Surrealism on Film
A revolutionary movement, born in the 1920s from a mixture of a complete rejection of rational values combined with Freud-inspired methods of liberating the unconscious, surrealism changed that changed the face or art forever.
If its practitioners created few actual classic 'surrealist' films, the movement's influence on film in general - and on animation, television and even documentaries - has been incalculable and continues to this day. As the animator Norman McLaren said, it was his exposure to surrealism that liberated his thinking with regard to his own art: "with surrealism you can after all change anything into anything", he said. All of the films featured here share an attitude of liberation from the censorship of the conscious mind.
Film Listing
David Lynch, 2001
£6.99
Mulholland Drive
David Lynch's Mulholland Drive provides a memorably dark trip through the flipside of Hollywood. ...
Jean Renoir, 1937
£12.99
La Grande Illusion (Restored)
A poetic and poignant meditation on class, the nature of war and the death of the...
Jacques Meny, Georges Melies, 1997
£16.99
Melies The Magician
A documentary on the pioneering French film maker Georges Méliès along with fifteen of his restor...
Jacques Rivette, 1974
£17.99
Celine and Julie Go Boating
A brilliantly allusive meditation on the nature of fantasy and regarded as Rivett...
Jean Cocteau, 1950
£17.99
Orphee
Cocteau's fantastical updating of the Orpheus legend is pure cinematic poetry. Jean Marais plays ...
Jean Cocteau, 1946
£17.99
La Belle et la Bete (Remastered)
A landmark feat of cinematic fantasy in which master filmmaker Jean Cocteau conju...
Jan Svankmajer, 1964-1992
£14.99
Jan Svankmajer: The Complete Short Films 1964-1992
The most comprehensive DVD edition ever assembled of the short films by the legen...
Quay Brothers, 1979-2003
£17.99
Quay Brothers - The Short Films 1979-2003
This 2-disc DVD set celebrates the work of the amazing identical twin animators T...
David Lynch, 2001
£13.99
Mulholland Drive (Studio Canal Collection)
David Lynch's Mulholland Drive provides a memorably dark trip through the flipsid...
David Lynch, 2006
£9.99
Inland Empire
A potent, surrealist epic, Inland Empire never fails to terrify, transfix and unnerve across its ...
Juraj Herz, 1968
£11.99
The Cremator
This has been described as a 'surrealist-inspired horror' and an expressionist fantasy. It's cert...
Jean Renoir, 1937
£17.99
La Grande Illusion (Restored) (Studio Canal Collection)
A poetic and poignant meditation on class, the natu...
Alfred Hitchcock, 1945
£5.99
Spellbound
Psychiatrist Doctor Constance Peterson psychoanalyses J.B. who harbours a severe guilt trauma, an...
Terry Gilliam, 1985
£6.99
Brazil
In Terry Gilliam's brilliant Brazil, the Orwellian world of Sam Lowry - a man seeking escape thro...
Jean Painlevé, 1927-78
£20.49
Science is Fiction: The Films of Jean Painleve
A pioneer of science films with a poetic bent, Jean Painlevé (1902-1989) explored...
Norman McLaren, 1933-83
£55.49
Norman McLaren: The Master's Edition
Norman McLaren is a giant in the history of the art of animation. His films form ...
Hans Richter, 1946
£9.49
Dreams That Money Can Buy
An extraordinary film, a sort of history of art film noir, for want of a better d...
David Lynch, 2006
£8.99
Inland Empire
A potent, surrealist epic, Inland Empire never fails to terrify, transfix and unnerve across its ...
