History of Avant-garde Film

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Course Description

This course will examine the evolution of avante-garde film over the course of the 20th century. Students will become acquainted with nearly all strains of avante-garde film (i.e. cinéma pur, non-objective film, surrealist´ film, formal film, structural/material film, found-footage film, assemblage and collage film etc.) with the objective of demonstrating the vast possibilities of film language (filmic devices, film technique, methods of montage or animation, etc) in non-narrative cinema. Each lesson is accompanied by various examples screened on DVD or VHS.

The whole course is divided in two parts:

Part A – A Historical overview of Film Avant-garde during the 20th century

Part B – The Seven faces of the Avant-garde - detailed analysis of diverse strains of Avant-garde film

This course will examine the evolution of avante-garde film over the course of the 20th century. Students will become acquainted with nearly all strains of avante-garde film (i.e. cinéma pur, non-objective film, surrealist´ film, formal film, structural/material film, found-footage film, assemblage and collage film etc.) with the objective of demonstrating the vast possibilities of film language (filmic devices, film technique, methods of montage or animation, etc) in non-narrative cinema. Each lesson is accompanied by various examples screened on DVD or VHS.

The whole course is divided in two parts:

Part A – A Historical overview of Film Avat-garde during the 20th century

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1.Avant-garde of the 20s–30s (1st Avantgarde, der Absolute Film - Hans Richter, Walther Ruttmann, Oskar Fischinger, cinéma pur: Man Ray, René Clair, Fernand Léger, the others: Joris Ivens, Alexandre Alexeieff, hand-made film: Len Lye etc.)

2.Avant-garde of the 40s–50s ( 2nd Avantgarde, forunderground film, Trance film and The San Francisco Renaissance etc.)

3.Avant-garde of the 60s (3rd Avantgarde, Underground film, New American Cinema, Jonas Mekas – leading person of an American avant-garde; German experimental film)

4.Avant-garde of the 70s–90s (Recycling and recycled Avantgarde, expanded cinema, Schmelzdahin, Alte Kinder, Mathias Müller, Stan Brakhage, Peter Tscherkassky, Martin Arnold, Marcus Bergner, ARF ARF, etc.)

Part B – The Seven faces of the Avant-garde - detailed analysis of diverse strains of Avant-garde film.

1.Absolute Film (Der Absolute Film, Walther Ruttmann: Painting in the medium of time, Hans Richter, Viking Eggeling, Oskar Fischinger, Harry Smith, James & John Whitney, Jordan Belson, Stan Brakhage etc.)

2.Pure Film (cinema pur, Man Ray, Henri Chomette, René Clair, Fernand Léger, Alexandre Alexeieff, Stan Brakhage, Thomas Mank, Hans Richter etc)

3.Avant-garde Film in the narrower sense (René Clair, Trance film and The San Francisco Renaissance, Maya Deren & Alex Hammid: Meshes of the Afternoon, Maya Deren At Land; Kenneth Anger: Fireworks, Rabbit´s Moon, Scorpio Rising,; Sidney Peterson: The Cage, The Lead Shoes, Robert Frank Pull My Daisy, Shirley Clarke; Mythopoetical films – Stan Brakhage: Dog Star Man)

4.Assemblage Film (Collage Films, Stan Vanderbeek, Robert Breer, Larry Jordan, Stan Brakhage: Dog Star Man)

5.Found- footage Film (Bruce Conner, Malcolm Le Grice, Martin Arnold, Matthias Muller, Boris Kazakov etc.)

6.Structural Film (The Viennese Formal Film: Peter Kubelka, Kurt Kren, etc. The American Structural Film: Paul Sharits, Michael Snow, Tony Conrad, etc.)

7.Spontaneous Film (instant structuring of the reality, flash and freeze, film as a diary, Marie Menken, Jonas Mekas, Kurt Kren, etc.)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students will:

-understand the basic periods of historical “development” of Film Avant-garde during the 20th century

-explain the terms from historical point of view (First Avant-garde, Second or Forunderground Avant-garde, Third Avant-garde or Underground Film, Expanded cinema, „Recycled and recycling“ Avant-garde)

-explain and analyse the specific branches („faces“) of the Film Avant-garde (absolute film, pure film, narrative avant-garde film, trance film, assemblage film, found-footage film, structural film, metric film, spontaneous film etc)

Prerequisites and other requirements

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Literature

SITNEY, P. A. Visionary Film. New York: Oxford Univ. Pr., 1974.

LEGRICE, Malcolm. Abstract Film and Beyond. London, 1977.

PETERSON, James. Dreams of Chaos, Visions of Order: Understanding the American Avant-Garde Cinema. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994.

Evaluation methods and criteria

Class Attendance and participation: mandatory in order to pass the course.

Written Exam: a test, which will examine students’ basic knowledge of the material covered in class.

Note

The subject is not taught every year. The subject is taught at least once every three academic years.

Further information

No schedule has been prepared for this course

The subject is a part of the following study plans

• Montage_2020 (Required elective subjects)
• Cinema and Digital Media - Directing (Required elective subjects)