DALI

 The Hallucinogenic Toreador
Salvador Dalí

 Some characteristics make this film hard to watch in many ways.

Describe why it is hard to watch and also how it makes the film more interesting.
Please use specific examples from the film to back up your position.  
Include at least one example that discusses each of the following
1. a costume
2. Dali speaking
3. a scene / vignette with actors
4. a narrator's description
5. an artwork
6. architecture / landscape

    When watching this film, I felt very uneasy the entire time, and to be honest, I didn't really understand a lot of the content. The film was very hard to watch, but it was also hard to take your eyes away at the same time. 

    To start, there was one scene that showed Dalí walking with a "6 meter long shirt" which he requested be a costume for one of the scenes in this "self portrait" film. This seemed very odd to me because it is just such an outlandish thing to ask for as a costume in a film. This really shows how he thought outside of the box for everything. 

    Another really hard part to watch in this film was any scene where Dalí was speaking. He speaks in a very interesting way, mainly because he has an accent and insists that the way he speaks English is the correct way, but also because he speaks in the third person. This was very hard to watch because I don't enjoy when people do this, but also it made the film more interesting because it reveals Dalí's personality. Many people who insist they are correct like that, or speak in the third person, are usually pretty full of themselves. 

    The most uncomfortable and hard to watch scene in the whole film, in my opinion, was the one where Dalí is instructing actors to paint a giant hog. It was hard to watch because it seemed cruel and unusual, but it made the film a bit more interesting because you get a sense of the craziness that is coursing through Dalí's brain.

     When it came to the narrator's description, the hardest description to listen to/watch was when the narrator said that Dalí "assimilates his birth to that of the Greek Demigods". I found this hard to hear because it seems like Dalí is very full of himself and believes he is as important as religious figures, like he has a "God complex". It does make him very intriguing though because it shows how he thinks of himself as a higher being, which we all know is just in his head. 

    It was very uncomfortable to watch the film when the narrator and Dalí were describing and introducing his painting Persistence of Memory. There was a very creepy vibe in the film when they were describing how the painting came to be, mainly because of the lighting and mood of the music. It also made the film more interesting because it showed us the rock that kind of inspired Dalí to paint faces the way he did. These faces have a distorted, or melted look to them. 

    In the opening scene of the film, I was felt uncomfortable because of the landscape/scene the actors and Dalí were in. The creepy look to the mountains and the sea, and the weird cat really set the scene for the weird feelings that went on for the rest of the film. However, it makes the film more interesting because it hooks the viewer and makes them want more of the uncomfortable feeling. 

Outside Sources:

“Salvador Dalí.” Salvador Dalí Museum, 15 Dec. 2020, thedali.org/about-the-museum/timeline/.