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'.
A homoerotic rendering of the St Sebastiane legend. When Sebastiane, the captain of the Palace Guard during the reign of Roman Emperor Diocletian, obj... 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
Luis Bunuel's classic satire is filled with savage wit and some of the director's most surrealistic images. Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig and Stephane... Read more
A mesmerizing performance by Laura Dern anchors David Lynch's mindbending tale of an actress who learns that her latest movie is a remake of a film th... Read more
Jan Svankmajer's follow-up to his acclaimed 'Alice' is an equally bizarre version of the myth of Dr. Faustus. Combining live action with stop-motion a... Read more
A punk-era apocalyptic drama with Queen Elizabeth 1 being transported to the present day by her astrologer, and witnessing the virtual collapse of civ... Read more
Lili Taylor is eerily convincing as Valerie Solanas, Factory fringe figure, founder and only member of SCUM (Society for Cutting up Men) and the woman... Read more
Peter Greenaway's bold stylistic experiment has as it's theme, the 'correspondence' between the daughter of a famous writer and a publisher, written o... Read more
After "El Topo" and with the production assistance of John Lennon and ABKCO Films and the desire to become "the Cecil B. De Mille of the underground",... Read more
A spirited 'they do make them as well as they used to' comedy/drama about the 19th century romance between George Sand (Judy Davis) and Frederic Chopi... Read more