Sunday, March 25, 2007

Timeless Dali

Geniality is rare, and in most cases it is linked to early death, total unhappiness, social inadequacy, solitude and amazing discoveries and creations that change the world permanently...Dali isn't like most cases; Salvador Dali is a genius of contradictions, a self-declared deity of art, an amazing painter, a creator, a nonconformist, a mad man...he is immortal. Conscious of his geniality, he has always so immodestly stated his privileged nature as a well-deserved title, as the most natural thing in his unnatural way of being. Only after experiencing the sheer pleasure of being face to face with his paintings, even if they were in an art book, I can say without a doubt in my mind, that he is the most alluringly-complicated artist I have ever encountered. He is obsessed with time, degradation and the tangled human mind, which is actually his tangled mind...through every painting we see a different anguish of his, a different needle deeply trusted into his brain that he's trying to set free by painting and painting and sometimes writing and other times travelling and exposing himself and other times by emotionally torturing Gala. For a glimpse of a beautifully-intriguingly-wicked mind see (if you can) and understand (if you dare) Un chien andalou.

2 comments:

costin said...

Well, I say: let's make a list or something with movies that make use of surreal elements. I'm pretty much into surr. but I have a hunch that many directors find it trendy to add some surrealism here and there and it's becoming sort of a cliche.

So, i'll start the list:
Clockwork orange
PI
Fear and loathing in Las Vegas

Lumi said...

I agree with the "many directors find it trendy to add some surrealism here and there and it's becoming sort of a cliché" part, but if you think about it, what hasn't become a cliché? If we look at the total decay of American cinematography we sadly can say: cliché, cliché, oh dear another cliché, but there is still hope, surrealism is actually one of them. Therefore the list must continue with: Darren Aronofki's "The fountain", Lars von Trier's "Europa" (yes it does have surrealistic elements and they are quite effective even on the strongest of characters, not to mention the feeble, very easily impressed minds), Richard Kelly's "Donnie Darko", Tim Burton's "Charlie and the chocolate factory" and, of course, Wong Kar Wai's "2046" . I have many more films to explore, but for now, pleasant viewing