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'.
Avant-Garde: Experimental Cinema of the 1920s and 30s (2005)
5.7/10
Culled from the collection of noted movie archivist Raymond Rohauer, this two-disc set features more than 20 artistically diverse experimental short f... Read more
American Buffalo (1995)
5.7/10
Director: Michael Corrente
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Franz, Sean Nelson
David Mamet's profane, provocative three-character play. Dustin Hoffman plays a self-ennobled world expert who horns in on the plans of his friend, a... Read more
Le Gai Savoir ( The Joy of Learning ) (1969)
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Starring: Jean-Pierre Leaud, Juliet Berto
Patricia (Juliet Berto) and Emile (Jean-Pierre Leaud) meet nightly on a sound stage to discuss learning, discourse, and the path to revolution. Scenes... Read more
A Zed and Two Noughts (1985)
Director: Peter Greenaway
Starring: Andrea Ferreol, Brian Deacon, Eric Deacon
From the famed director of 'The Draughtsman's Contract' and 'The Belly of an Architect', this film is an erotic, beautiful, disturbing, absurdist and... Read more
The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (2005)
6.4/10
Director: The Brothers Quay
Starring: Amira Casar, Gottfried John, Assumpta Serna
A characteristically surreal and stunning blend of live action, animation and puppetry from the Brothers Quay. On the eve of her wedding, opera singe... Read more
Longtime Companion (1990)
7.5/10
Director: Norman Rene
Starring: Stephen Caffrey, Patric Cassidy, Brian Cousins
An absorbing, revealing account detailing the effects of Aids on the American gay community in the 80's as seen through the eyes of two friends. Campb... Read more
Angel Mine (1978)
5/10
Director: David Blyth
Starring: Derek Ward, Jennifer Redford, Myra De Groot, Mike Wilson
An outrageous erotic fantasy in which a young suburban couple become fully entangled in a wish-fulfillment world of black leather, punk rock and sexua... Read more
Brand Upon the Brain! (2006)
7.4/10
Director: Guy Maddin
Starring: Crispin Glover, Isabella Rossellini, (narrated by)
Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin again channels some of the most bizarre cinematic ideas ever realized with this imaginary account of his childhood. Told... Read more
Maya Deren: Experimental Films (1943)
7.4/10
Director: Maya Deren
Starring: Maya Deren
The highly personal, innovatively told works of this seminal American avant-garde filmmaker have never failed to fascinate, and are now collected on o... Read more
Heart of Glass (1976)
7.1/10
Director: Werner Herzog
Starring: Josef Bierbichler, Stefan Guttler, Clemens Scheitz
Werner Herzog each day put the cast into a hypnotic trance in an attempt to achieve an effect of collective hysteria in this tale of a glassblower who... Read more