Un Chien Andalou

 Un shien Andalou:

- The film seems to go on in random scenes as it never follows what is expected/normal

- The scenes feel random and confusing, which is why Buñuel was considered one of the greatest pioneers of this movement, because everything feels out of the ordinary or out of place while simultaneously making sense.

Narrative theory... what is it?

- Narrative is the content of the story (what is happening in the theory)

- Narrative is the form used to tell the story

There are 2 ways to describe parts of narrative structure are:

- Story

- Plot

Story refers to the events that happen in the narrative

Story: spacial (location) & temporal (time) diegesis (from the story world)

What event starts the story? (Inciting incident)

Who are the main characters in the story? 

What conflict do that face? What is at stake?

What happens to the characters as they face this conflict?

What is the outcome on this conflict?

What is the ultimate impact on the characters?

Plot refers to how the story is told - the form of the storytelling, or structure, it follows

Plot: How and when....

- Is the major conflict story set up

- Are the main characters introduced

- Is the story moved along so that characters must face the central conflict

- Is the major conflict set up to propel the film to its conclusion

-Does the film resolve most of the mojor conflict set up at the outset

Claude Levi-Strauss (1964)

Clade theorised that people fundamentally think in terms of binary opposites

examples include:

- Good vs Bad

- Heroes vs Villain

- Protagonist vs Antagonist

Todorov narrative theory (1977)

- equilibrium

- disruption then causes disequilibrium

- Recognition of disruption disequilibrium

- Action acted against the disruption

- Restoration of a new state of equilibrium 

Narrative structure:

- Exposition

- Rising action

- Climax

- Falling action

- Denouement (Final part of the film)(outcome)

Key words:

- Denouement

- Plot

- Story

- Narrative

- Verisimilitude

- Temporal

- Spacial

- Equilibrium

- 

Robert mCKEE (1998)

Inciting Incident: An event happens that sets the story going

Progressive complications: For a key character, things just keep getting worse

Crisis: Things get even worse - it looks like its all over for the hero

Climax: Things are now so bad, drastic action is called for

Resolution: The problem is solved and everything turns out ok.

Main character: sharpening his knife

Slitting of the eye

Looks over a balcony and the next scene we see is when he slits the eye of the woman in the video using an extreme close up

dissolve into a man cycling into a city

natural lighting as it is filmed outdoors

cross fade into a main shot

Continuity is broken throughout the whole film

Long shots

Guy falls off bicycle 

Woman appears distressed through the window

Many different types of dissolve shots, continuity is not shown as dissolves usually suggest passage of time however the scene keeps going backwards and forwards.

Ants on hands close up

Arm pit hair

Sea Urchin after fade from armpit

Vignette

Poking a hand

High angle and top down 

Sqaushed by car

Lustful man with breasts

Dissolve into naked body represents the shape of her bottom.

Handheld shots 

Close up of naked body suggests it was very intimate

Surrealist cinema didn't have much continuity as it used to jump from one time to another whether it be forwards or backwards.

 With reference to examples from both experimental surrealist films you have studied. Explain how cinematography and editing have been used to challenge conventional narrative structure.

Un Chien Andalou is a surrealist film directed by Luis Bunuel in 1928, and uses cinematography and editing to create a narrative. Cinematography refers to the lighting, movement, framing, shot types, angles and composition. Editing refers to using techniques to create continuity however surrealist films break conventional narratives and continuity.

The film starts by showing the protagonist sharpening his knife, which would cannot violence in the first scene, which isn't something typically done in movies in 1929. The knife sharpening is a high angle shot which connotes that the character is a strong or main character.  The room is well lit, which suggests it may be light outside however the scene then cuts to the man on a balcony where it revealed it is dark and night time and it is further backed up by a shot of the moon.  Time does not seem constant and the narrative is not clear, which is agaisnt conventional narratvie structure. 

In the nest scene, it is a shot of an eye being slit open. Typically in films, violence is not shown close up however in un chien andalou the violence is shown in detail in a close-up shot. The first scene makes us assume he might be a heroic fgure howevre they quickly break narrative by having him commit acts that are violent and against whaty a hero would do.

o assume him to be a good or heroic figure, but any such illusion of this is quickly shattered with this scene