Contains over 80 black & white photographs

This is the revised and updated edition of Ado Kyrou’s 1952 classic reference work on the history of surrealism and cinema, which remains untranslated into English. It takes as its unifying structure the major themes and obsessions of this important artistic and cultural movement: objectification, voyages, the impossible, mad love, eroticism, dreams, and revolt. Covering the usual suspects from Man Ray to Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dali to Luis Buñuel, Hans Richter to Jean Cocteau, Kyrou gives great homage to cinematic precursors like Georges Melies, Louis Feuillade, and the Fantomas serials. In addition, he revisits great film classics such as Battleship Potemkin, Frankenstein, Viridiana and Helzappopin’ with humor and erudition, all while subverting established genres, upending actor hierarchies, and praising unsung masterpieces.