1. French Avant-Garde

2. Goal: to explore cinema as art
Considered a cinema of “intellectuals for intellectuals”
Inspired by Marx and Freud
A collective movement
Three distinct types of films made at onset…

3. Short Dadaist/surrealist films anti-conventional, absurdist
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

5. Short naturalistic psychological studies
stressed idea that an individual’s fate is determined by heredity and environment, not free will
La Fille de L'eau (dream) (1925)

6. Feature-length films
very ambitious in scope, length, and visual effect
ex: Napoleon (1927) and The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

7. Beginning of experimental film…