Avant-garde is a word from the French, meaning 'ahead of the crowd'. In contemporary English, we'd say it's on the 'cutting edge'. Avant-garde filmmakers want to experiment with new ideas, forms, techniques, and expressions - and are often said to be 'ahead of their time'. Avant-garde films are characterized by a high degree of experimentation - whether it be in manipulation of narrative materials, highly stylized visual representation, or radical departures from the norms and conventions current at the time, avant-garde film is always a vehicle for the filmmaker's expression. Surrealism, abstract studies of light and form, Dadaism, and impressionistic studies of people and things figure heavily in early works of the genre. Below is a Alice's extensive collection in this genre. Right: The famous eyeball scene from Luis Bunuel & Salvador Dali's 'Un Chien Andalou'.
In 1942, Private Witt (Jim Caviezel) is a U.S. Army absconder living peacefully with the locals of a small South Pacific island. Discovered by his com... Read more
Intoxicating, daring, and beautifully photographed, Ming-liang Tsai's latest effort is indeed one naughty adventure of a film offering plenty of food... Read more
Earth has been decimated and as humans search for a new planet to inhabit, a race of aliens attempt to make a new home on our inhospitable, abandoned... Read more
This amazing, truth-is-stranger-than-fiction documentary relates the fascinating life story of Russian-born Leonard Theremin, the inventor of the worl... Read more
An outrageous tale of two of lifes losers, from the Andy Warhol factory. Joe Dallesandro is a heroin-addicted male hustler whose girlfriend, Holly Woo... Read more
Luis Bunuel's first film, the surrealistic masterpiece "Un Chien Andalou" ("An Andalusian Dog"), was based after an exchange of dreams with co-writer... Read more
An unnamed woman, played by Scarlett Johansson with unshakably alluring menace, cruises the streets of Scotland in a cargo van looking for men. She's... Read more
An unnamed woman, played by Scarlett Johansson with unshakably alluring menace, cruises the streets of Scotland in a cargo van looking for men. She's... Read more
Director Shane Carruth ("Primer") returns with this strange, unconventional and abstract sci-fi mystery. Amy Seimetz stars as a woman whose life is sh... Read more
An enchanting, blissful look at the magic and terror of childhood. Identical twin brothers, now successful artists, recall the summer of 1948 when the... Read more