EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA: 1920-1950 (DVD PIRATE)
Avant Garde Short Films
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- DirectorMan RayStarsKiki of MontparnasseExperimental film, white specks and shapes gyrating over a black background, a light-striped torso, a gyrating eggcrate. One of the first Dadaist films.AVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1
- DirectorMan RayStarsKiki of MontparnasseJacques RigautA long series of unrelated images, revolving, often distorted: lights, flowers, nails. A lightboard appears from time to time carrying the news of the day. Then, an eye. A woman in a car drives along country roads. Farm animals. She descends from the car, again and again. Images: dancing legs, seashore, swimming fish, geometric shapes, cut glass. A man removes his starched collar. It rotates. A girl has garishly painted eyes. No, she's only fooling. Those were her eyelids.AVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1
- 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."AVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1
- DirectorMan RayStarsMan RayJacques-André BoiffardGeorges AuricTwo masked men playing dice in a bar leave, get in a car, and drive to the ruins of a castle on a hill. There. they find a modern chateau filled with contemporary furniture and abstract art. Time to roll the dice.AVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1
- 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.AVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1
- DirectorDimitri KirsanoffStarsNadia SibirskaïaYolande BeaulieuGuy BelmontA couple is brutally murdered in the working-class district of Paris. Later on, the narrative follows the lives of their two daughters, both in love with a Parisian thug and leading them to separate ways.AVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1
- DirectorDimitri KirsanoffStarsNadia SibirskaïaA woman--a pained expression on her face--burns letters in a stove.AVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1
- DirectorJames Sibley WatsonMelville WebberStarsFriedrich HaakHildegarde WatsonDorthea HouseLot in Sodom is a sensual depiction of the Sodom and Gomorrah story filled with sinewy and semi-clad bodies, delirious bacchanales devoted to physical pleasure, and a searing, cataclysmic finale depicting the fall of a city devoted to sins of the flesh. Digitally mastered from excellent 35mm elements. Lot In Sodom has its original experimental soundtrack by Alec Wilder.AVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1
- DirectorHans RichterAVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1
- DirectorHans RichterStarsWerner GraeffWalter GronostayPaul HindemithHans Richter, noted for his abstract shorts, has everyday objects rebelling against their daily routine.AVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1
- DirectorMarcel DuchampA spiral design spins dizzily. It's replaced by a spinning disk. These two continue in perfect alternation until the end: a spiral design, a disk. Each disk is labelled and can be read as it rotates. The messages, in French, feature puns and whimsical rhymes and alliteration. The final message comments on the spiral motif itself.AVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1
- DirectorFernand LégerDudley MurphyStarsKiki of MontparnasseFernand LégerDudley MurphyA pulsing, kaleidoscope of images set to an energetic soundtrack. A young women swings in a garden; a woman's face smiles. The rest is spinning cylinders, pistons, gears and turbines, kitchen objects in concentric circles or rows - pots, pan lids, and funnels, cars passing overhead, a spinning carnival ride. Over and over, a heavy-set woman climbs stairs carrying a large bag on her shoulder. An Art Deco cartoon figure appears, dancing. This is a world in motion, dominated by mechanical and repetitive images, with a few moments of solitude in a garden.AVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1
- DirectorViking EggelingA tilted figure, consisting largely of right angles at the beginning, grows by accretion, with the addition of short straight lines and curves which sprout from the existing design. The figure vanishes and the process begins again with a new pattern, each cycle lasting one or two seconds. The complete figures are drawn in a vaguely Art Deco style and could be said to resemble any number of things, an ear, a harp, panpipes, a grand piano with trombones, and so on, only highly stylized. The tone is playful and hypnotic.AVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1
- DirectorJean PainlevéStarsMax SchreckA short look at the vampire bat sucking blood from a guinea pig.AVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1
- DirectorWilliam VanceOrson WellesStarsOrson WellesVirginia NicolsonWilliam VanceA colonial scene in the U.S. An old lady sits astride a bell while a man in blackface, wig, and livery pulls the bell rope. From an upper door emerges an old man, dressed as a dandy, who tips his hat to the woman as he walks down stairs grinning. Others leave the same door and walk down the same stairs: a shabby man, a cop, and, several times, the same dandy. The man in blackface hangs himself; the dandy continues to smile. A bell tolls, a grave beckons. In the dark, the dandy plays the piano. Is he Death?AVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1
- DirectorAdolf TrotzStarsLiane KleineMax BandelowAVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1
- DirectorJean EpsteinStarsJeanne HelblingSuzy PiersonOlga DayPsychological narrative avantgarde film about a wealthy young businessman who consecutively falls in love with a classy English woman (Pearl), a Russian sculptress (Athalia), and a naive working-class girl (Lucie). Overpowered by weakness, the coward sidesteps the obligations that love affairs impose: rather than living up to his dates he takes his sports-car from an ultra-modern garage and speeds to the fashionable beaches of Deauville. On his way, he is fatally hit by a descending swallow. The film is divided into three segments each of which consists of events the woman experienced. These sequences are embedded in scenes in which each of the three women is telling and casting her mind back to her own love affair. Thus, present, future and past merge and cannot be distinguished clearly. The intertwinement of several layers of time experience, recollection, telling and showing have been regarded as a source of inspiration of Alain Resnais and this film prefigures his "L'Année dernière à Mariënbad" to a certain extent.AVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1
- DirectorJean EpsteinIn a village in Brittany, a young maid and an old woman are spinning while the wind blows threateningly outdoors. In spite of the bad omen, the young maid's boyfriend decides to sail away. Worried, the young maid ask for help to a mysterious old man and his magical crystal ball in order to calm down the rough seas.AVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1
- DirectorLouis FeuilladeAVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1
- DirectorHerman G. WeinbergStarsErna BergmanWilly HildebrandA story told with few words. We see a solitary man and a solitary woman, each alone with their thoughts. She is in the country, staring out a window. Nature is quiet, waiting for spring, trees are bare. He is in the city, walking from the docks, watching, somewhat aimless. She walks a country lane. Both are alone. She writes him a letter, offering an opportunity. Will he take it?AVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1
- DirectorCharles SheelerPaul StrandThis groundbreaking silent documentary captures the beauty and majesty of the New York City in its streets, skyscrapers, bridges, rail yards and harbors.AVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1
- DirectorGermaine DulacStarsAlex AllinLucien BatailleGenica AthanasiouObsessed with a general's woman, a clergyman has strange visions of death and lust, struggling against his own eroticism.AVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1
- DirectorMannus FrankenJoris IvensRegen is an experimental documentary film directed by Joris Ivens in 1929. It can be defined as a cinematic-poem. In 2021 Breve Storia Del Cinema restored the film with a new score composed by Nikolas Labrinakos.AVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1
- DirectorRalph SteinerA study on water, the reflections and motions of the liquid that accentuates its ethereality and metallic beauty.AVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1
- DirectorRoger BarlowHarry HayLeRoy RobbinsStarsRoger BarlowHarry HayHy HirshThree fellows dream of prize money and a chance for a real Hollywood contract by winning the Liberty-Pete Smith amateur movie contest. They work on a script, as their wastebasket and ashtrays fill. They head outside to shoot: down a manhole, up a telephone pole, through a keyhole, and at night using binoculars. Next they must edit their film, then it's time for a first screening of their product, "The Afternoon of a Rubberband." It's a montage of experimental images, including a razor blade cutting various objects, a baby in a cooking pot, and a snail in the path of a steamroller. After the screening, the boys wonder if that was their only shot at Hollywood fame.AVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA VOL. 1