Experimental film takes a different kind of spectatorship than mainstream films, due to the fact that mainstream films are made easier to understand, experimental films challenge typical conventions and themes and often have no narrative, but are purely based on imagery.
Un Chien Andalou is an infamous surrealist film made in 1929 by Luis Bunuel. Throughout the film there is an artistic concept, surrealism, the film is shown almost as a dream, it was based on dreams Bunuel and Salvador Dali, one consisted of someone's eye ball being cut open, which is the opening scene. We are shown a close up of the womens eye, then a cut to the moon with a cloud going straight through out, representing the cutting of the eye, which the next shot shows. As the eye is cut, a very strange texture is shown, even in this day and age, I could barely look at the screen, so I imagine when it first came out in the late 1920's, it got a wide range of responses, mostly horrified. Most people are used to films with a clear narrative, like I mentioned before, experimental films challenge typical conventions, so personally I didn't think there was a narrative, I did at first, but watching it again made me realise that this is an abstract film, based purely on strange imagery, I realised this during the scene in which one of the characters is chasing a women in her house but then is all of a sudden being anchored down by a piano with a dead deer on it, this in my opinion has no meaning, it was purely abstract and Bunuel was looking for a reaction from his audience and to challenge them. Another example of abstract imagery is the close up shown of a males hand with ants coming out of it, this was a dream of Salvador Dali's that he mentioned, so Bunuel thought it would be perfect to include in his surreal experimental film, my personal response to this was very confused and also slightly disturbed, to watch I really had to take on a different kind of spectatorship than I would when watching mainstream films. Bunuel actually said himself in an interview 'refuse any image with meaning or culture.
Another experimental that requires a different kind of spectatorship to mainstream films is Meshes Of The Afternoon, made in 1943 by Maya Deren. This film is slightly different to Un Chien Andalou, as in my opinion this film seems to have a narrative, but still not one that I was able to pick up. I think this because when first watching it I actually believed that this was a horror, I personally think it has many horror conventions, starting straight away when she unlocks her door and walks into her house a first person shot is used, slowly panning around her house with a very strange repetitive non-digetic sound, almost sounding like to fry pans are being banged together to make a very tinny drum beat, this all adds to the tension, which is why at first I believed this to be a horror. Strange imagery is then brought into the film, as a long shot through a strange tin tube shown, almost as if we're looking through a telescope, looking at a tall black cloaked figure, a mid shot is then shown of the figure turning around revealing what we thought would be his face, however, it is a mirror, this strange imagery made me realise straight away that this is an abstract film, and Deren is trying to challenge her audience. We then start to get even 'trippier' effects, we get a mid/long shot from the top of the stairs looking down at the female character walking up the stairs, the camera then starts to tilt from left to right, as this happens the character also falls left to right, giving the feel that the whole house is moving, this left me curious and quite intrigued, as I thought it was quite clever how they challenged typical mainstream clips like that. During another scene where the women goes up the stairs, a close up of her feet is shown, the clip has been slowed right down and it gives the effect that she is flying, it's very dream like, which genuinely started to make me feel quite sleepy, like I was dreaming, a perfect example of abstract imagery and surrealism.
The film Darkness, Light, Darkness requires a different kind of spectatorship
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