Surrealistic Cinema...
elag
miniscule article:
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What is meant when a film is described as "surreal"?
Most of the time the word used should be "surrealistic".
By "surrealistic" people generally mean:
1. Dreamlike
2. Dealing largely with dreams and fantasies
3. Irrational/unconventional in structure
4. Black Comedy
or sometimes:
1. Reminiscent of Surrealist art (usually Dali or Magritte)
2. Reminiscent of Bunuel's films
3. Reminiscent of Cocteau's films
It is true that the term surreal/surrealistic is bandied about in an
inaccurate way, at least in terms of the PHILOSOPHY of Surrealism. In
Art History, however, the term "surrealistic" is a widely (if vaguely)
understood term. It is a perfectly legitimate word, in the sense that
it merely refers to the superficial aspects of style typical of the
Surrealist artists in the period between the World Wars.
In a way, calling a film "surrealistic" is no different than calling a
painting "impressionistic" or "expressionistic". Most of the words that
people use to describe art are innacurate or simply refer to a mannered
parroting of some long dead style. I admit that the term "surrealistic"
engenders innacurate ideas about Surrealism but it's unrealistic to
expect any change in its usage.
Basically, people want to categorize films so that they know what they
want to see. Is it "scary", "suspenseful", "romantic", "surreal"? If
it is "surreal" they'll probably like it as much as the last film they
saw which was (also) called "surreal".
Anyway, whenever I say that I like "Black Comedies" people figure that I
must be referring to Eddie Murphy's latest tinseltown jaunt....
squid777
'conservative' array of paintings. However, I thought each and every one of
those paintings (i.e.Rembrant;etc.) was surrealist--or was it I at the
moment a surrealist. I say this because the art was speaking to me very
intensly (yes,i was perhaps insane)but a insane surrealist indeed!
is it the person or the art that is experiencing the surreal???