Un Chien Andalou officially welcomed into the ranks of the Surrealists by the movement's leader André Breton, an event recalled by film historian Georges Sadoul: "Breton had convoked the creators to our usual venue [the Café Radio] ... one summer's evening. Dalí had the large eyes, grace, and timidity of a gazelle. To us, Buñuel, big and athletic, his black eyes protruding a little, seemed exactly like he always is in "Un Chien Andalou", meticulously honing the razor that will slice the open eye in two." Among the most enthusiastic viewers of the film were the wealthy couple Viscount Charles and Marie-Laure de
Rain (1929 film) they sought expression through a film's rhythm and movement—the characteristics which, according to these artists, made film a unique medium. They believed a film could create its own world, whether through thought–provoking Absurdism in a piece like Buñuel and Dali's "Un Chien Andalou" or purely through form, as in Dziga Vertov's "Man with a Movie Camera". "Rain" closely adheres to this prioritization of a film's formalistic qualities. The short film focuses primarily on composition and rhythm, visually following the patterns of raindrops and people as they try to negotiate with each other in their movements through the city. Ivens's efforts