Un Chien Andalou
“‘The light cloud passes now in front of the moon. The razor blade moves across the young woman's eye, cutting it open' - this antimontage begins the result of an uneasy collaboration between Salvador Dali, with his penchant for scandalous self-advertising, and Luis Buñuel, with his scandalizing sense of revolt. Following the film's first showings, Buñuel, for one, was exasperated by ‘the imbecile crowd (that) found beautiful or poetic something that was basically a desperate, passionate call to murder.' Nevertheless, Un Chien Andalou remains the first deliberately unattractive film, indigestible despite much chewing over by critics looking for ‘dream symbolism.' Jean Vigo writes that ‘in this film we will have to view with something more than the everyday eye.'” --James Brook
• Directed and Produced by Luis Buñuel. Written by Buñuel and Salvador Dali. Photographed by Albert Duverger. Edited by Buñuel. Art Direction by Schilzneck. With Pierre Batcheff, Simone Mareuil, Jaime Miravilles, Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dali. (1928, 16 mins, silent, Print from PFA Collection)

Les Yeux Sans Visage (Eyes Without a Face)
“‘By his reckless driving, a brilliant plastic surgeon, Dr. Genessier...is responsible for disfiguring his daughter Christiane.... Unaccustomed to being “contradicted” by fate, he resolves to confer a new face on his daughter. His devoted assistant Louise...drives into Paris, and lures students who resemble Christiane to Genessier's home; there he attempts, vainly, to graft their faces on to hers' (Raymond Durgnat).
“Franju manages to transform the hackneyed horror picture elements of Eyes Without a Face into a representation of sublimated terror. Working at times in a spirit close to that of the surrealists, Franju in this film parallels Edgar Allan Poe's success in a similar genre. Franju: ‘What pleases is what is terrible, gentle, and poetic.'” --James Brook
• Directed by George Franju. Produced by Jules Borkon. Written by Jean Redon, from his novel, adapted by Franju, Redon et al. Photographed by Eugen Shuftan. Edited by Gilbert Natot. With Pierre Brasseur, Alida Valli, Edith Scob, Francois Buerin. (1959, 88 mins, English titles, Print from Audio Brandon)