I chose to write about the article Cinema and the Avant-Garde by A.L. Rees mainly because I find avant-garde film fascinating and I thought it was very interesting to learn more about it in this article. However I do not think that the article went in depth enough about the movement or the people. It was sort of like plunging into the middle of a conversation and you don’t know everyone they are talking about. There were some descriptions of certain movies and general ideas, but some of the names mentioned were not explored greatly, and the movies were mostly generalized. I suppose if I had seen the movies prior to reading the article, it would have been easier to understand why certain movies had different impacts. The article talked a lot about the avant-garde in other forms of art, and quoted Louis Aragon: “(cinema must have) a place in the avant-garde’s preoccupations. They have designers, painters, sculptors. Appeal must be made to them if one wants to bring some purity to the art of movement and light.” This quote seems to be in scorn of the typical Hollywood type of cinema, saying that only through the avant-garde will cinema have ‘purity.’ I think that what he means is that cinema will only have purity as an art form this way. Avant-garde film is certainly more artistic than most film, but I believe that other forms of cinema can be artistic as well, but perhaps at the time when these films were the most popular, they were also the most clearly artistic. The avant-garde films are somewhat like moving paintings or collages, especially in Dadaist films. There are many different types of film within the avant-garde, such as the Dadaist films, and cubist films, but none are covered very fully in the article. This article was focused mostly on the history of avant-garde rather than what it actually was, and I think it would have been overall more interesting if it were a combination of them both. However the article was successful in that it made me even more curious and interested in avant-garde film, and would really love to see some of the films that were discussed in the article.
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Sam, I couldn't agree with you more about how frustrating it can be to read about the history of art/film and not have a chance to see/experience it. I hope that seeing some of the work in class provided some more context and helped you gain a perspective on the art of the avant-garde. I would also strongly recommend that you take your interest in avant-garde art and cinema and research it independently. There is nothing like seeing the work itself and getting to experience it for yourself. There are many different compilations available (and yes, you can find some really lo-res excerpts on YouTube as a starting point). Let me know if I can help point you in a direction.
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