The artillery fire of the First World War shattered the cultural belief in capitalism among European intellectuals and turned to believe in the irrationality of human nature. Surrealism came into being, advocating for "automatic spiritual writing" to fight against imprisonment and order with irrationality.
Bunuel, as a fearless rebel, is always trying some kind of taboo speech. His "An Andalu Dog" lifted the banner of surrealist films, and two years later, "Golden Age" became the climax and end of surrealist films.
Narrative: The broken kaleidoscope
"Andalu Dog" does not appear "dogs", but "Golden Age" starts with a scorpion, taking the trouble to introduce its characteristics: preference for darkness, loneliness, and offense, laying an irrational tone for the film. The story unfolds. In the bay, tired bandits fall on the way to deal with several bishops, and then gentlemen in suits and leather shoes come ashore to worship the boned bishop and build the city of Rome on this basis. They separated the entangled man and woman. The man continued to fantasize and sabotage during his escort, and left after telling the police that he was a religious charity ambassador. A banquet was held in the woman's house, and the two had a tryst in the garden. When the band was playing, the conductor suddenly walked out with his head in his hands. The woman stepped forward and kissed him. The man walked into the room unbearably and threw all kinds of things out of the window. And the white feathers fell from his torn pillow and turned to the castle in the snow. After 120 days of indulgence, four old nobles walked out. One of them was Christ. He killed a female victim.
The whole story has no clear logic, it is a collage of broken fragments, like subconscious confusion and accident, under the "pure spiritual automatism", reality and surreal, dream and desire, memory and imagination, all time and space cause and effect are Disorganized, the boundary between reality and illusion is broken, forming a kaleidoscope of images of the "Golden Age".
■Deep structure, motif and imagery:
If the form of the film is the absurdity of surrealism, Bergson's "instinctual impulse" and Freud's psychoanalysis are the deep structure of the film. Just like Bunuel’s own explanation: “The sexual instinct and the feeling of death constitute the essence of the film.”
In Freud's view, the subconscious mind is the foundation of man, and the core of the subconscious is sexual desire and destructive desire. Destructive desire comes from sexual desire. Therefore, the film revolves around the erotic desires that the hero and heroine desires but cannot. In society, The ethical and religious obstacles are mixed with fanatical desires and destructive desires. The binary opposition model: asceticism versus lust, charity ambassador versus destruction, makes the film full of ridicule.
In this early film, the motif that runs through Bunuel’s life, that is, the ruthless satire of religion and the bourgeoisie, has been fully displayed. In the film, the bishop dropped from the window like a dog, the lustful Jesus, the image of the woman's scalp hanging on the cross-the shadow of religious imprisonment always hovering above the head. The civilized building was destroyed, the elegant violin was kicked out, and at the banquet symbolizing capitalist society, walking dead people turned a blind eye to the maid burned to death, the child shot by his father, and the huge carriage driving by in the banquet. , Sufficiently cold and hypocritical—the ridicule and denial of the bourgeoisie and its order are also run through.
At the same time, as an extension and supplement of "Andalu Dog", "Golden Age" continues its bizarre and absurd style, full of weird metaphors and associations. For example, the dazzling and awkward images: touching the face with a broken palm, the blood on the face when a man is excited, the woman's psychedelic sucking sculpture toe; and the signifier of the poisonous scorpion, the cow lying on the woman's bed, the giraffe thrown from the window ... All these seem to be constructing a world full of symbols but unpredictable.
However, if you really want to pursue these meanings, then meaninglessness may be the greatest meaning.
■Facts or other:
Although "Golden Age" is called the second film that Dali and Bunuel collaborated on, in fact, when the film was written, the two had parted ways, but Buñuel still used Dali’s offer. An idea: a person passes a stone statue with a stone on his head, and suddenly finds that the same stone is also on the top of the statue.
After the film was released, it brought about four controversies, controversies, and a 50-year ban. Even in the cultural chronicles of Paris, the famous "Golden Age" scandal was formed. People try to warn: danger! Don't stick your head in!
Afterwards, Dalí also commented: "This American film" was not a satire or a compliment.
At this time, with the funding of MGM, Bunuel really went to the United States, and when he was bored, he flipped through newspapers sent from Paris to denigrate the "Golden Age" from time to time.
As for the person with the stone, facing the suspicion of the critics, Bunuel just said: "The effect is good."
Note: "Danger, don't stick your head in" is the name of Bunuel's interview collection.
【Published】
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