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Surrealist Film

An unconventional style of film that grew out of the French literary movement and crossed over into an avant-garde style of filmmaking in the 1920s. Opposed to conventional bourgeois forms of narrative and realistic storytelling, the surrealists sought to shock the subconscious through the juxtaposition of random non-sequential images dealing with death, sexual desire, cruelty and violence. While the style violates and openly rejects traditional, linear narrative and psychological logic, it nonetheless creates its own dreamlike meaning. The initial artists who based their films in this controversial style were Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali (Un Chien Andalou); Buñuel would continue much of his career in this vein with films like L'Age d'or, The Phantom of Liberty, and That Obscure Object of Desire, among others. Though the actual movement died out towards the end of the '20s, surrealism had a profound effect on all of cinema, basically because of film's dreamy use of images. The style remains alive today through the work of contemporary directors such as Peter Greenaway (Prospero's Books, A Zed & Two Noughts), Jan Svankmajer (Alice, Conspirators of Pleasure, the Coen Brothers (Barton Fink), and, especially, David Lynch (Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me). Despite the surrealist touch present in the films of such comedians as Buster Keaton, The Marx Brothers, W. C. Fields and Jerry Lewis, their works are not surrealist films proper and fit more appropriately into other categories.

Major Works
Rating
Year
 Title
 
 Director
    9 Stars 1943 Meshes of the Afternoon   Maya Deren
  9 Stars 1928 Un Chien Andalou   Luis Buñuel
  9 Stars 1961 Last Year at Marienbad   Alain Resnais
  9 Stars 1977 Eraserhead   David Lynch
    9 Stars 1972 The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie   Luis Buñuel
  9 Stars 1986 Blue Velvet   David Lynch
    8 Stars 1947 Fireworks   Kenneth Anger
    8 Stars 1988 Alice   Jan Svankmajer
    8 Stars 1964 Scorpio Rising   Kenneth Anger
  8 Stars 1974 Celine and Julie Go Boating   Jacques Rivette
    8 Stars 1986 De Wisselwachter   Jos Stelling
    8 Stars 1928 Ghosts Before Breakfast   Hans Richter
    7 Stars 1999 Cremaster 2   Matthew Barney
  7 Stars 1999 Charisma   Kiyoshi Kurosawa
    7 Stars 1967 A Man Vanishes   Shohei Imamura
    7 Stars 1971 Sho O Suteyo, Machi E Deyo   Shuji Terayama
    7 Stars 1958 Dom   Walerian Borowczyk
    7 Stars 1927 La Coquille et le Clergyman   Germaine Dulac
    7 Stars 1963 Renaissance   Walerian Borowczyk
  7 Stars 1996 Spiklenci Slasti   Jan Svankmajer
    7 Stars 1983 De Illusionist   Jos Stelling
    7 Stars 1926 A Page of Madness   Teinosuke Kinugasa
  7 Stars 1971 El Topo   Alejandro Jodorowsky
  7 Stars 1985 A Zed & Two Noughts   Peter Greenaway
  7 Stars 1989 Twin Peaks: Pilot   David Lynch
    7 Stars 1991 Prospero's Books   Peter Greenaway
  7 Stars 1981 Possession   Andrzej Zulawski
  7 Stars 1974 Le Fantôme de la Liberté   Luis Buñuel
  7 Stars 1991 Naked Lunch   David Cronenberg
    7 Stars 1954 The Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome   Kenneth Anger
  7 Stars 1991 Delicatessen   Marc Caro
  7 Stars 1930 The Blood of a Poet   Jean Cocteau
  6 Stars 1997 Lost Highway   David Lynch
  6 Stars 1960 Le Testament d'Orphée   Jean Cocteau
  6 Stars 1989 Santa Sangre   Alejandro Jodorowsky
    5 Stars 1970 Emperor Tomato Ketchup   Shuji Terayama
    5 Stars 1982 Moznosti Dialogu   Jan Svankmajer
    5 Stars 1971 Rendez-Vous a Bray   André Delvaux
    5 Stars 1970 The Grandmother   David Lynch
  5 Stars 1994 Lekce Faust   Jan Svankmajer
    5 Stars 1963 L'Immortelle   Alain Robbe-Grillet
  5 Stars 1983 La Belle Captive   Alain Robbe-Grillet
    5 Stars 1958 Dwaj Ludzie z Szafy   Roman Polanski
  5 Stars 1965 Simon del Desierto   Luis Buñuel
    5 Stars 1969 Lucifer Rising   Kenneth Anger
    4 Stars 1999 Dancing with Hydra   Takuji Suzuki
    4 Stars 1994 Zapiski Kurnosogo Mefistofelya   Yuri Lyashenko
    4 Stars 1983 Do Pivnice   Jan Svankmajer
    4 Stars 1970 Don Juan   Jan Svankmajer
    4 Stars 1969 Tichy Tyden V Dome   Jan Svankmajer
    4 Stars 1968 Zahrada   Jan Svankmajer
    4 Stars 1968 Byt   Jan Svankmajer
  4 Stars 1973 The Holy Mountain   Alejandro Jodorowsky
  4 Stars 1992 Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me   David Lynch
    4 Stars 1968 Black Lizard   Kinji Fukasaku
  4 Stars 1963 Attack of the Mushroom People   Ishiro Honda
    3 Stars 1999 Yusho-Renaissance   Hiroyuki Oki
    3 Stars 1975 Pastoral Hide and Seek   Shuji Terayama
    3 Stars 1965 Spiel Mit Steinen   Jan Svankmajer
  3 Stars 1947 Dreams That Money Can Buy   Hans Richter
  3 Stars 1990 The Garden   Derek Jarman
    2 Stars 1998 Cremaster 5   Matthew Barney
    2 Stars 1989 La Voce della Luna   Federico Fellini
  2 Stars 1980 City of Women   Federico Fellini
    1999 Spectres of the Spectrum   Craig Baldwin
      1999 One Piece!   Takuji Suzuki
      1967 Alphabet   David Lynch
 
 
 
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