Download - French Avant-Garde
French Avant-Garde1918-1930
• Goal: to explore cinema as art• Considered a cinema of “intellectuals for
intellectuals”• took their inspiration from Marx and Freud
• A collective movement• Three distinct types of films made at onset…
Short Dadaist/surrealist films• anti-conventional, absurdist nature• shock the viewer with surprises and unexpected
juxtapositions• against normal narrative conventions – eliminated
connections, emphasized unexpected occurrences• ex: An Andalusian Dog (Un Chien
Andalou,1929)
Short naturalistic psychological studies • stressed idea that an individual’s fate is
determined by heredity and environment, not free will
• La femme de nulle part (1922)• La Fille de L'eau (1925)
• Feature-length films • very ambitious in scope, length, and visual
effect• ex: Napoleon (1927) and The Passion of Joan of Arc
(1928)
• The advent of experimental film.