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.