Two greatest short films - Andalusian Dog and Powers of Ten
Dr. Fred Pollock, president of the WV Jewish Film Festival, recently made a trip to Spain having never been there. I asked him if he had ever seen Bunuel and Dali’s first film - and Bunuel’s most shocking, “Un Chien Andalou”( Andalusian Dog)(1929). He said he had never heard of it…..so I borrowed KCPL’s DVD of it, and WVLC’s VHS of “Powers of Ten,” also one of the two or three greatest short films ever made.
Since I have been a professional film exhibitor since 1972, I have indeed watched thousands of films. None can match the amazing surrealism of “Andalusian Dog.” Not only is the cut eyeball amazing, every other scene is also. I got to watch the extra documentaries that were included in the DVD of the film, and really enjoyed hearing the stories about Luis Bunuel spoken by his son. Bunuel ranks in the Top Ten film directors of all time with Bergman, Godard, Hitchcock, Kurosawa, Makavejev and a handful of others. Anyone interested in film history, Spain, surrealism, almost anything, should see this film - it’s only 17 minutes long.
Like Bunuel’s son, Juan Luis, says, modern advertising has been greatly influenced by this film. Indeed, MTV, all of cinema, photography, graphic arts, etc. have all learned lessons from this amazing film. It’s great to see one of the first works of film art that truly refused to just tell a simple story, but in fact, challenged the entire notion of telling stories. You can watch a Spanish version of the film here…
Cover art for Powers of Ten
Another short film that has influenced a million MTV films and modern advertising, etc. is the Eames’ “Powers of Ten.” WVSU art prof was obsessed with the film, and showed it at his Yellow Kid Gallery in downtown Charleston. Like everyone who has ever seen it, they never forget how the film shows our macro and micro universe, using the most powerful tool in mathematics, powers of ten. I projected a 16 mm copy of it around WV when I went on a tour during the spring of 1979 including at the Green Bank PL. All radio astronomers know the power of powers of ten, and I even ran into a person once who was at that showing, and vividly remembered the film. I also screened it once for Gov. Rockefeller because Ashland Oil had spent money making the film available to schools around the state as one of their educational projects. I hope that WV school children get to see the DVD version of the film, but I doubt if they are which is really too bad. Watch an online version of the film here…
Fred Pollock likes showing Jewish shorts before features and even had a program one summer night, “Jews in Shorts,” which included a great Charleston, WV short doc, “Children of Jacob” about B’Nai Jacob Synagogue made by Jeremy Newman, a relative of a local Jewish family who grew up in Ohio.
