Creating a Surrealist Film
René Clair, notable filmmaker and writer, often noted for his scrupulous approach to film at a time when people were turning toward a decreasingly structured approach, writes about incongruity between film and surrealism. He suggests that film may not be an appropriate medium for the pursuit of spontaneity, an idea that the French New Wave may later overturn in their unique approach to film. In the article “Surrealism and Cinema”, René Clair challenges the relationship Surrealists hoped to develop with film, with the assertion that, “To translate the purest Surrealist concept into images means submitting it to cinematic technique, which runs the risk of making that ‘pure psychic automatism’ lose a large part of its purity” (Hammond 99). It does indeed seem that the process of film creation is a multi-faceted and meticulous. There are many aspects to consider such as lighting, framing, and editing.
Each surrealist film has a distinct approach, L’étoile de mer, for example, a film made by Man Ray, uses a poem written by Robert Desnos. This film, composed of shots stylized through the use of special glass and inter-titles poetic in nature and at times inscrutable, contrasts greatly with Un Chien Andalou a creation by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí inspired by dreams that both men had and wanted to capture cinematographically. We wanted to use some of these approaches by either basing our section off of a poem or dreams, but we eventually opted for a third option, the use of the surrealist game, “cadavre exquis”, translated in English as exquisite corpse. The five members of our group each contributed a line, one after the other, without having seen that which preceded it. We performed this exercise twice and ended up with two different scripts. We began to question, however, the spontaneity in this approach. While the surrealist did indeed make notable contributions to the world of film, it seemed that this medium required an amount of deliberation that defied the surrealist emphasis on liberation.
Our group wanted to find an approach that would allow the process to be less calculated. We decided to make the process as uncontrolled as possible. We resolved to use found footage and, in this way, to incorporate the practice that artists such as Marcel Duchamp’s used as inspiration for his ready-mades. We decided that each group member could decide how much he or she wanted to adhere to the script in the search for footage. So that it could be reflective of surrealist themes, we tried to search for footage that somehow related to religion, desire or violence. These guidelines however, were not strictly enforced. We were open to footage that we simply found appealing; we did not seek to justify the use. In the editing process, we connected each clip randomly and trimmed until we felt the image flowed naturally. In the end, we found we had a film that reflected the time in which we are living. The clips, most of them from recognisable cartoons or movies, make it easier for the audience to understand our message (thus communicating our ‘Surrealist revolution’). The film clip explores travel and movement, addresses consumerism and depicts the mundane nature of everyday life.
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