Dog's Dialogue | |
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Directed by | Raúl Ruiz |
Written by | Raúl Ruiz Nicole Muchnik |
Produced by | Hubert Niogret |
Starring | Eva Simonet |
Cinematography | Denis Lenoir |
Edited by | Valeria Sarmiento |
Music by | Jorge Arriagada |
Release date |
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Running time | 22 minutes |
Country | France |
Language | French |
Dog's Dialogue (French: Colloque de chiens) is a 1977 French is a surrealist short crime film directed by Chilean filmmaker Raúl Ruiz.[1][2] The film contains popular conventions of the photo-romance but also can be viewed as a parody of the Brazilian telenovela or melodrama and pop culture stereotypes.[3]
The story, told almost entirely in still images, revolves around a young girl who is told her mother is not her real mother. The girl leaves her small town, grows into a beautiful woman, and starts searching for love and fulfillment in undesirable places. The story is narrated off-screen, and the stills are intercut with film footage of a city landscape and dogs barking. The film deals with topics of gender, sexuality, murder, prostitution, and gender/identity alterations. The motifs of gender subversion, still images, and dispersed bodies are seen in this film along with many other of Ruiz's films. A main subject of this film is the relationship between stillness and movement and the repetitions of images, gestures and statements that are ironic yet believable.[3]
The film stars Eva Simonet and Silke Humel and is narrated by Robert Darmel in the French version and Michael Graham in the English version.[4]
Ruiz made the film while taking a hiatus from making The Suspended Vocation (1978) during an actors' strike.[5]
The film won a César Award even though it was not seen by a wide audience.[5]