Avant-garde / Experimental
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'.
Love Live Long (2008)
5.5/10
Director: Mike Figgis
Starring: Daniel Lapaine, Sophie Winkleman
Mike Figgis pushes the boundaries of cinema with this experimental digital feature about a chance encounter in Turkey. Originally approached to make a... Read more
Dottie Gets Spanked (1994)
7.3/10
Director: Todd Haynes
Starring: Evan Bonifant, Robert Pall, Julie Halston, Barbara Garrick
Writer/director Todd Haynes made this stylish, tender-hearted short between his critically acclaimed features 'Poison' and 'Safe', and the deeply pers... Read more
Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974)
7.8/10
Director: Jacques Rivette
Starring: Juliet Berto, Dominique Labourier, Bulle Ogier
An accomplished dreamlike mood piece with reverberations of 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Orpheus' as two girls change the outcome of a drama played dail... Read more
Sigur Ros - Inni (2011)
Director: Vincent Morisset
Starring: Sigur Ros
'Inni' is either the first-ever sigur rós live album, or second live film (and follow up to 2007's acclaimed iceland tour film heima). In fact, it is... Read more
Sigur Ros - Valtari Film Experiment (2013)
In 2012, Sigur Ros gave a wide selection of film makers the same modest budget and asked them to create whatever came into their heads when they liste... Read more
Testament of Orpheus / The Blood of a Poet (1959)
Director: Jean Cocteau
Starring: Jean Cocteau, Henri Cremieux, Edouard Dermithe
In his last film, legendary writer/artist/filmmaker Jean Cocteau portrays an 18th-century poet who travels through time on a quest for divine wisdom.... Read more
Suture (1993)
6.6/10
Director: David Siegel, Scott McGehee
Starring: Mel Harris, Dennis Haysbert, Sab Shimono, Dina Merrill
A unique, creepy, independently produced psychological thriller about Vincent (Michael Harris), suspected of murdering his father, who hatches a schem... Read more
The Thin Red Line (Blu-Ray) (1998)
7.6/10
Director: Terrence Malick
Starring: Ben Chaplin, Elias Koteas, George Clooney, Jared Leto, Jim Caviezel, John C Reil...
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
Romeo is Bleeding (Blu-ray) (1993)
6.6/10
Director: Peter Medak
Starring: Gary Oldman, Lena Olin, Annabella Sciorra, Juliette Lewis
A sharp thriller with all the right elements: a nifty script about greed, corruption and sex; a grimy film noir feel that's tinged with a hallucinator... Read more
Santa Sangre (1989)
7.7/10
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Starring: Axel Jodorowsky, Blanca Guerra, Guy Stockwell
Unforgettable imagery is used to tell the story of two circus performers, an armless woman and her insane son who acts as his mother's hands. Jodorows... Read more