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 Handmaid's Tale (1990)
6/10
Director: Volker Schlondorff
Starring: Natasha Richardson, Aidan Quinn, Faye Dunaway, Robert Duvall
A stylish adaptation of Margaret Atwood's novel of the not-so-distant future where certain young women are used to bear 'pure' children for the milita... Read more
The Garden (1990)
6.8/10
Director: Derek Jarman
Starring: Tilda Swinton, Johnny Miles, Kevin Collins
Controversial director Derek Jarman's stunning examination of organized religion and its role in the oppression of homosexuals depicts the arrest and... 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
Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)
7/10
Director: Shinya Tsukamoto
Starring: Kei Fujiwara, Shinya Tsukamoto, Tomoroh Taguchi
Compared to the work of Lynch and Cronenberg, telling the strange tale of a man's gradual metamorphosis into a synergy of flesh and metal. Tomoroh Tag... Read more
Santa Sangre (1989)
7.7/10
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Starring: Axel Jodorowsky, Blanca Guerra, Guy Stockwell
Unforgettable imagery is used to tell the story of two circus performers, an armless woman and her insane son who acts as his mother's hands. Jodorows... Read more
Alice (1988)
7.5/10
Director: Jan Svankmajer
Starring: Kristyna Kohoutova, Camilla Powers
Jan Svankmajer, the Czech master of animation, has fulfilled a lifetime ambition in this interpretation of Alice in Wonderland. Svankmajer's Alice rem... Read more
The Belly of an Architect (1987)
7/10
Director: Peter Greenaway
Starring: Brian Dennehy, Lambert Wilson, Chloe Webb
Stourley Kracklite (Brian Dennehy), a distinguished American architect, is invited to Rome with his young attractive wife Louisa (Chloe Webb) to set u... 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
River's Edge (1986)
7.1/10
Director: Tim Hunter
Starring: Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper, Ione Skye, Roxana Zal, Daniel Roebu...
A powerful drama that uses a real incident to convey the hopelessness and hostility barely hidden under the surface of today's teenager. A big kid mur... 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