Surrealism in Films Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Surrealism in Films - Essay Example The essay "Surrealism in Films" discovers the films in the context of surrealism. Though Surrealism as a pure artistic form seemingly died out with the death of Andre Breton, the influence continues prevail in films. Surrealists emphasize the importance of the unconscious dream state and symbolism through the elements of surprise and juxtaposition. Unlike many pure Surrealist films in Europe, American cinema has adapted the influence of Surrealism into a storytelling method and a foundation for the interpretation of dreams and reality. Filmmakers use surrealist concepts and methods to cross the lanes from the conscious reality to the unconscious perceptive plane and attach philosophical statements to matters that are beyond a reflection of what is real. Such examples of Surrealist influence can be found across American cinematic history, in critically acclaimed films such as Spellbound, directed by Alfred Hitchcock; Blue Velvet, directed by David Lynch; and Eternal Sunshine of the Sp otless Mind, directed by Michel Gondry. Surrealism is a style of art that was developed to create an expressive expansion of the dreams of artists so that the internal could be expressed rather than the external repeated. Spanish Surrealist painter Salvador Dali described that the work of the Surrealist is â€Å"based on phantasms and representations brought about by the materializations of unconscious acts†. The style utilizes what is real but puts it into an unreal framework, which is best represented in his sculpture.