The Surrealist Gaze
The programme is divided into four thematic blocks that include indisputable classics from film surrealism and at the same time integrate some of its most heterodox productions. Under the title Avant-Garde Film: Influences, Precedents and Parallel Movements, the first block includes pieces kindred to the surrealist movement, although they belong to other art movements like German New Objectivity (Symphonie diagonale (1924) by Viking Eggeling [Lund, 1880 - Berlin, 1925]), Dadaism (Anemic Cinema [1926] by Marcel Duchamp [Blainville-Crevon, 1887; Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1968]) and avant-garde documentary (Regen [1929] by Joris Ivens [Nimega, 1898 - Paris, 1989] and H2O (1929) by Ralph Steiner [Cleveland, 1899 - Hannover, 1986]). The second and third blocks are specifically devoted to film surrealism and include canonical pieces like La Coquille et le clergyman (1928) by Germaine Dulac (Amiens, 1882 - Paris, 1942), L'étoile de mer (1928) by Man Ray (Philadelphia, 1890 - Paris, 1976), and Un chien andalou (1929) and L'âge d'or (1930) by the team of Buñuel (Calanda, 1900 - Mexico City, 1983) and Dalí (Figueres, 1904-1989), along with other more heterodox films like Le sang d'un poète (1930) by Jean Cocteau (Maisons-Laffitte, 1889 - Milly-la-Forêt, 1963) and the later entry Dreams that money can buy (1947) by Hans Richter (Berlin, 1888 - Muralto, 1976). The final block is dedicated to The Surrealist Gaze in Spanish Film. It includes films like El orador/La mano (1929) by Ernesto Giménez Caballero (Madrid, 1899-1988) and Embrujo (1947) by Carlos Serrano de Osma (Madrid, 1916 - Alicante, 1984). The programme is rounded out by films on which Salvador Dalí collaborated in one way or another and a selection of video pieces that investigate the work and personality of the Catalonian painter, with interesting and little-known archive images containing interviews with Man Ray, Buñuel and Hitchcock, among others. In short, The Surrealist Gaze presents an inclusive look at the film productions that emerged from surrealism and that contribute to defining it as a movement that opened every door to the universe of the irrational.