The point of madness: surrealist c inema’s struggle for survival
cinema couldn’t havematured into what it is now, but without the refinement that directors like Lynch, Gilliam and Jodorowsky provided it would merely be a form of eccentric entertainment.
One recent film which marked another milestone in Surrealist cinema was Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse released in 2019. The film is set on an island lighthouse, and studies what happens on the island as the two characters are left alone over an undisclosed time. Eggers employs a new strategy in this film, first creating a situation grounded in reality, and using period-perfect sets, costumes and dialogue, to reinforce the realism. Eggers then intertwines the film with surreal stylized visuals, dialogue and moments. Through this he creates a film where dream and reality are inextricably linked and the audience is forced to form their own interpretation ranging from those viewing the island as a sort of Purgatory to those who believe that there is only one character and that the other is an insane projection. Eggers used black and white film and an almost square aspect ratio to further imprint a surreal feeling onto every scene. While also lending an aged feel to the film encouraging immersion in its period setting, the conscious decision to film in black and white forces an almost otherworldly and less precise feeling on the film, making viewing the film a dream-like experience, while the square aspect ratio encourages feelings of constriction and enhances the hallucinatory and uncanny nature of the film. The film, despite the importance it grants the story’s various interpretations, has a number o f similarities with Un ChienAndalou and other surrealist films. For example, the filmhas a deeply visceral scene where Pattinson dashes a seagull against a rock, while other scenes feature Dafoe’s repeated flatulence. Like Dalí and Buñuel, Eggers uses juxtaposition frequently, but perhaps more importantly, a viewer seeing either The Lighthouse or Un Chien Andalou will take away something entirely different as another person who saw the same film. The Lighthouse was a major evolution in surrealist cinema, dramatically improving upon the blending of dream and reality, but at this point one has to ask: will Breton’s vision ever be real ized? Perhaps it is the fate of Surrealism to never find the perfect balance, after all reality and dreams are by their very n ature subjective, one man’s dream is another man’s reality . It is likely that for many such a balance had already been struck years before The Lighthouse and perhaps even before the resurgence of surrealism in the 70s. And equally likely, many people will never see their resolution of dream and reality. Or perhaps they may one day and then lose it the next. Reality is always shifting just as our dreams and aspirations are also evolving. Breton’s fabled resolution may have come and gone. At the point where dream and reality would cease to fluctuate and there would be an exact point of resolution, Surrealism, its core purpose as a force for change, would lose all importance.
Sources
André Breton, The Surrealist Manifesto (originally published in 1924) Luis Buñuel (1982) My Last Sigh . Minneapolis The Dalí Museum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp2PRA0qaD4 Roger Ebert: https://www.rogerebert.com
Facets: http://facets.org/blog/exclusive/surrealist-cinema-and-the-avant-garde/ Film Inquiry: https://www.filminquiry.com/surrealist-cinema-100-years-psychedelia/ Metropolitan Museum: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/surr/hd_surr.htm Smithsonian Magazine: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/
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