My question is about the infamous eye scene. Did Bunuel actually slice that eye (it’s kind of hard for me to look closely). What happened to this girl? How the hell did Bunuel and Dali convince her to do that scene?
Even in 1929, movies had special effects. If you watch closely you’ll see the sequence is this: scene of a woman’s face with Bunuel approaching her eye with the razor, scene of the moon with a razor-like cloud passing before it, close-up scene of an eye being sliced open. (It’s no wonder most people draw a blank over the rest of the film; it’d be difficult to maintain the momentum of an opening like this.) Obviously, the eye that was sliced did not belong to the actress. It was an a dead donkey’s eye that had been placed in a mask for the close-up scene.
If you want to read more about the film check out this site http://zompist.com/andalou.htm for the transcript of an online discussion of how Hollywood would remake it.
No, I’m afraid Mr. Bunuel did not actually slice open the young lady’s eye. It was a sheep’s eye.
It works like this. Remember, they cut back and forth between him and the cloud passing over the moon. Camera on Bunuel and girl. Camera on moon. Camera on Bunuel and girl. Camera on moon with narrow cloud passing over it. Shut off camera. Place sheep eyeball onto girl’s face. Turn the camera back on while Bunuel makes with the razor.
Clever huh? And King Kong wasn’t actually a giant gorilla on top of the Empire State Building, either. Just call it the Magic of the Movies.
Hmmmm. I said a donkey’s eye. Uke says a sheep’s eye. And the IMDB says a cow’s eye. Looks to me like Bunuel and Dali either couldn’t get their story straight or there was a lot of eye-gouging down at the farm.
I am ashamed to admit that I looked up this film on imdb knowing only that it contained a scene where a human eyeball is slit.
Imdb doesn’t have much to say that I consider positive. Is this an interesting film? Is there anything artistic, or is it as I imagine, a bunch of disjointed scenes designed to disgust?
I always heard it was a goat’s eye!
I’m willing to cede to Little Nemo. They had to have two dead donkeys around the set in any case, for the groundbreaking hauling-a-grand-piano-plus-two-dead-donkeys-plus-two-Roman-Catholic-priests-to-the-tune-of-the-LoveDeath-from-Tristan scene, the forerunner of ALL hauling-a-grand-piano-plus-two-dead-donkeys-plus-two-Roman-Catholic-priests-to-the-tune-of-the-LoveDeath-from-Tristan scenes. So they probably just chunked an eye from one of 'em.
Now, why did I say sheep? Musta been mixing it up with ERASERHEAD, which featured much creative use of sheep parts.
Billie: It is TOTALLY artistic! It’s the most motherfucking artistic movie ever! Other art films PALE beside it! Rent it today!!!
Ah, Un chien d’Andalou. Most interesting film I ever saw… also a great bar in DC, while it was there.
During my language lab god days at Georgetown, I found that movie among the titles on our shelves and promptly put it into the VCR that broadcast the French video lessons across the campus cable station. Ran the thing in its entirety.
Not a peep from the great unwashed student masses. Guess I shoulda broadcast it late in the evening as the parties were going on.
That eyeball scene was the strongest scene in the film, to be sure - hell of a way to open it. Vaguely reminiscent of the video of Mrs. O’s laser eye surgery, come to think of it…
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I’d always heard it was a donkey’s eye, and it actually was pretty obvious from the film, since you didn’t actually see the iris or pupil of the eye being slit - it was all white.
Uke, I based my donkey statement on a hazy memory of something I read once. I knew it was an animal eye (as Olentzero wrote it’s obviously not a human eye) but I’ll admit if I had read the IDMB entry first, I’d have posted it as a cow’s eye.
As for the artistic merit of the film… Well, it was Bunuel and Dali’s intent to create some strange images and I’d have to say they succeeded there. And it definitely wasn’t bogged down by plot complications. And of course the entire third season of Saved by the Bell was based on this film.