Avant-Garde as A Simple Form

Despite my dislike for avant-garde style cinema, I can respect it for its form and it’s acquired taste. The reading discusses, “commercial cinema approached the condition of synaesthesia with the aid of sound and toned or tinted colour, echoing in popular form the ‘total work of art’ of Wagnerianism and art nouveau, modernism looked towards non-narrative directions in film form.”-96
I found this excerpt to challenge me to think more openly about why I have issues with non-narrative forms of cinema. I thought about dogme style film and how it’s lack of narrative is still artistic. Yet watching films like Man With a Movie Camera and Un Chien Adalou are difficult for me to view. The reading also discusses how editing played a major role with avante-garde. I understand that rhythmic editing transcended the style and that although I don’t appreciate the style as a whole, these small revolutionaries are contributers to cinema on a larger scale.
As an aspiring filmmaker, I try to look beyond my own predetermined viewpoints on the matter. I began thinking about how I feel about abstract art and other art-forms I find difficult to appreciate. It’s difficult for me to accept a piece of art that resembles something a child would scribble as a thoughtful masterpiece. I always feel that it’s a “flakey cop-out” that purposely avoids displaying any real talent. I realize this opinion may be offensive to some, and I understand that there are more ways to express an idea or feeling other than a linear explanation. However, I feel as a viewer, the artist is responsible for explaining what that feeling is, even if it’s open to interpretation. Surrealism is another form that comes to mind and is also mentioned in the reading. I expect surrealism without a narrative to be appealing to the eye, so that when it’s over I don’t need an explanation. I can accept the piece as a collection of artwork and not have to understand it. Perhaps that is why I found it difficult to stay focused on the two films, I didn’t find it quite visually appealing.
I suppose I can conclude that avant-garde isn’t for me, however there is no reason why we can’s coexist. I don’t have a hatred towards it, I just don’t feel any attraction to it, perhaps we can just be friends.
The word I decided to look up is avant-garde. I figured that if I was going to decide I didn’t care for it, I should know it’s full definition.
Avant-garde = advance guard or vanguard
Definition: Means pushing of the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm or status quo, primarily in the cultural realm. The notion of existence of the avant-garde is considered by some to be a hallmark of modernism, as distinct from postmodernism. Many artists have aligned themselves with the avant-garde movement and have continued to do so. Tracing a history from Dada through the Situationists to postmodern artists such as the Language poets in the 1980’s.
-Wikipedia