Dali, Surrealism and Cinema

One of the most widely recognized and controversial artists of the 20th century, Salvador Dalí was also an avant-garde filmmaker, collaborating with such giants as Luis Buñuel, Walt Disney, and Alfred Hitchcock. Influenced by the Marx Brothers, Buster Keaton, and Stanley Kubrick, Dalí used the cinema to bring the "dream subjects" of his paintings to life, providing the groundwork for revolutionary forays into television, video, photography, and holography. From a moviegoing experience that would incorporate all five senses to the tale of a woman’s hapless love affair with a wheelbarrow, Dalí’s hallucinatory vision never fails to leave its indelible mark, while his writings continue to be relevant to discourses surrounding film and surrealism.

One of the most widely recognized and controversial artists of the 20th century, Salvador Dalí was also an avant-garde filmmaker, collaborating with such giants as Luis Buñuel, Walt Disney, and Alfred Hitchcock. Influenced by the Marx Brothers, Buster Keaton, and Stanley Kubrick, Dalí used the cinema to bring the "dream subjects" of his paintings to life, providing the groundwork for revolutionary forays into television, video, photography, and holography. From a moviegoing experience that would incorporate all five senses to the tale of a woman’s hapless love affair with a wheelbarrow, Dalí’s hallucinatory vision never fails to leave its indelible mark, while his writings continue to be relevant to discourses surrounding film and surrealism.

Eric Pasteur - Library Journal

Salvador Dalí is synonymous with surrealism; just as Campbell's soup cans trigger images of Warholian pop art, a deformed timepiece evokes dreamscapes à la Dalí. Beyond Un chien andalou(1929), Dalí and Luis Buñuel's masterpiece of surrealist cinema, Dalí's film endeavors are relatively unknown compared with his paintings. Art historian King's concise volume is divided into three categories covering his early works (including collaborations with Buñuel), Hollywood works (including Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound), and late works (late 1940s and beyond). King recounts narratives from Dalí's film scripts and productions and offers valuable historical context, such as the artist's crucial encounters with Harpo Marx and Walt Disney. King's analysis of Dalí's motivations for translating ideas to film clearly points to Dalí's overly ambitious concepts and industry-oblivious mindset, both of which accounted for many unrealized creations. Paired with Matthew Gale's Dalí & Film(published to coincide with the 2007-08 Tate Modern exhibition of the same name), King's edition is recommended for all libraries as an introduction to Dalí's fascinating cinematic excursions.

Elliott H. King is an art historian specializing in Dalí and surrealism. He contributed to Dalí, The Centenary Exhibition and is active with the 2007-08 traveling exhibition, Dalí & Film.