At last surrealists Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dalis bizarre, dreamlike film comes to DVD and Blu-ray, giving another generation a chance to see what all the fuss was about. As a landmark piece of art it is one of the most notorious pieces of the 20th century, but its amazing how many people debate and slam it without having actually sat through it. Its certainly not an easy watch, its nightmarish and powerful, but one thing is for sure, it sticks in your brain and refuses to budge.
The plot, as such, is pretty simple a couple wander around a town trying to find a spot to have sex, but are thwarted at every turn. It starts with a documentary on the scorpion well, we are in the world of surrealists after all and goes straight into an attack on one of Bunuel and Dalis favourite targets a bunch of bishops chanting on a beach. For such a catholic, reactionary country as Spain this was incendiary stuff, especially in 1930.
Some of the images seem playful, even a little trite now the bowler-hatted man with a rock on his head but many are both erotic and disturbing almost every advert the man sees has some sensual effect. Then, of course, there is the cow on the bed
When the two do manage to get it together in the garden of a house where a concert is taking place it manages to be both very sensual and funny, culminating in the famous image of the woman sucking the toe of a nearby statue.
The films notoriety was partly due to the fact it was not seen for so long privately financed, it was granted a screening permit after being presented to the Board of Censors as the dream of a madman. Opening at Studio 28 in Paris in October 1930, word spread about the film’s bizarre content. On the evening of 3 December 1930, the fascist League of Patriots and other groups began (halfway through the film) to throw purple ink at the screen, then rushed out into the lobby of the theatre, slashing paintings by Yves Tanguy, Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, and Man Ray. The producers of the film then withdrew it from circulation.
Of course LAge dOr was the second collaboration between the two great surrealists the first, the truly extraordinary Un Chien Andalou, was a mere 17 minutes long but totally rewrote the rules of cinema up to that point. Packing in an amazing number of images into its short running time the slashed eye, the ants running out of a hand, the dead horse on the piano it refuses analysis, but is clearly obsessed with sex and frustration. Surrealism never quite had the effect on cinema it promised the sleeve notes record the disappointing shorts of Man Ray and these two short films, barely reaching an hour and a quarter between them, is a tantalising glimpse into what surrealism could have been. Dali ended up having a street in Walt Disneys studio named after him, but it never amounted to anything.
By the time the pair came to make LAge dOr they had fallen out over an argument about Dalis obsession with Bunuels wife and its clear that the film is more about Bunuel than Dali. Watched back to back they offer a glimpse into a world of sexual obsession, strangeness, violence and the genuine oddities that are human beings.
Overall Verdict: Essential purchase for serious students of film history or surrealism. Mad but thrilling stuff.
Special Features:
Selected scenes commentary
Un Chien Andalou (1929, 16 mins)
Alternative score
Commentary for Un Chien Andalou
A proposito de Bunuel
Introduction
26-page booklet
Reviewer: Mike Martin