Favorite Avant-Garde & Experimental Films (allisoncm's list)
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- DirectorDziga VertovStarsMikhail KaufmanElizaveta SvilovaA man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.
- DirectorMarie MenkenA short experimental film made by New York visual and avant-garde artist Marie Menken.
- DirectorAlberto CavalcantiStarsBlanche BernisNina ChousvalowaPhilippe HériatThe life of a great city (Paris) from dawn until dusk, including the beautiful and the ragged, the rich and the poor, with little or no comment (intertitles) from the director, Cavalcanti (whose first film this was).
- DirectorKurt KrenA meadow, a lake, the silhouette of a hill, trees. 21 days of the same view in Saarland. 21 days with five different cut-outs in a mask before the camera, which finally reveals a complete panorama. The landscape changes with the advancing seasons and becomes slowly delirious in its technical alienation. (Claus Philipp)
- DirectorMarguerite DurasStarsMarguerite DurasFrom the end of a night to dawn. An uninterrupted traveling shot. From Bastille to the Champs-Elysees, by way of the Boulevard des Italiens, Avenue de l'Opera, and Rue de Rivoli, a depopulated Paris offers itself to Marguerite Duras' mysterious and profound voice.
- DirectorMaya DerenAlexander HammidStarsMaya DerenAlexander HammidA woman returning home falls asleep and has vivid dreams that may or may not be happening in reality. Through repetitive images and complete mismatching of the objective view of time and space, her dark inner desires play out on-screen.
- DirectorHans RichterStarsWerner GraeffWalter GronostayPaul HindemithHans Richter, noted for his abstract shorts, has everyday objects rebelling against their daily routine.
- DirectorMan RayStarsKiki of MontparnasseJacques RigautA long series of unrelated images, revolving, often distorted: lights, flowers, nails. A lightboard appears from time to time carrying the news of the day. Then, an eye. A woman in a car drives along country roads. Farm animals. She descends from the car, again and again. Images: dancing legs, seashore, swimming fish, geometric shapes, cut glass. A man removes his starched collar. It rotates. A girl has garishly painted eyes. No, she's only fooling. Those were her eyelids.
- DirectorMarina LutzStarsMarina LutzAbbot LutzA father documents the emotional violations his daughter endured under his direction, throughout the first 16 years of her life. After his death, she uncovers boxes of reel-to-reel audiotape, super 8 films, and over 10,000 photographs, all of her. The daughter, who is also the filmmaker, presents this evidence in a subtle intellectual investigation that is grotesquely truthful and forthrightly condemning.
- DirectorHarry SmithAn experimental film from artist Harry Smith and part of his Number series of various animated scenes.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsPierre BatcheffSimone MareuilLuis BuñuelLuis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí present 16 minutes of bizarre, surreal imagery.
- DirectorJonas MekasStarsJonas MekasStan BrakhageRobert BreerDirector Jonas Mekas provides an intimate glimpse of his personal life by constructing a feature length narrative from over 30 years of private home movie footage.
- DirectorFernand LégerDudley MurphyStarsKiki of MontparnasseFernand LégerDudley MurphyA pulsing, kaleidoscope of images set to an energetic soundtrack. A young women swings in a garden; a woman's face smiles. The rest is spinning cylinders, pistons, gears and turbines, kitchen objects in concentric circles or rows - pots, pan lids, and funnels, cars passing overhead, a spinning carnival ride. Over and over, a heavy-set woman climbs stairs carrying a large bag on her shoulder. An Art Deco cartoon figure appears, dancing. This is a world in motion, dominated by mechanical and repetitive images, with a few moments of solitude in a garden.
- DirectorHenri ChometteAn experimental avant-garde film from director Henri Chomette in which the pure elements of form are emphasized.
- DirectorDimitri KirsanoffStarsNadia SibirskaïaYolande BeaulieuGuy BelmontA couple is brutally murdered in the working-class district of Paris. Later on, the narrative follows the lives of their two daughters, both in love with a Parisian thug and leading them to separate ways.
- DirectorRichard LesterStarsRita TushinghamRalph RichardsonPeter CookIn post-nuclear-holocaust England, a handful of bizarre characters struggles on with their lives in the ruins, among endless heaps of ash, piles of broken crockery and brick, muddy plains, and heaps of dentures and old boots. Patriotically singing "God Save Mrs. Ethel Shroake, Long Live Mrs. Ethel Shroake", they wander through this surrealistic landscape, forever being warned by the police to "keep moving", and prone to the occasional mutation into a parrot, cupboard, or even--yes, a bed-sitting room with "No Wogs" scrawled in the grime on its windows. In particular, this story revolves around the odd "love story" of a girl who lives with her parents in one compartment of a London Underground train, the commuter in the next compartment, and the doctor they meet after returning above ground in search of a nurse for the heavily-pregnant girl.
- DirectorRené ClairStarsJean BörlinInge FrïssFrancis PicabiaAn absolute dada movie. Somebody gets killed, his coffin gets out of control and after a chase it stops. The person gets out of it and let everybody who followed the coffin dissapear.
- DirectorJean EpsteinStarsJeanne HelblingSuzy PiersonOlga DayPsychological narrative avantgarde film about a wealthy young businessman who consecutively falls in love with a classy English woman (Pearl), a Russian sculptress (Athalia), and a naive working-class girl (Lucie). Overpowered by weakness, the coward sidesteps the obligations that love affairs impose: rather than living up to his dates he takes his sports-car from an ultra-modern garage and speeds to the fashionable beaches of Deauville. On his way, he is fatally hit by a descending swallow. The film is divided into three segments each of which consists of events the woman experienced. These sequences are embedded in scenes in which each of the three women is telling and casting her mind back to her own love affair. Thus, present, future and past merge and cannot be distinguished clearly. The intertwinement of several layers of time experience, recollection, telling and showing have been regarded as a source of inspiration of Alain Resnais and this film prefigures his "L'Année dernière à Mariënbad" to a certain extent.
- DirectorMarcel DuchampA spiral design spins dizzily. It's replaced by a spinning disk. These two continue in perfect alternation until the end: a spiral design, a disk. Each disk is labelled and can be read as it rotates. The messages, in French, feature puns and whimsical rhymes and alliteration. The final message comments on the spiral motif itself.
- DirectorGermaine DulacStarsAlex AllinLucien BatailleGenica AthanasiouObsessed with a general's woman, a clergyman has strange visions of death and lust, struggling against his own eroticism.
- DirectorRaúl RuizStarsEva SimonetRobert DarmelSilke HumelA charming tale of murder, perversity and narrative echoes told through shots of barking dogs and a La jetée-like series of stills.
- DirectorMan RayStarsMan RayJacques-André BoiffardGeorges AuricTwo masked men playing dice in a bar leave, get in a car, and drive to the ruins of a castle on a hill. There. they find a modern chateau filled with contemporary furniture and abstract art. Time to roll the dice.
- DirectorHans RichterStarsStella F. SimonEntertaining Dadaist experimental short, similar to Man Ray's work, full of shifting geometric shapes, stock footage of seagulls, flying eyeballs, and glaring floating heads.
- DirectorMaya DerenStarsRita ChristianiMaya DerenAnaïs NinAn experiment with editing techniques that distort space and time in order to further contextualize an image.
- DirectorMaya DerenStarsDon FreisingerRichard SandiferPatricia FerrierDancers, shown in photographic negative, perform a series of ballet moves, solos, pas de deux, larger groupings. The dancers glide and rotate untroubled by gravity against a slowly changing starfield background. Their movements are accompanied by music scored for a small ensemble of woodwind and percussion.
- DirectorJordan BelsonAn experimental short film by Jordan Belson which combines various colors and shapes.
- DirectorMary Ellen ButeTed NemethColorful abstract shapes and lines move exuberantly to the syncopated modernistic piano music of Edwin Gershefsky.
- DirectorGermaine DulacStarsLilian ConstantiniAn avant-garde dance short, integrating slow motion, and cutting between the movements of a ballerina, close-ups of machinery and images of nature.
- DirectorJeffrey Noyes ScherAn animated short film created by the artist Jeff Scher.
- DirectorHarry SmithAn experimental film from artist Harry Smith and part of his Number series of various animated scenes.
- DirectorHenri ChometteA black and white short film which documents a trip through Paris by train.
- DirectorRalph SteinerA study on water, the reflections and motions of the liquid that accentuates its ethereality and metallic beauty.
- DirectorMarie MenkenA short film which uses light to convey emotion and beauty.
- DirectorHarry SmithAn experimental film from artist Harry Smith and part of his Number series of various animated scenes.
- DirectorAlvaro RamírezStarsHéctor NogueraA short film which examines the issue of infant malnutrition.
- DirectorBarbara HammerOne-point perspective visual path across the US beginning inside a linear accelerator or atom-smashing device and traveling to such high-energy locations as the home of an ancient sun calendar in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico; the site of Ohio Valley Mound cultures; the Golden Gate and Brooklyn Bridges; and beyond. Scientists have noted that light rays curve at the outer edges of the universe, leading them to theorize that time also bends. Inspired by this idea, Hammer used an extreme wide angle lens and "one frame of film per foot of physical space" to simulate the concept of bent time.
- DirectorNorman McLarenAn experimental film of dots animated by being drawn directly on filmstock.
- DirectorNorman McLarenStarsMargaret MercierVincent WarrenTwo ballet dancers perform a dance enhanced with surreal multi and after-image effect visuals.
- DirectorEvelyn LambartNorman McLarenAbstract images drawn directly onto the film are accompanied by three pieces of jazz performed by the Oscar Peterson trio.
- DirectorNorman McLarenA film made without a camera, made by painting directly on the film.
- DirectorCharles DekeukeleireStarsPierre BourgeoisA story that is built up with filmed documents in an experimental fashion.
- DirectorLen LyeStarsRupert DooneThe film was made by colorful printing of footage combined with drawing directly on film. The bouncy music drives home the message heard at the end of the film, promoting the GPO (General Post Office): "The Post Office Savings Bank puts a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for you. No deposit too small for the Post Office Savings Bank."
- DirectorLen LyeDisplay the graph that follows traditional African music's voice strains of sway, between music and graphics so mix and so gave the impression of beauty in the melting pot of musical art and graphics.
- DirectorJonas MekasStarsJonas MekasAdolfas MekasPola ChapelleFilmmaker Jonas Mekas creates an elegiac diary of a trip to his home country of Lithuania.
- DirectorPeter FoldesCruel, and utterly effective, Peter Foldes' experimentation with computer animation employs a bold speechless narrative to draw attention to the grave effects of consumerism. Who needs ethics when everything is within arm's reach?
- DirectorHarry SmithAn anthology of Harry Smith's films 1-5, 7, and 10, unfortunately without the divisions clearly marked.
- DirectorJohn CapstaffStarsMary EatonHope HamptonMae MurrayExperimental film done by Eastman Kodak to test the abilities of Kodachrome film stock.
- DirectorStan BrakhageAn experimental short by Stan Brakhage which overlaps various footage, focusing on rocks and ice boulders, with colors and lights.
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardStarsJean-Luc GodardGodard looks into the Bosnia conflict in the early 1990's.
- DirectorGuy MaddinStarsLeslie BaisCaelum VatnsdalShaun BalbarA scientist chooses a wealthy man over her two lovers but must heal the earth's core to save humanity.
- DirectorOldrich LipskýStarsVladimír MensíkJaroslava ObermaierováJosef AbrhámA dark comedy about a murder and its consequences presented in a backwards manner, where death is actually a rebirth. The film starts with an "execution" of the main protagonist and goes back to explore his previous actions and motivations.
- DirectorOskar FischingerExperimental short film made in 35mm, which explores geometric abstraction based on black and white in conjunction with figures arranged in dynamic and hypnotizing spirals
- DirectorVera ChytilováStarsIvana KarbanováJitka CerhováMarie CeskováAfter realizing that all world is spoiled, Marie and Marie are committed to be spoiled themselves. They rip off older men, feast in lavish meals and do all kinds of mischief. But what is all this leading to?
- DirectorOskar FischingerThis is an abstract film in which every motion is in strict synchronization with music, so the description must be read in terms of the overall impression it gives. Within a deep blue environment, one red cube slowly drifts on a reflecting floor. Suddenly there are multiple red cubes drifting and dancing in various formations. Over the course of the film the angularity of square shapes are transformed into circular and cylindrical shapes. The climax of the film features a multitude of these shapes in Busby Berkeley-like formation, as various circular figures grow and disappear among a simulated sky, with the blue colors giving way to red.
- DirectorOskar FischingerMental imagery of music is visualized with two-dimensional shapes dancing to the rhythm of Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.
- DirectorBruce ConnerStarsTheodore RooseveltClips of atomic explosions, pornography, and B-movies are spliced together to evoke certain emotions.
- DirectorBruce Conner"A film portrait cut to the tune of Conway Twitty's version of 'Mona Lisa.' Filmed in part at a 1964 show of Conner's artwork in San Francisco, the film is also a witty statement about forces that take the life out of art. Vivian Kurz, the subject of the film, is entombed in a glass display case." - Judd Chesler Award: Gold Medal Award, Sesta Biennale D'Arte Republica Di San Marino. Da Vinci thought he caught her smiling.
- DirectorKenneth AngerStarsCarmilla SalvatorelliA woman dressed in an elegant period dress wanders through the water gardens at the Villa d'Este.
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsDelphine SeyrigGiorgio AlbertazziSacha PitoëffIn a strange and isolated chateau, a man becomes acquainted with a woman and insists that they have met before.
- DirectorRaúl RuizStarsMelvil PoupaudElsa ZylbersteinLambert WilsonComing to you as if from a dream half-remembered, two oneiric fantasies by the great Chilean fabulist Raúl Ruiz. First, a great guide - with pages torn out - for beginners, this picture has stories-within-stories covering nearly the whole range of Ruiz's diverse passions, from pulp to intellectual.
- DirectorMarguerite DurasStarsDelphine SeyrigNoëlle ChâteletNathalie NellIn response to a new friend's queries, Vera recounts her life, starting with her no-good husband Jean, who has been using her to keep his failing building business afloat - up to the present affair she's having with Cayre (Depardieu).
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsJakub GoldbergHenryk KlubaAndrzej KondratiukTwo men emerge from the sea onto the beach carrying a large wooden wardrobe with a mirror on its front. After the two men clean up and rejoice being in this new environment, they proceed to enter the nearby town, they carrying the wardrobe wherever they go. They just want to meet people and experience their new surroundings, but are largely shunned or ignored. In some instances, they are shunned even when their presence helps the situation. And in other instances of being shunned, they are beaten. And when they are ignored, the world just keeps going without them, often at the detriment of humankind. Ultimately, the two men, with their wardrobe, make a decision about what to do in light of their experiences.
- DirectorJan SvankmajerStones of different shapes and colors live and die together.
- DirectorJan SvankmajerVarious objects are having a sunny outing together in the nature.
- DirectorJohn HoffmanSlavko VorkapichA recently unearthed experimental documentary of the crashing sea set to Mendelssohn's "Fingal's Cave." An example of the filmmakers' "new cinema" theory which held that film should be more like music than literature. This film is based solely on its arrangement of images.
- DirectorRobert EnricoStarsRoger JacquetAnne CornalyAnker-Spang LarsenIn 1862, during the American Civil War, a Southern civilian is about to be hanged for attempting to sabotage a railway bridge. When the execution takes place from the bridge, the rope breaks and he begins his escape toward home.