DALI

Salvadore Dali symbolized surrealism with his paintings of limp watches, burning giraffes, fly-covered carcasses, and the Venus de Milo with drawers that open. In this biography of the renowned Twentieth Century Spanish painter who, along with Picasso, dominated the art world for fifty years, his story is told from the point of view of interviews given to Tom Maloney, the young art critic for TIME magazine. These revelations were made by Dali when he visited New York in the 1940s.

In a surrealistic style, the film cuts between dreams, fantasy and reality to tell Dali’s story. Spain, Germany, Italy, France, and the United States become the backdrop for this portrait of an egotistical artist who never grew up. He is a man who readily admits to indulging his fantasies at the expense of other people. Dali’s erotic, scandalous and often blasphemous imagery, coupled with his flair for self-promotional stunts, outraged public opinion and set the art world on its ear. Many critics see him as crassly commercial. Others see him as a genius.

In the movie, Dali rails against his strict, atheist father, steals his best friend’s wife, and indulges in a homosexual affair with a Spanish poet. Wallowing in eroticism and blaspheming God, Dali does whatever he can (i.e.: wearing fried eggs on his lapel) to shock the world. Gala, his fawning wife, suffers the worst excesses of her husband’s perverse genius. Dali’s adolescent worldview may be appreciated by pagans, but Christians should see it as merely the symptoms of sin and the need for salvation.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Pray that all those who are drawn to see DALI come to understand that there is another worldview, one that offers joy, peace and eternal salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord.