The experience of watching Un chien andalou and L’age d’or one after the other was definitely an enlightening introduction to Buñuel as a surrealist, to say the least. To start, Un chien andalou was such an interesting watch from the very start of the film. The man sharpening his blade to then, rather than predictably shave or do whatever else is appropriate with that kind of instrument,  slice the eyeball of this woman he interacts with like a doll, was not only gripping as a viewer but served as a worthy entry point into the world of Buñuel’s characters. There is always an element of comedic absurdity to his characters; at least that fact is true in these two films. However, in their absurdity, they aren’t necessarily likable. In fact, to speak to Un chien andalou, there aren’t characters we really like as viewers. I personally was rooting for the main woman character in the piece, simply because she was defending herself against a man who had already assaulted her and wanted to take it further.  I was also rooting for the characters who were very clearly outside binary gender expression, who both were killed through absurd transportation-related incidents, but that is also because of my own need to root for queer coded characters and characters that are victims of the circumstances of the world that they’re in. However, none of these characters are really intentionally framed as likable by Buñuel; in fact, I’d argue they function more as set dressing or pawns rather than characters we are meant to empathize and connect with. 

This idea is taken up a few notches in L’age d’or. The characters are unlikeable, not because there is no real way to connect with them, they are unlikable because they are genuinely awful by metrics you would typically use to judge a likable person. The viewing experience was like watching Potemkin, except rather than focusing on the proletariat coming together against an oppressive ruling class, this film was largely in the perspective of people who are the bourgeoisie. Buñuel shows us just how absurdly demented these people are, even as they connect to one another.