Luis Buñuel and Freud

Careful! Spoilers!

I will try and make some connections between the work of Buñuel and Sigmund Freud as it is far more interesting than it sounds. There are a lot of scenes in the films that you don't realise have anything to do with psychoanalysis. I will only include a few brief points. It becomes fascinating when you start digging...

Luis Buñuel - is a Spanish filmmaker that worked in France, Spain and Mexico. As a matter of fact, he has made a lot of films that criticise our society and its values. One of the symbolic films was Un Chien Andalou (1929), which he made with Salvador Dalí (a Spanish surrealist artist).

Sigmund Freud - is a founder of psychoanalysis. He wrote a lot about dreams, their meaning, our subconscious etc.

To add it all up - both, Freud and Buñuel devoted a great deal of time focusing on the idea of dreams.

Buñuel's films, such as Un Chen Andalou or, for example, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) are full of dream-like episodes, confusing events, skipping from one thing to another. And what would be the first thing you say, when you want to tell someone about the dream you had? "I had such a weird dream last night!" yes, that's exactly what it feels like to watch these movies.

Dreams are very surrealistic and hence, we can say that there is a clear connection between the surrealistic filmmaker and a neurologist that wrote about dreams.

1. (Imagery)

To start with, the opening scenes (the cover photo here) of the "Andalusian dog" was meant to create a phallic imagery on purpose. We start to realise, that the film is based around those sort of innuendos. When the moon is being cut by the clouds and the eye has been cut by the razor, the directors were probably trying to say, "hey, we are going to use a lot of sexual imagery but you have to look closely for its meaning".

The film creates an idea around male and female genitals and therefore tells us what the whole film is going to be like. This is where the idea for the film goes back to dreams, Freud and psychoanalysis - the reciprocation of dreams ability to bend time and space, making the scenes very unsettling to the audience. As we know, Freud said a lot about our conscious, subconscious, attractions and so, not only the dreams become relevant but also anything to do with sexual desires etc. (so... basically the whole film).

2. (Ego and Id)

The fact that the time and space have been intentionally disturbed, with all the cutting of the scenes and messages, some moments of time not really making sense - we are reassured that the main subject would be the human subconscious. As a man sees a woman get run over through the window, we see the representation of ego and id. As he sees her get run over he becomes excited about it. The idea that someone's suffrage makes a man excited, says a lot about us as humans. The next thing we see, is when the man attacks the woman next to him who is then trying to fight him away. As the id is not really our subconscious but to explain it simpler, a sort of realm, where we don’t have an idea of right or wrong actions but just our desires etc. This is a very nice representation of humans, when our id fights with our ego, id being the man and ego being the woman. It is reciprocating how one’s behaviour can lack control.

3. (Transitions and lust)

The transition of one thing into the other throughout the film, gives us hints of what it is suggestive of. The constant transition of the armpits is used to represent lust for different sex etc. When man’s lips are gone, a woman starts putting on her lipstick. It is highlighting the fact that one of them has something the other lacks, the same happens with the armpit. Now, we start to realise that both, Freud and Buñuel have a done a lot of work on instinctual desires and human sexuality.

One fun fact! - one of the songs is “Liebestod” - translated as “love death” and conveniently to this post references Freud once again. It suggests the intertwinement of sexual desires and suffering.

4. (Ants and our actions)

When we see ants coming out of the man’s palm, it is suggestive that whatever he has done is not right. He is rotting from the inside. As the main ‘incorrect’ actions have been made by a man in the film, supporting the idea of ‘incorrect’ sexual desires made by him, shows that the desires we have as humans are very vulgar and simple yet we are still unable to hide them behind our ego. When the hand gets trapped in between the door, we see the connotations with lust as it reaches out to the woman, and she keeps it trapped as if scared (as you can see on the photo above).

I would like to leave out a film called L'Age D'Or, (that actually has a lot to mention), only because I didn't find it comfortable analysing and would rather choose something more recent like The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.

5. (Bourgeoisie and their interests)

In the movie we see that the hosts, the Sénéchals (Stéphane Audran and Jean-Pierre Cassel), try to have a sexual intercourse while their guests are about to arrive. They realise that it would be safer to go somewhere further away than their room, in case the guests arrive, so they disappear into the garden to have sex. This probably shows how they are the most youthful characters but it is also a clear reminder of the inability to resist our desires.

6. (It is about dreams)

Generally speaking, both films are based on dreams because of the way they were filmed and edited. If you couldn't understand Un Chien Andalou at first - it is a great indicator of the fact that dreams are very hard to follow and make sense. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie actually highlights the idea of dreams, as we see that some scenes include the characters waking up confused, because the events that took place were not actually real.

(If you decided to come this far without watching the films, I still suggest you do, at least because The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is very comical and you will definitely enjoy it)

I hope this made it a little bit more interesting and if you are reading this then I am glad you didn't fall asleep, reading about dreams ;)