How does my film conform to the conventions of the
surrealist film movement?
Surrealist films are typically characterised through their
use of heavy juxtaposition, a large amount of dreamlike narratives and imagery,
and dream symbolism, in order to carry along their (often non-linear)
narrative. These films were often art pieces in response to political or social
events or uprisings and would represent an opinion through the cinematography.
Nature was often featured, in order to add to the otherworldly aspect of this
film movement. Originating in France and Spain, the sound films of this
movement would often not be in English and would have to be translated through
subtitles, which often exacerbated the expressive nature of the film. In my
film I attempted to showcase these features, as it would allow me to ensure
that it fit with the conventions of the genre.
Much
like most pieces of art, the surrealist film movement was created in order to
express different ideologies. In the 1920s many were about the Bourgeoise
ideals being forced upon the rest of the population and the social unease it had
caused, especially in a war-time society. I chose to create mine on a loose
theme of the upper classes destroying the Earth for their own gain, something
which has become a talking point in the modern media world. This can be scene through
the coin counting scenes, which often lead to destruction in my film, using
symbolism to stand in for each part of the outer world. Although mine is much
less bizarre than the original surrealist films, I believe that it gets the object
of the narrative across to the wider audience while still keeping the artistic
and expressive side of the movement at its core.
As the
majority of the surrealist films which I looked at were from the black and
white era of cinema, I decided to put my film into this colour scheme. This
allowed for a clear match with films such as Un Chein Andalou, which was Dali
and Bunuel’s first contribution to the surrealist movement, a silent black and
white short film. While looking at this film for reference I also incorporated
several similar shots in my own work, in order to show a clear link. In order
to replicate the match on action shot with the eye in Un Chein Dandaloo, I used
a sword with a large knife cutting an orange, matching the similarly violent
shot in the reference film. This use of juxtaposition while using a non-linear
narrative is also indicative of the surrealist film movement. This non-linear
narrative is also shown in the reversed sections of the film, where some of the
shots shown earlier run backwards later on in the film, such as when the coins
are being counted. This more expressive cinematography gives the audience more
meaning than if this ran in a linear narrative much like in conventional
cinema. If I were to redo this film, I would have added in more exciting camera
shots, such as some extreme high angle and low angle shots in order to convey
different emotions and power dynamics shown in the film, which would have been
more noticeable with this. Through my editing I was able to add in these
conventions of the surrealist movement, making my film a more accurate
representation of the movement.
I made
the conscious choice to not include sound in my film. I did this as I believe
that the lack of sound is more impactful than the inclusion of dialogue. Many
films of this genre are silent, only accompanied by a musical score. An exception
to this is Bunuel and Dali’s second work, L’Age D’Or, which was one of the
first French sound films and uses sound in order to add to the bizarre events depicted
in the film. I had considered adding in different sounds such as bird song and
white noise into the background of my piece, as I believed that this would have
added to the emotion and bizarre storyline of my piece, however I decided not
to, as the sound would not link up impactfully with the rest of the film and
may have been detrimental to the end product.
Although
surrealist films often use the clothing of the era which it is filmed in to costume
the characters, I chose not to express any meaning through the costume and makeup
of the main character in my film. I instead used the character expression and
movement in my film to carry along the plot and narrative, although this is
non-linear. By using a blank expression throughout most of the narrative, I used
the emotion sparingly in order to show different plot points, though they may
have gone unnoticed without knowing the directed reading of the plot and
narrative. If I were to redo this film, I would have been more careful about the
direction of the actor, as in some scenes he breaks character, disrupting the
contingency of the narrative, so by refilming some scenes I would avoid this
issue.
Although
there are some issues in different micro elements of my film, I believe that it
is a recognisably surrealist film, and does fit with many of the conventions of
the Surrealist film movement.
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