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'.
Renegade ( aka Blueberry ) (2004)
5.2/10
Director: Jan Kounen
Starring: Vincent Cassel, Juliette Lewis, Michael Madsen, Temuera Morrison, Ernest Borgnin...
This loose adaptation of Jean 'Mobius' Giraud's comic series 'Blueberry' stars Vincent Cassel as the lawman whose past comes back to haunt him when th... 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
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
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
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
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
Sebastiane (1976)
5.9/10
Director: Derek Jarman
Starring: Leonardo Treviglio, Barney James, Neil Kennedy
A homoerotic rendering of the St Sebastiane legend. When Sebastiane, the captain of the Palace Guard during the reign of Roman Emperor Diocletian, obj... Read more
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
Sigur Ros - Valtari Film Experiment (2013)
In 2012, Sigur Ros gave a wide selection of film makers the same modest budget and asked them to create whatever came into their heads when they liste... 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