Experimental Cinema and Art Movements

Experimental Cinema

• Avant-garde cinema movements break from tradition
• Consider emotional and intellectual response to film
• Look for motifs (repeated elements) in film
• Examine film structure (beginnings, endings)
• Consider film materials (e.g., footage, still photos, paintings)

Romanticism in the Arts

• An artistic and intellectual movement in late 18th- and early 19th-century Europe
• Emphasized emotion, intuition, and individualism
• Celebrated the free expression of the individual artist
• Favored nature over industrialization

Modernism in the Arts

• A movement that challenged traditional ideals in response to 19th- and 20th-century societal changes
• Emphasized a belief in human creativity and reshaping the environment through science, knowledge, and technology

Early Cinema & Gunning's “Cinema of Attractions”

• Early cinema was not lacking, rather a different style
• It was meant to draw the audience's attention to the film itself, not to tell a story
• Early films focused on 'attractions', (visuals, spectacle, and special effects)

Post-Revolution Soviet Cinema

• Soviet filmmakers used film to promote political ideologies and suppress conflicting ideas (like international thought)
• Films emphasized narrative, or intellectual responses by their audience, in addition to visual responses
• Russian civil war influenced the approach of their cinema

Soviet Montage & The Kuleshov Workshop

• Editing in Soviet cinema served to create narrative/create ideas
• Montage was seen as a form of creating thoughts/feelings or intellectual reactions from the viewers
• Montage was also seen as a way of connecting shots together to create a powerful effect

Montage Theory - Key Figures

• Sergei Eisenstein explored dialectical montage: conflict between shots creating a greater meaning
• Dziga Vertov emphasized montage as a way to capture the immediacy of the world (also to capture the feeling of real-time)
• V.I. Pudovkin emphasized the connection of shots based on narrative need

Avant-Garde Cinema

• Films that break from established aesthetic conventions (often extreme)
• Emphasis on technique and imagery over narrative
• Often considered as the beginning of the modern film movement

Dadaism

• Artistic and literary movement in which artists rejected traditional artistic and cultural norms, and instead aimed to create chaos, surprise, or shock
• They sought to make anti-war statements and/or portray their rejection of their surroundings in their work

Surrealism

• Art and literary movement in which artists focused on the exploration of dreams and the subconscious mind
• Often used symbolism and unusual imagery in their works

Filmmakers

• René Clair: a french filmmaker known for his surrealist films
• Maya Deren: an American-born filmmaker
• Stan Brakhage: American filmmaker well known for his experimental film techniques and aesthetic choices
• Andy Warhol: An artist and filmmaker known for his pop art style films
• Kenneth Anger: American filmmaker (and also studied surrealism). He is known for his use of dream logic.
• Germaine Dulac: A pioneering French feminist filmmaker
• Joseph Cornell: American visual artist. His work with Assemblage (collage in three dimensions) and the "Cornell Boxes" is well known.
• Su Friedrich: An American feminist filmmaker
• Abigail Child: An American filmmaker known for her feminist ideas and the personal aspect of the film (i.e., autobiographical)
• Leslie Thornton: An American artist who experimented with film by using visual and technical forms.

Animation

• History of techniques and styles, including silhouette animation, pixilation, and multimedia animation
• Key figures and their contributions, such as Norman McLaren, Lotte Reiniger, Oskar Fischinger
• Emphasis on visual experimentation and creation of unique visual styles

The Political Avant-Garde

• How political movements influenced filmmaking, notably including Feminism and Socialist thinking

Canadian Experimental Cinema

• Description of Canadian film institutions and key figures
• Discussions of the Escarpment School and other groups and individuals (e.g., organizations) who promoted avant-garde cinema