanding. It is such an ephemeral circumstance in which we find ourselves daily. And yet, fascination with the overwhelmingly unknown continues to probe our interests. In a manner, film overlaps into the realm of rapid eye movement in the most basic form. Through an alternate reality we exist, without control or complete possible actuality. Both film and its constituent element, the photograph, behold a certain level of the surrealism found in dreams through the raw creative boundaries. Bazin realizes the analytic obscurity that arises between physical truth and the imaginary. The filmmaker is able to blur the
We are thrown to the capricious tendencies of the dream, erratic in nature. Yet, the film, as dreams, seems to convey a sort of uniformity within itself, between the characters, and embedded in the elusive plot. Random shifts in scenery that so often speckle our nighttime adventures seem to be normal in the environment of the film. One will also notice the seemingly nostalgic overlay that tints dreams and films alike. It seems as if we recall the instances as we recall our viewing experience in a sort of sepia toned memory. However the character familiarity and omniscient quality of a dream cannot be translated and achieved in the technical portrayal. Somehow we hold the knowledge that an individual is certainly that individual, a location is certainly that location, an event is certainly that event. Although within the context it may or may not appear at all as that individual, location, or event. In this sense, the film will never fully achieve the immersion and personal implication of a dream. Sparshott touches on these points in Basic Film Aesthetics, discussing the system of correlations to