this course

1. N A M E
C O U R S E N A M E
L E C T U R E R N A M E
Avant-garde

2. Contents
 Introduction
 Avant-garde film
 Evaluation of avant-garde in cinema
 Avant-garde directions
 Avant-garde stages
 Example
 References

3. Avant-garde
 Avant-garde is a group of trends and directions of art
that were created in 20th century. They were
discarding pervious styles, creating their very own
world and looking for a new, fresh way of exposure.
After First World War it was developing in European
countries. The first currents happened in France,
Germany and Russia.
 In brief, The word is taken from French means a
creative group in the innovation and application of
new concepts and techniques especially in art. Its
birth was inspired by contemporary art.

4. Avant-garde Film
 Avant-garde film has an absurd visual and a form
that straying from establish structure.
 Avant-garde film rebelled monopoly of film
corporations that controlled film production,
distribution, and exhibition.
 Two major factors that triggered the avant-garde’s
birth:
1. economics (the condition of production)
2. and aesthetics.

5. Con…
 Avant-garde film is often produced in the context of
the larger art world, particularly in relation to the
visual arts and literature.
 It is also frequently produced as a critique of
dominant, classical Hollywood cinema and functions
in relation to political movements and strategies,
such as feminism.

6. Evolution of Avant-garde in Cinema
 Avant-garde is a movement that seeks to break the
tradition and politicise the issues.
 It was in 1920 when a small group of theorists first
used avant-garde. French theorists like Louis Delluc,
Germaine Dulac, Jean Epstein sought to create
avant-garde cinema.

7. Con…
 The members pointed out that the theoretical
approach to cinema addressed the following issues:
1. Realist versus naturalist films,
2. Spectator-screen relationship,
3. Editing styles,
4. Subjectivity and psychoanalytical potential of a film,
5. Auteur cinema and the semiotics of the film.
 With such issues they turned to making film with
experimentation as its central part.

8. Avant-garde directions
 Futurism, 1919
Assumption of futurism was to look in the future and reject
all traditional and old-fashion works. It did not believe in
tradition and wanted everything to be done from scratch,
being new and modern. Futurism artists were really into
aesthetics and believed that they are real “soul guides”.
 Dadaism, 1916
Assumption of arbitrariness of artistic expression, rejecting
all terms connected with tradition and freedom of
creativity.

9. Con…
 Constructivism, 1920
Assumption to create paintings from geometric figures
and shapes. Artists wanted to search new expression of
esthetic. Their thinking was also very modern and
minimalistic
 Surrealism, 1924
Assumption of insurrection towards classicism,
realism, empirism, rationalism and conventions in art.
The artists of this direction that are well-known are
Salvador Dali and surrealists inspiration

10. Avant-garde stages
 Subjective Cinema
The major influences were from the work of modernist
painter in the early part of the avant-garde movements.
 Pure Cinema
The influence from Sergei Eisenstein’s montage theory and
Bertolt Brecht’s theory of distanciation. The films exhibit the
structures and materiality which draws attention to the
artifice of the cinema. In pure cinema the spectator doesn’t
evidence the narrative structure of the films. This type reflects
the revolutionary role of the avant-garde.

11. Con…
 Surrealist Cinema
This type denaturalizes the dominant cinematic
language bringing the theory of the counter cinema
into practice. This stage is a collision between the first
two stages of avant-garde bringing the irrational
dreams and fantasies that are normally repressed.

12. Example: Avant-garde
 The Heart of the World
Written and directed by a prominent director Guy Maddin,
“The Heart of the World” was created for the Toronto
International Film Festival in year 2000. Fellow
moviemakers Atom Egoyan and David Cronenberg, agreed
upon filming four-minute short-lived flicks which may be
used to show first before a number of highlighted movies of
the film fest. When gossips about his colleague’s ideas,
Maddin manifested for this film to have 100 shots a minute
to a staggering speed and a plot to sufficiently serve as a
full-length movie.

13. Con…
 This hushed avant-garde motion picture which was
released in Canada in 2000 runs only for 6 minutes and
stars Leslie Bais as Anna, Caelum Vatnsdal as Osip,
Shaun Balbar as Nikolai and Greg Klymkiw as Akmatov.
Osip and Nikolai are brothers fighting for the affection of
a scientist named Ana who suspects that the planet is
edging to self annihilation. Nikolai being an undertaker
attempted to excite her by his embalming antiques. On
the other hand, Osip being an actor ventured on
captivating her by means of his tolerance in painstaking
portrayals on his play, however Ana was beguiled by a
wicked investor, but changed her mind, throttled the
magnate, slinked down the planet and rescued the globe
from eradication.

14. References
 Blaetz, R. (2012). Avant-Garde and Experimental
Film. obo in Cinema and Media Studies. doi:
10.1093/obo/9780199791286-0082
 Curtis, D. (2016). Masterworks of the American
Avant-Garde Experimental Film 1920-1970. Journal
of Film Preservation, (94), 125.
 Turvey, M. (2019). Avant-Garde Films as Philosophy.
In The Palgrave Handbook of the Philosophy of Film
and Motion Pictures (pp. 573-600). Palgrave
Macmillan, Cham.