Surrealism and DADA films are based in a fantastical and exaggerated world. The members of these artistic groups think spontaneously in animated images (Handout 67). DADA directors like, Clair, use a more random style of filming while surrealist directors film with a more conservative style. Surrealist and DADA films are similar in artistic styling, but different in filming techniques. Surrealist directors such as, Gance, Delluc, Bunuel, and Dali, used new methods of filming that brought about a change in the film world. Many Russian impressionist directors were greatly influenced by Gance s La Roue, which introduces the surrealist technique to Europe. Bunuel and Dali collaborated on Un Chien Andalou which represents the avant-garde at its most nature, most surreal, and most Freudian. The film consists of a stream of images that would be unrelated, but are combined in a way that produces beautiful art. Un Chien Andalou is sometimes called the prototype of surreal films. Bunuel later added a musical score to the originally silent film. This produced a different reaction from film critics who now believed the film to be solely concentrated on the collapse of European cultures. These European directors were mostly unknown in the United States film world. The American film world was more concerned with their own DADA director Man Ray.

Man Ray s films are the purest example dada in film. His films consist of a cacophony of images containing anything from people to bits of paper and trash in the wind. Stemming from ray s extreme form of dada are Renee Clair s films, which are much like Ray s collages, but contain a more centered plot scheme. Evident in Clair s The Straw Hat, Le Million, and A Nous la liberte which all contain a collage of images, but are centered around social convention and money, Clair's favorite topics. Surrealist and Dada films are similar, but each type contains independent features that distinguish it from the other. The use of fantasy in surrealistic films differs from a more propaganda-based plot in dada film. Each director exemplifies the best qualities of each type of film and each film is different from the others. Dada and surreal film of the 1920 s and 1930 s revolutionized the future of film by establishing a cap for spontaneity and creativity in film.