Surrealism

This one is tough to explain. Moulin Rouge was what Tabi and I watched today. It was not really surreal at all, rather, it seemed grounded enough to follow very clearly and placed with the real world. Occasional scenes artfully presented the things going on in dramatic ways, such as the pistol flying out the window then being seen hitting the Eiffel Tower in a silhouette sky scape of the city... while far away, and at such a size it would have had to have grown to the size of a truck. Or the dancing on clouds, or animations and backgrounds in the beginning. Mostly, the story went from okay, with a strange sense of being composed in half by mix ups of various pre-existing songs, which I'm sure I'd be even more impressed if I'd recognized some I mistook for original, into the video. But it also moved rapidly, and even when representing destitute characters had flash, style, color, and personality. It was rather like the movie itself might have been decent, but bland, trying to take itself very seriously, and it became a musical on one hand, and on the other, adding just a light enough touch of surrealism to jar one's sense of reality now and again. Somehow, it made some of the characters more believable, and it's sticking with me better than any poor attempt at more "realistic" characters.

So one wonders.

What defines the surrealism?

Obviously there's an official definition. But in this case, what is it really more surreal to take art in a direction of disbelief and suspend critical critiques of the viewer so they can appreciate both the light hearted and darker aspects of the world and characters more fully, powerfully? Or is it more surreal to be faced with a film where you see attempts at extreme realism, strife, and emotional turmoil all contrasting against characters not written, or acted, nearly well enough to be capable of holding any belief or empathy of the audience?

...alright, so my brain is a little melty and tonight's blog is probably a little lackluster. Possibly nonsensical.

I'd say I'll explain what I was driving at later, but chances are I'll be too ADD and on to talking about something else by then.

So, on to tomorrow we go!