7. What is surrealism in cinema? Discuss the early surrealist movement, with examples. Is "surrealist cinema" possible today? Discuss one (1) / 2 films which might be considered contemporary examples, with reasons

Cover of the first issue of 
La Révolution surréaliste,
December 1924.

Surrealism begins in France.  The word surreal was sparked by a guy named Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) in his work that was played in 1917 known as Parade and Les Mamelles de Tirésias.  However, Apollinaire died six years before André Breton published his "Manifesto of Surrealism" (1924), and therefore his use of the word surreal may not be exactly the same as Breton's.  World War I scattered the writers and artists who had been based in Paris, and in the interim many became involved with Dada, believing that excessive rational thought and bourgeois values had brought the conflict of the war upon the world. The Dadaists protested with anti-art gatherings, performances, writings and art works.

Breton joined the Dada activities and produces some journals such as The Magnetic Fields (1920).  Breton works in Paris have invited many writers to be a part of his believe and became Surrealist group.  Breton expressed the use of dream analysis, he emphasized that "one could combine inside the same frame, elements not normally found together to produce illogical and startling effects." Breton included the idea of the startling juxtapositions in his 1924 manifesto, taking it in turn from a 1918 essay by poet Pierre Reverdy, which said: "a juxtaposition of two more or less distant realities. The more the relationship between the two juxtaposed realities is distant and true, the stronger the image will be – the greater its emotional power and poetic reality."

Since then it has become a movement of visual artworks and writings that reflects a cultural form.  This cultural form comprises of visual arts, literature, film, music and languages, as well as political thought and practice, philosophy, and social theory.

Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur; however, many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being an artifact.

Surrealism was the first literary and artistic movement to become seriously associated with cinema, though it has also been a movement largely neglected by film critics and historians. The foundations of the movement coincided with the birth of motion pictures, and the Surrealists who participated in the movement were among the first generation to have grown up with film as a part of daily life.

Screenshot of the eyeball 

(actually that of a dead calf) 

being slit by Buñuel in the 

film Un Chien Andalou.

It has long been recognized as having made a major contribution to film theory and practice, and many contemporary film-makers acknowledge its influence. Most of the critical literature, however, focuses either on the 1920s or the work of Luis Bunuel (22^nd February 1900-29^th July 1983) for example.  He was a Spanish filmmaker in which his movie Un Chien Andalou (1929) was considered among the earliest Surrealist film produced.  The movie received by the French Surrealist movement of the time and continues to be shown regularly in film societies to this day.  Surrealist filmmakers like Bunuel played with narrative conventions, spacial and temporal relations, and the social relations between characters that defied convention and logic.

In today’s film, we can still get some surreal element being portrayed however, it may not be as extreme during the 1920s.  one example we can use is the movie directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet known as Amelie (2001).  In this movie, Jeunet playfulness and inventiveness may at times recall Surrealist motifs often deployed to poetic effect.  For instance, the on-screen non-diegetic information overlaid on the image with red arrows is an unconventional intervention into the picture and narrative as present in Surrealist art.  The movie Amelie also resorts to literal visual representations of linguistic idioms.  The metaphorical expressions of being love-struck, melting into tears and seeing the light are graphically illustrated on screen.  For example, in the movie, Amelie melts into a water puddle in the café after Nino’s departure and her bright throbbing heart is graphically visualized when she first meets him in the station.  Using special effects, Juenet creates spectacular images that can be considered Surrealist in spirit.

Another way Juenet portray Surrealism involved in Amelie movie is visualizing the characters’ thoughts or dreams by showing few elements in the movie such as animation of objects (the bedside lamp), painting (the animal in the bedroom picture) and photographs (the man on the photographs telling Nino about Amelie).  This is similar to a strategy used in Bunuel film L’Age d’or (1930).

Based on this movie, we can now see that the Surrealism movement is still existed in today’s film.  However, the bizarre content that usually portray Surrealism movie in most dramatic ways will be portray in the most sophisticated way combining today’s technology using special effects as how Juenet did in his movie Amelie after his exposure in directing Alien Resurrection (1997).