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'.
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
Mysterious Object at Noon (2000)
7/10
Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Based around the surrealist story-telling device known as 'Exquisite Corpse', this unique film from Thailand had the director travelling around villag... 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
Peter Greenaway Collection: The Draughtsman's Contract / A Zed & Two Noughts / Peter Greenaway - A Documentary (1982)
Director: Peter Greenaway
Starring: Andrea Ferreol, Anne Louise Lambert, Anthony Higgins, Brian Deacon, Eric Deacon,...
Peter Greenaway has crafted a string of visually extravagant films that are experimental, erudite, and have won him an ardent cult audience. This excl... Read more
Pierrot Le Fou (Blu-Ray) (1965)
7.7/10
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Starring: Anna Karina, Dirk Sanders, Jean-Paul Belmondo
Aka "Pierrot Goes Wild". Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina run away together to the South of France, he is escaping from his rich wife, she is escapi... Read more
Pierrot Le Fou (Crazy Pete) (1965)
7.7/10
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina, Dirk Sanders
Aka "Pierrot Goes Wild". Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina run away together to the South of France, he is escaping from his rich wife, she is escapi... Read more
Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982)
8/10
Director: Alan Parker
Starring: Christine Hargreaves, Bob Hoskins, Bob Geldof
Bob Geldof stars as Pink, the burned-out rock star slowly going out of control. Conceived and written by Pink Floyd's Roger Waters, with animation by... Read more
Possession (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
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
Radical Digital Cinema Volume 2: Summer Moon (2002) / Fools (2003)
Director: Hanno Hackfort, Tom Schreiber
Starring: Oliver Mommsen, Laura Tonke, Christoph Bach
Two more films from Wim Wenders' digital cinema project. 'Summer Moon' (AKA 'Juminond') features a young couple who, only though they've just met, wi... Read more