Customer Reviews

Dali

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This excellent, 75 min. docu on Dali is a must for any hardcore Dali fan. There are lots of shots of his paintings & also interview segments with him & a segment on his brilliantly surreal film, Un Chien Andalou & 2 commercials he made for Alka Seltzer and chocolates (!) when he was older & even a black and white photo of him and Alice Cooper. And a thankfully brief closing when he was horribly old and stricken with Parkinson's disease. And tho the box says this docu is in black & white, thank God that's not correct. Check it out!

This documentary should equally satisfy those already familiar with Dali and those who know nothing about him. I can't imagine anyone not being entertained by this display of Dali's unique personality. Passionate admires of Dali may find it difficult to view the footage of the Divine Dali not looking so divine in the 80's. A huge plus is the sub-titles even when Dali is speaking in English. Some important people are interviewed such as Man Ray, Max Ernst and Albert Field (author of the must have Official Catalog of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dali) among others. I saw this documentary two nights in a row and enjoyed it just as much the second time around.

I used this in my high school art classroom. It was not as good as others I've used about Dali. Mixture of subtitles and English broke the flow. I would have liked to see more about his work, more samples of his work and less of his history. Good for viewing out of interest in Dali, just not too enthralling for students (of course, they can be a tough audience).

This is a very good documentary about the Surrealist Salvadore Dali. Not only is the viewer provided with the history of Dali's early childhood and his relationship to his parents (and his older dead brother, along with the influence of a reproduction of a Millet painting on the Roman Catholic schoolroom wall), but the viewer is presented with delicious encounters with Man Ray, Max Ernst, and Paul Eluard (Gala's first husband), friends of Dali, as well. I saw many paintings by Dali on this DVD that I never knew even existed. I also had no idea he was first influenced by the French Impressionists.

When Dali states on film, and rather contemptuously, that Andre Breton, the founder of Surrealism, was the most bourgeois of the bourgeois, after Breton expelled him from the Surrealist group for not adhering to Breton's Communistic dogma, the viewer can feel joy and a renewed sense of freedom as Dali confidently asserts himself as a unique but Surrealist artist stating not only what was undoubtedly true about Breton (Breton, in addition, was anti-homosexual, though this fact is not mentioned) but stating what was certainly a completely transgressive and blasphemous idea in Surrealist circles for the time.

Dali, we grasp, did not need Breton's approval at all to know that he, Dali, was, indeed, a true Surrealist who followed his own unique path, not the path set down by dogma. His portaits honoring Gala, his wife, and his assertion of a monarchial view of reality (instead of a communistic one) through his paintings are, the viewer learns, nonetheless Surrealistic (because transgressive) but as well deeply personal (individualistic) visions.

In his later years Dali built a museum for those paintings he had created in his Twenties, a period when one's sexual and rebellious nature is the most strong. He knew what he was doing, having contemplated Death obsessively, he said, since childhood.

We see him at the end of his life, pale and frail. No matter; he had transcended the physical limitations of his body. He had succeeded in making a religion out of his life with Gala through Surrealism. He knew that.

I'm not sure why the the DVD says black and white (a black and white documentary about an artist makes as much sense as a documentary about Beethoven with no sound). Although the DVD offers nothing extra (other than better video quality) from the VHS, overall its an exceptionally interesting look into the madman who wasn't mad. Highly Recommended for anyone who has ever wondered what makes watches melt.

Audio is not good enough and somehow it is a little bit to dark.

My friend Deanali(now following in the footsteps of the great Dali)got me influenced in Dali. After watching this video I am so impressed and there are very few artists alive today that are able to match the late Salvador Dali.This is a must see for all. Thank you, Mary

Good historic review. A lot of information about Dalí