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'.
Mister Lonely (2007)
6.4/10
Director: Harmony Korine
Starring: Diego Luna, Samantha Morton, Werner Herzog
In Paris, a sweet, shy Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego Luna) is befriended by a Marilyn Monroe lookalike (Samantha Morton), who quickly convinces... 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
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
Inland Empire (2006)
7/10
Director: David Lynch
Starring: Laura Dern, Jeremy Irons, Justin Theroux, Harry Dean Stanton, Cameron Daddo
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
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
Daft Punk's Electroma (2006)
7/10
Director: Thomas Bangalter, Guy-Manuel De Homem-Christo
Starring: Peter Hurteau, Michael Reich
Written and directed by French musical duo, Daft Punk, this is the story of two robots driving through the California desert on a quest to become huma... Read more
The Fountain (2006)
7.3/10
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Hugh Jackman, Mark Margolis, Rachel Weisz, Cliff Curtis, Sean Pat...
Darren Aronofsky directs his wife, Rachel Weisz, and Hugh Jackman in this abstract sci-fi odyssey about one man's thousand-year quest to save the woma... Read more
The Wild Blue Yonder (2005)
6.3/10
Director: Werner Herzog
Starring: Brad Dourif
Earth has been decimated and as humans search for a new planet to inhabit, a race of aliens attempt to make a new home on our inhospitable, abandoned... Read more
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
Romance and Cigarettes (2005)
Director: John Turturro
Starring: James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, Steve Buscemi, Mary-Louise Parke...
Writer/director John Turturro sets his ambitious musical in Queens, New York, where the marriage of working-class couple Nick Murder (James Gandolfini... Read more