A surrealistic approach to the aesthetics of cinematic production design during 1920-1930 years

In the first period of cinema covering 1900-1930s, different views on the aesthetics of cinematic production design were put forward. Surrealism, founded in France in 1924, represented one of these approaches. While redefining the notions of reality and art, it also reassessed the aesthetics of art. Surrealism has created a new aesthetic inspired by psychoanalysis, dialectical idealism and the philosophy of Marxism and mythical systems of thought. The new aesthetic outlook, organized around the central figure of the movement, André Breton's convulsive beauty and Freud's uncanny notions, has been influential in cinema as well as in visual arts and architecture. This study sought to answer the question of whether the Surrealist movement, during its most influential period, 1920-1930, could develop a new production design aesthetics different from its mainstream and avant-garde perceptions in the context of convulsive beauty and uncanny notions. Keywords: Surrealism, Production design, Aesthetics, Convulsive beauty, Uncanny