It is a mysterious, free-associating accumulation of images of violence, beauty and absurdity that confounded those who saw it then and confounds viewers still.

[It's] a documentary rendering of the dream state, of dream logic... and/or a contrivance by two ambitious young Spaniards to offer as much outrageousness as an artistic alibi can cover.

This is the avant-garde masterpiece with the razor across an eyeball and dead donkeys sprawled across pianos.

The term "surreal" is nowadays used as a critical cover-all, but in this case director Luis Buñuel and co-writer Salvador Dalí were setting the pace.