Bunuel and Dali Films

Aurora Picture Show presents Buñuel and Dalí Films. Co-presented with The Menil Collection. Outdoor film screening, Menil Collection east lawn.

In 1929 Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí shocked Parisian audiences with the 16-minute surrealist masterpiece, Un Chien Andalou, which featured cross-dressing, a razor blade slicing an eye, dead donkeys on a piano, ants in a hand, sexual fetishism, and a rich array of images drawn straight from the dreams of its young creators.

Luis Buñuel decided that the next film should be longer and even more upsetting to mainstream audiences.

Although he and Dalí had worked together so effortlessly in creating the scenario for Un Chien Andalou, they would spend the rest of their lives arguing over who contributed what to the scenario of what became known as L’Age d’Or.

With an introduced by Sandra Zalman, assistant professor of Art History at the University of Houston, the Menil presents two classics of Surrealist cinema. Almost 90 years after its release, Un chien andalou (1929), written by Dalí and directed by Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel, still retains its ability to shock audiences. L’âge d’or (1930) is a critique of the Catholic Church and was banned in France until 1979.

Audiences are welcome to view Dalí’s painting, The Secret of the Hanging Egg on view at The Menil Collection.