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'.
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
The Arbor (2010)
7.2/10
Director: Clio Barnard
A fascinating fusion of narrative and documentary from director Clio Barnard, "The Arbor" tells the powerful true story of Bradford playwright Andrea... Read more
Enter the Void (2009)
7.3/10
Director: Gaspar Noe
Starring: Paz de la Huerta, Nathaniel Brown, Olly Alexander
This psychedelic tour of life after death is seen entirely from the point of view of Oscar (Nathaniel Brown), a young American drug dealer and addict... Read more
Antichrist (2009)
6.6/10
Director: Lars von Trier
Starring: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Willem Dafoe
Lars von Trier's enormously controversial and challenging psychodrama stars Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a grieving couple who retreat to... Read more
Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic (2008)
7.6/10
Director: Jake S Hughes
Starring: Narrated by, Tom Stechschulte
Experience Alan Moore's groundbreaking comic as never before in this series that puts the original artwork on-screen, adding voiceover and an original... Read more
Waltz with Bashir (2008)
8/10
Director: Ari Folman
Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman employs a unique animated style in this innovative documentary that recalls his military service in the early 1980s. When... Read more
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
My Winnipeg (2007)
7.7/10
Director: Guy Maddin
Starring: Ann Savage, Louis Negin, Amy Stewart, Darcy Fehr
Visionary Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin pays tribute to his beloved hometown with this goodbye letter and self-described 'docu-fantasia' that is equal... Read more
Chacun Son Cinema ( To Each His Own Cinema ) (2007)
6.8/10
Director: Theo Angelopoulos, Olivier Assayas, Bille August, Jane Campion, Youssef Chahine, Chen Kaige, Michael Cimino, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, David Cronenberg, Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, Manoel De Oliveira, Atom Egoyan, Amos Gitai, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Aki Kaurismaki, Abbas Kiarostami, Takeshi Kitano, Andrei Konchalovsky, Claude Lelouch, Ken Loach, David Lynch, Nanni Moretti, Roman Polanski, Raoul Ruiz, Walter Salles, Elia Suleiman, Tsai Ming-Liang, Gus Van Sant, Lars von Trier, Wim Wenders, Wong Kar-wai, Zhang Yimou
Starring: Georges Babluani, Josh Brolin, Farini Cheung, David Cronenberg, Emilie Dequenne,...
33 renowned directors from around the world (many of them Palme d'Or winners) contributed to this anthology of short films to commemmorate the 60th an... Read more
Slipstream (2007)
5.1/10
Director: Anthony Hopkins
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Christian Slater, John Turturro, Stella Arroyave, Michael Clark...
Anthony Hopkins directed, wrote and stars in this Lynch-ian, stream-of-consciousness drama about a screenwriter whose reality and imagination are abou... Read more