Un chien andalou

The Facets DVD of Un Chien Andalou is a disgrace. The frame was severly cropped at the top (some scenes feature actors lopped off at their foreheads). Contrast was boosted to the point where significant detail is lost. As if this weren't enough, there is a wide unsightly glitch running horizontally across the screen that lasts for 5 or so frames. Despite the interviews with Bunuel's son which are the only things worth the time here, I would avoid this disc. The film itself I think is great. It's a shame that a staple of art cinema has been handled so poorly for DVD. more

The film is most easily viewed when you take each scene as being essentially a work unto itself. However, there is a point to the film . It is about a man's struggles with sexual and religious repression and his quest to rid himself of both by killing. The ant in the hand symbolizes a french expression for murder. dragging the preist around deals with his religious hang ups and his fantasies of the girl have very obvious overtones of sexual repression. As for the eyeball slicing ......Dali liked to use the distorion (or in this case) destruction of an image of an eyeball to signal the... more

The video is geometrically distorted, interlaced, has blown out contrast, almost no detail at all, and horrible sound. TransFlux Films should be ashamed for putting out such poor quality work, yet including a featurette on the cover designer. Everyone should avoid this DVD and go for the BFI double feature with L'Age D'Or, which has a watchable Un chein andalou for a change. more