Surrealist Evolution

Dada
Dada (a nonsensical world) was a protest against everything, it was anti rational, humorous deliberately shocking and anti art. It started after WW1 commenting on the stupidity of it (1916-1922) This is what surrealism evolved out of.

Surrealism
Surrealism was founded as a movement in 1924 by Andre Breton who was a major member of the Dada group. Surrealism was an European artistic/cultural movement starting in the 1920's Breton drafted the Surrealist Manifesto in 1924, declaring surrealism as - “pure psychic automatism, by which an attempt is made to express, either verbally, in writing or in any other manner, the true functioning of thought. The dictation of thought, in the absence of all control by the reason, excluding any aesthetic or moral preoccupation” The Movement used shocking, irrational, or absurd imagery and Freudian dream symbolism to challenge the traditional function of art to represent reality. Surrealists promoted painting, cinema and literature.
Surrealist filmmakers rejected conventional narrative forms, attempted to disrupt narrative conventions of time and space, of plot, character and causality and then mixed all around until nothing made conventional sense. It was aimed to derange meaning, To upset, disorientate and shock. it emphasizes image rather than word, feeling rather than thought
The Surrealists wanted to liberate western culture from the tyranny and repression of reason and reveal the true nature of reality.

Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali
An Andalusian Dog (Un Chien Andalou) (1929) was a collabaration between Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dail. The short film is a succession of dreamlike sequences that violate conventional narrative schemes. I watched this movie in class and its very fragmented, but it seems like every shot portrays a deeper message that one cannot make up on their first time watching.
Bunuel states the script was sparked by images from their own dreams (both of them brainstormed a series of images that had no rational connection to each other)

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/49756.Luis_Bu_uel

https://www.redbubble.com/people/trashpookie/works/26519595-salvador-dali-young

Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau was a director, poet painter, novelist, playwright , set designer and actor. He once wrote that "When I make a film, it is a sleep in which I am dreaming"
Blood of a poet (1932)

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0168413/mediaviewer/rm2844676352

Man Ray
The only American to play a major role in both the Dada and Surrealist movements
The Starfish (L'Etoile de mer) (1928)
Leave Me Alone (Emak Bakia) (1926)