"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 film makers want to experiment with new ideas, forms, techniques, and expressions--and are often said to be "ahead of their times." Avant-garde films are characterized by a high degree of experimentation--whether it be in manipulation in narrative materials, in highly stylized visual representation, or in radical departures from the norms or conventions current at the time, avant-garde film is always a vehicle for the filmmaker’s expression.
Often, avant-garde films focus on the lyrical, the abstract, formal beauty for its own sake—and therefore may avoid conventions of narrative. As such, you might call them cinematic or painterly "poems." Abstract film has also been called "absolute" film.
Avant-garde films are often iconoclastic, mocking conventional morality and traditional values; the filmmaker's intense interest in eccentricities and extremes may shock for the viewers. Indeed, the avant-garde film maker’s purpose may be to wake or shake up the audience from the stupor of ordinary consciousness or the doldrums of conventional perspective. Such highly expressive and uncoventional films may become cult classics--and acquire the description, avant garde, as a result.
Some avant-garde films are called "experimental, " a term popularized by David Curtis in Experimental Cinema (New York: Delta, 1971), in the sense that the films may be experiments to explore how the camera can emulate and/or enhance human visual perception. In an interview for the Millenium Film Journal, Rose Lowder, a contemporary French avant-garde (or experimental) filmmaker, says that
you can see on the screen things that aren't actually on the film. A very simple way of demonstrating this is to make holes in the filmstrip with an office puncher. If you draw a line on a piece of transparent leader and then punch a hole in every alternate frame, the line seems to go through the hole. But if you draw the same line and then punch holes in two successive frames out of every three, then the hole appears empty. For a year I explored the possibilities of these simple juxtapositions. I also tested colors to see how they could interact over a series of successive frames. What's the point of all this? There's a lot of talk about the smallest unit of cinema being the frame, but in fact, that's not the case at all. As these experiments demonstrate, pieces from different frames can make up what you're seeing on the screen. In other words, you can construct an image on the screen with bits from different frames. You can change very slightly parts of a frame or several frames--change the color, the thickness of the lines, whatever--and a completely different thing happens. If I draw a line on every single frame and then punch each frame, the circle will appear as a circle with no line through it. If you leave a frame between each punched hole, then the line can go through the circle. And if we put two frames of the line between each punch-out, the hole is much whiter on the screen and the line looks darker. (Interview with Scott MacDonald, Fall 1997, available at http://mfj-online.org/journalPages/MFJ30,31/SMacDonaldRose.html)
Note: Videotaped or digitalized versions of avant-garde films may mute the dramatic effects intended for the big screen/big sound system. However, today, videotape and Internet technologies are finding their own place in the experimental and avant-garde film community; in fact, they are becoming increasingly popular media for the development and dissemination of avant-garde motion pictures.
Websites Related to Avant-Garde Film:
Recommended Avant-Garde/Experimental Films:
Ballet Mécanique (Fernand Léger, France, 1924). Gianetti 118. In 1923 Fernand Léger wrote, of World War I (the "war to end all wars"): "The war has thrust me, as a soldier, into the heart of a mechanical atmosphere. Here I discovered the beauty of the fragment."
Baraka (Ron Fricke, US, 1992—96 mins). Densely packed visual story of the evolution of Earth and humanity, and the manner in which human beings relate to the natural environment. Shot on location in 24 countries. No dialogue, only sounds and images—stream of consciousness. Beauty and grandeur of visuals make this definitely one for the big screen (shot with 70mm cameras). Some disturbing imagery, nudity. See Gianetti 163. Chris Hicks writes, "Taking his 70mm camera to 24 countries, cinematographer Ron Fricke has compiled an answer to Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi, on which Fricke was chief cameraman. That film, whose title is a Hopi word for "Life Out of Balance," contrasted the serene natural wonders of America with its hustling, bustling industry, without narration or plot, using only gorgeously photographed, fleeting images set to a driving, mesmerizing Philip Glass score. Fricke's Baraka — the title, an ancient Sufi word, loosely translates as 'The Breath of Life' — is apparently intended to counterbalance Reggio's work, showing how the human race and life itself are tied to the earth." Also considered a documentary. David B. Spalding writes: "Baraka begins and ends with supremely spiritual images and sounds. . . . the film is a glorious tone poem. . . . Baraka is a profound celebration of each culture's, each individual's, personal experience of our universe" (http://www.korova.com/kmr95/kmr5034.htm)
Un Chien Andalou (Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali, France, 1928). Short (less than 30 minutes) and surreal. Once upon a time/A balcony at night. A man is sharpening his razor near the balcony. The man looks at the sky thorough window panes and sees/ A light cloud advancing toward a full moon./ Then a young woman's head, with eyes wide open./ Toward one of the eyes a razor blade advances./ The light cloud passes now in front of the moon./ The razor blade moves across the young woman's eye cutting it open." (From the script). This is the "Twilight Zone" of the 20s according to Bunuel and Dali. Surrealistic montage includes the famous shot of the eye being slit by a razor. For Quicktime clips of this avant-garde film, see the University of Southern California site, <http://www-scf.usc.edu/~pkon/Bunuel.html>, and the "Perversion and Desire: Films of Luis Bunuel" site at <http://www-scf.usc.edu/~pkon/bunuelpage.html>. Bryan M. Papciak's essay, "Thank God I'm an atheist: The surrealistic cinema of Luis Bunuel" at <http://www.regent.edu/acad/schcom/rojc/papciak.html> provides some insights into the bizarre imagery of this film. See Todd Stabley's Website at <http://www.ibiblio.org/eng42/> (Username=ilovemovies, Password=opensezme; go to "This Semester's Films" and click on "Un Chien Andalou").
Eraserhead (David Lynch, US, 1976). See Gianetti, page 23. Summary from IMDB: "Is it a nightmare or an actual view of a post-apocalyptic world? Set in an industrial town in which giant machines are constantly working, spewing smoke, and making noise that is inescapable, Henry Spencer lives in a building that, like all the others, appears to be abandoned. The lights flicker on and off, he has bowls of water in his dresser drawers, and for his only diversion he watches and listens to the Lady in the Radiator sing about finding happiness in heaven. Henry has a girlfriend, Mary X, who has frequent spastic fits. Mary gives birth to Henry's child, a frightening looking mutant, which leads to the injection of all sorts of sexual imagery into the depressive and chaotic mix." Eraserhead FAQ's are available at <http://www.netmediapro.com/maninblack/EraserHead/Eraserhead_FAQ.htm>. You want wierd? This film is wierd.
Fat Man and Little Boys, a short, student-produced, fully digitalized film by director, Michael Vaingauz (with Rhys Southan, screenwriter, and Peter Bleickardt, computer graphics designer and animator both acting in the film). You can watch the 3-minute, 19-second, 15 MB film with Real Video or Quicktime and get behind-the-scenes information at The Observatory (http://library.advanced.org/10015/data/bts/index.html). It will take a little over 1 hour to download the movie file on a 28.8BPS modem for Quicktime. Site description of the film: "Two teenagers. One computer. A magical chubby man. They'll never want to go outside again." One of the first full-length films made for and freely available on the WorldWideWeb. Production notes also very interesting and entertaining--including a link to the complete and "properly formatted" script.
Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, USA, 1983, 87 mins). Created between 1975 and 1982, this sensuous, non-narrative film (Reggio's first as director and producer) takes you across the United States, to see with new eyes the natural and human environment of this country. Much of the photography is slow motion or time-lapse (the title is Hopi Indian for "life out of balance"). Music: a mesmerizing score by Philip Glass. "So rich in beauty and detail that with each viewing it becomes a new and different film. Should be seen in a theatre for maximum impact." See the official Website at <http://www.koyaanisqatsi.org/>. Reggio's companion films are Powaanisqatsi, Anima Mundi, Naqoyqatsi, Powaqqatsi. The official Website says this of Reggio:
Godfrey Reggio is an inventor of a film style which creates poetic images of extraordinary emotional impact for audiences worldwide. Reggio is prominent in the film world for his QATSI trilogy, essays of visual images and sound which chronicle the destructive impact of the modern world on the environment. Reggio, who spent 14 years in silence and prayer while studying to be a monk, has a history of service not only to the environment but to youth street gangs, the poor, and the community as well.
Pink Flamingos (John Waters, USA, 1972, 92 mins). Let the reviews speak for themselves: "The sickest movie ever made. And one of the funniest."— Fran Lebowitz, Interview, May 1973. "One of the most vile, stupid and repulsive films ever made."— Variety review dated November 16, 1974. "Lewd! Shameless May God forgive its makers for concocting such a vulgar, offensive mess! And may audiences the world over be forever grateful." — Philadelphia Daily News, September, 1973. "Like a septic tank explosion, it has to be seen to be believed."— The Detroit Free Press. "Gross, vile, disgusting, obscene, pornographic, stupid, sophomoric, degrading, bizarre, grotesque, outrageous. But it makes you laugh." — Stuart Samuels, Midnight Movies (Collier Books 1983). See these and other information about the film at this site: http://www.flf.com/pink/allnotes.htm . According to this reviewer, the film is "shocking, funny and gleefully depraved" and "has been compared to the Bunuel/Dali landmark, Un Chien Andalou, as well as to an exploded septic tank. Waters himself subtitled it 'an exercise in poor taste.' Pink Flamingos was included in the 1976 Bicentennial Salute to American Film Comedy at the Museum of Modern Art in New York."
Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Derendand Alexander Hammid, USA, 1943, 17 minutes. VHS with music 1959). Working in the 1940s and 50s, Deren was the first giant of American experimental filmmaking. The movie, made in collaboration with husband Alexander "Sasha" Hammid, signaled the birth of American avant-garde filmmaking. It is dreamlike, haunting, and lyrical, in the way the movements of the human body and the camera harmonize. Stan Brakhage refers to Maya Deren, in his book about independent, experimental filmmakers (Film at Wit's End: Eight Avant-garde Filmmakers), as “the mother of us all."
Nicole Brady writes, "Aside from being Maya Deren's most successful film, I also find Meshes to be the most intriguing for a number of reasons. The ability to tap into the human mind and realms of the unconscious through film art is amazing to me. Meshes is not just a feminist film trying to show a woman's place in a male-dominated society, but is also a dramatic and intensifying experience for the viewer. Perhaps one of the reasons why this film is so compelling is because it is about her. The legendary Maya Deren came up with her ideas from personal experience, from feelings, emotions, and anxieties of her own. Just as we have many layers of consciousness, some that we are unaware of, Deren 'was always trying to bring out the multiple layers of meaning of everything that went into her films' (Brakhage, p. 11). She did this through her dream sequences, multiple selves, and the artistic use of time and space. One of the reasons Meshes is so powerful is because there is a dreamlike familiarity to it that we all can relate to. As the 'dreamers' chase the robed figured on the road, they can never catch up to it. Just like in dreams, nothing is ever fast enough. Time is slow-moving and one feels a frustration to move faster, in order to find the person or the problem. Dreams have been thought to be symbols of our subconscious thoughts, anxieties and true feelings. It is this type of mentality that I, personally, believe is part of the film. It is obvious that she is with a man, either dating or married, because he is in the house with her and they go upstairs to their bedroom. It appears that she is unhappy with him, and feels that she is succumbing to the traditional values of what a man and woman should be in a romantic relationship. Again, these opinions stem from the suppressive undertones of the female identity in Deren's 'dream'." You can read about and watch the whole film at Todd Stabley's Website: <http://www.ibiblio.org/eng42/> (Username=ilovemovies, Password=opensezme). Go to "This Semester's Films" and click on "Meshes." For a short biographical sketch, go to this Maya Deren site: <http://home.snafu.de/marcus/about_MD.html>.
In June of 1985, the Board of Trustees of the American Film Institute, wishing to acknowledge the contribution and significance of independent work, established the American Film Institute Award for Independent Film and Video Artists. Since 1986, the award, with a $5,000 honorarium, has been presented annually to pay tribute to masters in the field, and to encourage artists whose work show enormous promise. Because of Maya Deren's groundbreaking films, her daring artistic explorations, and her ceaseless fight for the recognition of film as an art form, the Board of Trustees of the AFI named the institute's Award for Independent Film and Video Artists for Maya Deren. It's the "Maya Deren Award."
Pink Floyd The Wall(Alan Parker, UK, 1982). Running time 99 minutes. Animation sequences designed and directed by Geralde Scarfe. Written and composed by Roger Waters. Bob Geldof plays Pink. Harald Mayre's Internet Movie Database Review summarizes the plot: "The movie tells the story of rock singer 'Pink' who is sitting in his hotel room in Los Angeles, burnt out from the music business and only able to perform on stage with the help of drugs. Based on the 1979 double album 'The Wall' by Pink Floyd, the film begins in Pink's youth where he is crushed by the love of his mother. Several years later he is punished by the teachers in school because he is starting to write poems. Slowly he begins to build a wall around himself to be protected from the world outside. The film shows all this in massive and epic pictures until the very end where he tears down the wall and breaks free"(http://us.imdb.com/Plot?Pink+Floyd+The+Wall+(1982)). A film interrogating the role of authority, the lure of the charismatic leader (be he rock star or fascist dictator); the film shows the way individual identity and conscience is lost when the group takes over, and that group identification can lead individuals to extremes of passivity and brutality. The Parker's scenes with Pink as the new Hitler owe much to Leni Riefenstahl's propaganda film on the Neurenberg Rallies of 1934, Triumph of the Will, in both theme and cinematic technique. Hitler as Pink, the rock star. The rock concert crowd like Hitler's fans, screaming with ecstasy for their leader, chanting "Heil, Hitler! Heil, Hitler! Heil, Hitler," as they listen and cheer, enthralled at his performance, as they clap and shout and sing their glorious anthem together. The Wall shows us the violent result of uncritical adoration and mob mentality.
Ray's Male Heterosexual Dance Hall (Bryan Gordon, USA, 1987). Oscar-winning short film/live action. About 23 minutes long—a parable of the dance that the upwardly mobile corporation man must learn and practice. A satire on the games men play on the dance floor of the corporate world. A commentary on how these men sacrifice intimacy and friendship in the struggle for survival and power in that world.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, Great Britain, 1975). See theOfficial Rocky Horror Film site at <http://www.rockyhorror.com/>. This is Riff Rag's Rocky Horror home (huge number of links, including sound and video). You might also want to see the Time Warp Web site--the official UK Rocky Horror Fan Club. Rocky Horror Trivia Games, Rocky Horror Web Ring, Fan clubs galore, etc. Check out this Italian Rocky Horror Webpage (complete with Rocky Horror theme music--put your speakers on!). There's even a Rocky Horror newsgroup at <alt.cult.movies.rocky-horror>.
The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden, 1957). See Gianetti, page 7. Shot in only 35 days, this powerful morality tale depicts the cruelty of medieval life - witch burning, flagellation - as well as the joys and noble aspirations of people in luminous images derived from early church paintings. Bergman's seventeenth film set him firmly in the pantheon of great directors." (Henry Holt) Here the knight, returned from the Crusades, is playing a game of chess with Death. Roger Ebert's review of the film is here at <http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/greatmovies/seventh_seal.html>.
Zentropa--also known as Europa (Lars von Trier, Denmark / France / Germany / Switzerland, 1991). B/W and Color. English and German with subtitles. Won Best Artistic Contribution, Jury Prize, and Technical Grand Prize at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival. Lars von Trier also directed Dancer in the Dark and Breaking the Waves. For the Lars von Trier Website, go to <http://www.sarto.com/home2/vontrier/index.html>.
IMDB Summary of Zentropa (a German word for the middle of Europe) by Ed Sutton: "An American of German descent arrives in post-war Germany 1945. His uncle gets him a job on the Zentropa train line as a sleeping car conductor. The American's wish is to be neutral to the ongoing purges of loyalists by the Allied forces and do what he can to help a hurting country, but he finds himself being used by both the Americans and the influential family that owns the railroad. After falling in love with the railroad magnate's daughter, he finds that he can't remain neutral and must make some difficult choices."on Trier, 1991, 114m, color, Denmark - , Roger Ebert says the film is "too striking and visually beautiful to be ignored"; see his review at <http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert_reviews/1992/07/765171.html>. Joe Brown, in a Washington Post review (July 10, 1992), calls the film a "movie cultist's dream," claims that it "leaves its delightedly disoriented viewers in a twilight zone," and says "it plays like an ideal collaboration between Wim Wenders and David Lynch." Gloria Floren says the film is "strange, haunting, and mesmerizing" and provides "the most visceral cinematic experience of drowning in film history."