Luis Buñuel’s Un Chien Andalou – 1920s Surrealist Shorts with Live Score at the RNCM
Chris Horkan
The RNCM continues its French Connections season with an evening of 1920s Surrealist short films, with each one accompanied by a live score performed by the college’s students.
The concert takes its title from Un chien andalou (An Andalusian Dog), the 1929 short by Spanish director Luis Buñuel, co-written with his compatriot, Salvador Dalí, and featuring no plot. The RNCM has curated the evening to also include Emak-Bakia, the 1929 film by American Dadaist and Surrealist Man Ray, alongside Hans Richter’s 1928 animated film Vormittagsspuk (Ghosts Before Breakfast) and René Clair’s Entr’acte from 1924.
Each short has an interesting musical back story: Vormittagsspuk‘s original score by Paul Hindemith was destroyed by the Nazis, while Entr’acte‘s soundtrack was contributed by Erik Satie. Un chien andalou was accompanied by a selection of music played on a gramophone by Buñuel for its first screening in Paris, while Emak-Bakia was originally a silent film but, more recently, Jacques Guillot constructed a musical accompaniment using records taken from Man Ray’s personal collection.
This unusual event promises to be an adventurous exploration of the art form via four innovative examples.
