Avant-Garde Film

by Alexander Graf (Editor), Dietrich Scheunemann (Editor)

This volume on avant-garde film has emerged as part of a wider reassessment of 20th century avant-garde art, literature and film carried out in the framework of a research project at the University of Edinburgh. It paves the way for a fresh assessment of avant-garde film and develops its theory as an integral part of a newly defined conception of the avant-garde as a whole, by closing the gap between theoretical approaches towards the avant-garde as defined on the basis of art and literature on the one hand and avant-garde cinema on the other. It gathers contributions by the most esteemed scholars in the field of avant-garde studies relating to the "classical" avant-garde cinema of the 1920s, to new trends emerging in the 1950s and 1960s and to the impact that innovative technologies have recently had on the further development of avant-garde and experimental film. The contributions reflect the broad range of different moving-image media that make up what we refer to today simply as "film", at the same time as reconsidering the applicability of the label "avant-garde", to offer a comprehensive and updated framework that will prove invaluable to scholars of both Moving Image Studies and Art History disciplines. Contents** Preface** Abstraction, Surrealism, The Cinema of the Historical Avant-Garde ** R. BRUCE Hans Richter and Viking The Dream of Universal Language and the Birth of The Absolute Film** A.L. Frames and Visual Space in Abstract Cinema** Alexander Berlin - On the Montage Aesthetic in the City Symphony Films of the 1920s** Rudolf E. Man Ray's From Dada to Surrealism** Michael On Mário Peixoto's Limite** Tami M. Dancing with Choreographies of Gender in the Cinema of Germaine Dulac** Marina Futurism** Post-War American and European Experiments ** Maureen The Interiority of Desire and Maya Deren** Inez Stan Brakhage's Film The Four Faust Films** William Light-Play and the Aesthetics of Avant-Garde Film** Yvonne Paul from Cinematic Movement to Non-directional Motion** Pierre Changes in experimental filmmaking between the 1920s and the 1960 On Luis Buñuel** Bart KEUNEN and Sascha It's a Kind of World Construction in French Surrealist and Belgian Magical Realist Fiction and Cinema** Nicky Peter Kubelka's Arnulf Rainer** Tania Ø Danish Avant-Garde Filmmakers of the 1960 Technology, Cross-aesthetics and Politics** New Technologies and Media The Contemporary Avant-garde Film** Martine French Experimental the Figural and the Formless - Nicolas Rey's Terminus for you (1996) and Pip Chodorov's Charlemagne 2: Piltzer (2002) ** Frédérique The Stammering on recent French and Austrian Film Experiments** Ursula BÖ Inscriptions of Light and The 'Calligraphy of Decay': Volatile Representation in Bill Morrison's Decasia** Günter From Video Art to Video The Work of Ulrike Rosenbach** Margit New Media and Feminist Valie Export's Medial Anagrams** Jonathan The Paracinema of Anthony McCall and Tony Conrad** List of Illustrations** About the Authors** Index**

420 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2007

Reviews

[Nicolò Grasso · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extensive series of essays that examine the historical relevance and impact of avant-garde filmmaking, from the early silent films of Walter Ruttmann and Man Ray, surrealist pieces from Maya Deren, experimental documentaries of Shirley Clarke, to the impossible-to-categorize works of Stan Brakhage and the paracinema of Anthony McCall. A must-read if you are fascinated by truly unconventional cinema, and a great way to discover many new directors.