Favorite Experimental/Avant-Garde Films
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- DirectorHans RichterBlack and white rectangular images fade in and out of the screen. Their movement make them sometimes look like they're panning from side to side. Their movement also make the black and white individually change from foreground to background and visa versa.
- 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.
- DirectorSergei EisensteinStarsGrigoriy AleksandrovMaksim ShtraukhMikhail GomorovA group of oppressed factory workers go on strike in pre-revolutionary Russia.
- DirectorWalter RuttmannStarsPaul von HindenburgThis movie shows us one day in Berlin, the rhythm of that time, starting at the earliest morning and ends in the deepest night.
- DirectorRobert FloreySlavko VorkapichStarsJules RaucourtVoya GeorgeRobert FloreyA wannabe movie star experiences the surreal horrors of dehumanization at the bottom of Hollywood's social ladder as his hopes for success vanish and his identity is reduced to a number.
- DirectorGermaine DulacStarsAlex AllinLucien BatailleGenica AthanasiouObsessed with a general's woman, a clergyman has strange visions of death and lust, struggling against his own eroticism.
- DirectorMan RayStarsKiki of MontparnasseAndré de la RivièreRobert DesnosTwo people stand on a road, out of focus. Seen distorted through a glass, they retire upstairs to a bedroom where she undresses. He says, "Adieu." Images: the beautiful girl, a starfish in a jar, city scenes, newspapers, tugboats. More images: starfish, the girl. "How beautiful she is." Repeatedly. He advances up the stair, knife in hand, starfish on the step. Three people stand on a road, out of focus. "How beautiful she was." "How beautiful she is." "Beautiful."
- DirectorHans RichterStarsWerner GraeffWalter GronostayPaul HindemithHans Richter, noted for his abstract shorts, has everyday objects rebelling against their daily routine.
- DirectorDziga VertovStarsMikhail KaufmanElizaveta SvilovaA man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsPierre BatcheffSimone MareuilLuis BuñuelLuis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí present 16 minutes of bizarre, surreal imagery.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsGaston ModotLya LysCaridad de LaberdesqueA surrealist tale of a man and a woman who are passionately in love with each other, but their attempts to consummate that passion are constantly thwarted by their families, the Church, and bourgeois society.
- DirectorJean CocteauStarsEnrique RiveroElizabeth Lee MillerPauline CartonTold in four episodes - an unnamed artist is transported through a mirror into another dimension, where he travels through various bizarre scenarios.
- DirectorErnst MoermanStarsJacqueline ArpéFrançoise BertL. DegrooteIn this surrealist piece of avant-garde generation of Belgian cinema, French masked master of crime Fantômas travels through the world seeking his beloved Elvire. He destroys all decency in his trip, as a great mischief-maker.
- 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.
- DirectorMaya DerenStarsMarcel DuchampPajorita MattaThe surrealist film shows repetitive imagery involving a string fashioned in a bizarre, almost spiderweb-like pattern over the hands of several individuals, most notably an unnamed young woman and an elderly gentleman.
- DirectorMaya DerenStarsJohn CageMaya DerenAlexander HammidSilently, a woman wakes on a beach as the tides go in reverse. Her dreamscape unfolds as she tries to locate a chess piece traveling from the beach to a party to a country road and then back.
- DirectorHans RichterStarsJack BittnerLibby HolmanJosh WhiteAfter learning how to look inside himself, a poetic bum sells people vivid dreams.
- DirectorWilhelm FreddieJørgen RoosStarsAgnete ChristensenWilhelm FreddieJørgen RoosAn experimental animated short film by Jørgen Roos and surrealist painter Wilhelm Freddie.
- DirectorJean CocteauStarsJean MaraisFrançois PérierMaría CasaresA poet in love with Death follows his unhappy wife into the underworld.
- DirectorIsidore IsouStarsIsidore IsouJean-Louis BarraultBlanchette BrunoyIn this experimental film, Isidore Isou, the leader of the lettrist movement, lashes out at conventional cinema and offers a revolutionary form of movie-making: through scratching and bleaching the film, through desynchronizing the soundtrack and the visual track, through deconstructing the story, he aims to renew the seventh art the same way he tried to revolutionize the literary world.
- DirectorStan BrakhageStarsWalter NewcombThis way madness - or experimental filmmaking - lies. A solitary man in coat and tie enters an apartment that may be a converted garage. It's midnight. He appears agitated and distraught. He throws a glass of water in his face and laughs. He takes off the coat and tie. His moods swing. He stares at a light bulb. He removes his shirt. He lights a cigarette. He looks at a book. He does something drastic and self-destructive. He opens doors to a garden that we see as a film's negative. We see his face as if peering around a plant. The garden doors close behind him.
- DirectorJean CocteauHans RichterStarsJean ArpPaul BowlesCeal BrysonIt is a fairy tale for the subconscious based on the game of chess. Partly Sigmund Freud, partly Lewis Carroll.
- DirectorBruce ConnerStarsTheodore RooseveltClips of atomic explosions, pornography, and B-movies are spliced together to evoke certain emotions.
- DirectorStan VanderbeekThis film uses stop motion animation of still photographs to convey images of politics and science in the nuclear era. The advancement of science allows man to do things he never would have been able to do without, for good or bad. Politicians are either behind the scenes manipulating those scientists or are using that science for their own goals, primarily in the space race. Everyday items and people are projected upwards - many in the form of rockets - followed by iconic structures, such as the Empire State Building, the US Capitol, the Washington Monument, the Eiffel Tower and the Kremlim, being rocketed skyward as visual representations of that race into space.
- DirectorStan BrakhageJoseph CornellA short film by Stan Brakhage in which New York City's Third Avenue elevated train is filmed before its destruction.