Wednesday, 23 January 2013

Context of Practise: Lecture Notes- "Avante-Garde Cinema"

Wednesday 23rd January 2013
'Avante-Garde Cinema' Lecture Notes
Richard Miles

- Opposition to Mainstream Cinema
- Doesn't get shown to a wider, mainstream audience
- It doesn't include Plots, it's non-linear, non-figurative and has no coherent narrative
- Open rather than Closed
- Poses questions rather than answers
- Audience creates their own meaning- requires a different kind of spectatorship
- Difficult to define- encompasses a lot of different genres and aspects

"Un Chien Andalon" (1929) by Luis Bunuel
- One of the most important pieces of cinema
- Was influential and seen as a starting point to radical cinema
- Bunuel was aided with the content by Salvador Dali
- Music provides jaunty atmosphere
- Fashionable to read the scenes in a Freudian way- Showing repression

"Cremaster Cycle- Cremaster 3" (2002) by Matthew Barney
- Example of contemporary Avante-Garde thats still going on today
- Conceptual
- Surreal, Linear and has Visual Metaphors
-  Guggenheim Museum Building- Barney climbs up the building

"Spirals" (1926) by Oskar Fischinger
- Minimalist cinema
- No people and based on visuals
- Sensory overload
- Playing with optical illusion and colour theory
- Pioneer of Abstract Cinema

"Lapis" (1966) by James Whitney
- Famous American Avante-Garde director
- Abstract film that modulated/ changed at the same time as the human brainwave at rest
- Cosmic vibe- our role in the universe?

-Lyrical Abstract film- Romantic and Poetic approach to creating abstractions

"Black Ice" (1994)by Stan Brakhage
- Handmade, Analogue Process
- Works on top of the film

"Mothlight" (1963) by Stan Brakhage
- Uses an actual moths wing as the overlay before chopping up and piecing the film together
- "Hypnogogier"- The state between sleeping and watching
                            -Trying to create a half-concious state
                            - Juxtaposes, Blurry affects

"Empire" by Andy Warhol
- 10 and a half hours of looking at the same thing (THe Empire State Building) using a static camera

Conclusion:
- Challenging and Radical Cinema
- Takes the idea of cinema and looks at the medium from a fresh angle
- Honesty and Integrity as they are not made for the money
- Outside Capitalism- Not shown as it isn't for making money

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