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'.
The Phantom of Liberty (1974)
8/10
Director: Luis Bunuel
Starring: Adolfo Celi, Adriana Asti, Bernard Verley, Jean Rochefort, Jean-Claude Brialy, M...
Bourgeois convention is demolished in Luis Buñuel's surrealist gem "The Phantom of Liberty". Featuring an elegant soiree with guests seated at toilet... Read more
Bagdad Cafe (1987)
7.5/10
Director: Percy Adlon
Starring: Marianne Sagebrecht, CCH Pounder, Jack Palance
This enchanting and affectionate fable unveils, in a series of wonderful vignettes, the developing friendship between several oddball characters. Mari... Read more
Koyaanisqatsi ( Blu-ray ) (1982)
8.3/10
Director: Godfrey Reggio
The title is a Hopi Indian word meaning "life out of balance", an apt summation of this mesmerizing collection of wonders both natural and man-made. S... Read more
Bubble (2006)
7.3/10
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Dustin Ashley, Debbie Doebereiner
A twisted romantic triangle between three workers at a plastic doll factory leads to a shocking crime that explodes the sleepy calm of a small Ohio to... Read more
Syndromes and a Century (2006)
7.5/10
Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Offering two separate stories or fragments set in hospitals, one rural and possibly in the past, one urban and possibly in the future. Or perhaps both... Read more
Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
7.7/10
Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Starring: Edward Norton, Michael Keaton, Naomi Watts, Amy Ryan, Andrea Riseborough, Emma S...
Michael Keaton stars in this award-winning black comedy written, directed and produced by Alejandro González Iñárritu. Struggling actor Riggan Thomson... Read more
Blue / Glitterbug (1993)
Director: Derek Jarman
Starring: Tilda Swinton, Nigel Terry, John Quentin
A Derek Jarman double feature. "Blue" (1993, 75 mins) - A courageous personal testimony about his experiences with AIDS, Derek Jarman's final feature... Read more
Lady in the Lake (1946)
6.6/10
Director: Robert Montgomery
Starring: Audrey Totter, Leon Ames, Lloyd Nolan, Robert Montgomery, Tom Tully
Robert Montgomery stars in and directs this snappy adaptation of Raymond Chandler's hardboiled detective mystery. The case begins when Marlowe, the pr... Read more
Possession (Blu-ray) (1981)
7.4/10
Director: Andrzej Zulawski
Starring: Isabelle Adjani, Sam Neill, Heinz Bennent
In this dramatic story of blackmail and human retributions, a beautiful but sadistic young wife gives birth to a nightmare...a love of her own creatio... Read more
By Brakhage: An Anthology (2003)
Director: Stan Brakhage
Artist and filmmaker Stan Brakhage has made nearly 400 films over the past 50 years, never mainstream and always fascinating. Brakhage turns his camer... Read more