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'.
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
Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey (1993)
7.4/10
Director: Steven M Martin
Starring: Leonard Theremin, Robert Moog, Brian Wilson
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
Romeo is Bleeding (1993)
6.6/10
Director: Peter Medak
Starring: Gary Oldman, Lena Olin, Annabella Sciorra, Juliette Lewis
A sharp thriller with all the right elements: a nifty script about greed, corruption and sex; a grimy film noir feel that's tinged with a hallucinator... Read more
Suture (1993)
6.6/10
Director: David Siegel, Scott McGehee
Starring: Mel Harris, Dennis Haysbert, Sab Shimono, Dina Merrill
A unique, creepy, independently produced psychological thriller about Vincent (Michael Harris), suspected of murdering his father, who hatches a schem... Read more
Romeo is Bleeding (Blu-ray) (1993)
6.6/10
Director: Peter Medak
Starring: Gary Oldman, Lena Olin, Annabella Sciorra, Juliette Lewis
A sharp thriller with all the right elements: a nifty script about greed, corruption and sex; a grimy film noir feel that's tinged with a hallucinator... Read more
The Lover (1992)
6.9/10
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud
Starring: Jane March, Tony Leung (Ka Fai), Frederique Meininger
An exotic, erotic adaptation of Marguerite Duras' autobiographical novel about a teenage girl who's initiated into sex by an older Chinese dandy in 19... Read more
Europa ( aka Zentropa ) (1992)
7.7/10
Director: Lars von Trier
Starring: Jean-Marc Barr, Barbara Sukowa, Udo Kier, Ernst Hugo
This penetrating and mesmeric trip into the dark soul of Europe follows a young American pacifist of German descent who sojourns to post-WWII Deutschl... Read more
Impromptu (1991)
7/10
Director: James Lapine
Starring: Judy Davis, Hugh Grant, Mandy Patinkin
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
The Indian Runner (1991)
7.1/10
Director: Sean Penn
Starring: David Morse, Viggo Mortensen, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Charles Bronson,...
A stunningly realised character study centering on the stormy relationship between a highway patrolman (David Morse) and his 'loose cannon' brother (V... Read more
Naked Lunch (1991)
7.1/10
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, Roy Scheider
William S. Burroughs' 1959 free-form, underground classic is brought to the screen weaving elements of the author's life with the fictional material.... Read more