Beethoven's Chicken

Overview

"... consists of chickens being butchered and hung out on meat hooks, to the accompaniment of the Fifth Symphony. As the film progresses, the imagery mutates from nearly documentary to nearly surreal. An eyeball-clashing scene recalls "Chien Andalou" yet Devensky holds it on-screen much longer than Dali and Bunuel. Finally a chickens' skull is pounded to bits by a hammer. And each time we think (or wish) the final blow has fallen another follows. The camera peeks all the while and one is uncertain of what is more disquiting - the action on the film, or ridged stare of the camera. –Richard Koszarski, New York American