Un Chien Andalou

One minute after six o’clock, he stepped into his classroom on the eighth floor. “Sit down,” the professor ordered him, “We’re about to begin.”

An old film projector was perched on a wooden stand in front of the room. Students were whispering to each other and sharing cell phone numbers. Someone had pulled down the window shades and a dusky twilight settled over the plastic chairs and desks. Then, there was a hushed silence and the students glanced at each other mischievously, expecting the machine in the front of the class to breakdown. But the machine began clicking and grainy images sputtered onto the white screen. It was a relief for Lethe to be submerged in darkness. He knew that if the lights were off, nobody was looking at him. The credits ran for a short time and then the title, “Un Chien Andalou” appeared on the screen.

Nobody in the room knew what to expect. Of course they'd heard the name "Salvador Dali" before and most of them had seen his surrealist paintings. But this movie they were watching seemed more like a crappy home video. And some of them jeered at the film, as if to say "What's this old-fashioned crap you're showing us?" The professor told these students to be quiet. She said the movie was made in 1929.

The first scene showed a man sharpening a blade in hotel room.

He walks out onto the balcony, smoke from his cigarette pouring from his nostrils He walks back inside the hotel room. There is a woman sitting in a chair. He lifts the razor blade up to the woman’s eyeball and slices. Tango music is playing the background.

It turned out that the "old-fashioned" film was powerfully disturbing, and those students who had been mocking it were now watching with rapt attention. The short film caused a riot of emotion in the class. The scenes didn't connect. Why were ants are crawling out of a human hand?

And then, presumably the same hand rests in the middle of a city street. Nothing happens; the hand is just sitting there as if it has a mind of its own. Out of nowhere, an old woman comes across the street with her cane and pokes at the severed hand, attempting to move it. Another second goes by and she is hit by an oncoming car.

How was any of this related to real life? He could hear his professor saying that this short surrealist film is a piece of cultural history. But the movie frightened him and he didn't want to look at any more disjointed images. Anxious paranoia struck and Lethe Bashar wanted to run to the mirror. Now his skin was breaking out for sure.

"Lethe, what's wrong? Where are you going?"

Could he really say that it was a movie which made him feel this way?

“What's the reason for this strange behavior?" The professor asked, emphasizing the word "strange" in Spanish. "You also haven't handed in your assignments, you know? Tell me, is there anything I can do to help?”

He looked down the hall. It was empty and silent. “I don’t feel well, that’s all.”