C ON TEN TS

acknowledgements
preface

1 the avant-gardefitm: definitions l

2 the 1920s,the europeanavant-gardes g

A WallftowerBook 3 the 1920s'sovietexperiments 26

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ColumbiaUniversityPress 4 the 1920sand 1930s:
britishavant-garde
fitm 38
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 TH EA VANT- G ARDE
FI LM :DEFI NI TI O NS

Therehas beenlittle agreement amonghistorians or artistsas to what

is meantby the term 'avant-garde' in relationto fitm. lan Christiejustty
remarks thatit is'anessentiatly contested concept, alwaysopento dispute
or redefinition' Q998:+Sa).Likeothers,I haveoftenavoidedthe problem
of definitionby pointingwith a Wittgensteinian flourishto the tradition
commonlyunderstoodby mostwriterson the subject(O'Prayry96).This
meansfudgededgesand in somecasesexclusions and inclusions (often
excludedare SergeiEisenstein, Jean-Luc Godard,Surrealism, to namea
few controversiaI cases).Of course,it is at thesecontestedfringesthat the
issueof whatthetermmeansis forceduponus,servingat leastto remind
us that filmsareraretymadeto complyto rigidcategories or evensocial,
potiticat or culturalagendas.
A furtherquestionis: Whydoesthe term'avant-garde' surviveas a viable
termin relationto film and notto othervisualarts?Therearemanyanswers
to this.Themostpotentmaybe the simplehistoricalfactthat this kind of
film-making remains, to this day,marginal to the ccimmercialcinemaand
art worldalike.Unlikepainting,wherethe avant-garde rapidlybecamethe
mainstream and wherenoveltyand newformsnow seema necessary part
of its institutional
framework, cinemaremainsa poputarcommercial artwith
a massaudience. As GitbertoPerezremarks,'a tastefor the moviesis still
relatively unburdened eitherby the flatteryof betonging to an aristocracyof
tasteor bythe intimidation of notbetonging' (1998:z8).
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I
the fitm-makerswho makeup the avant-garde film-maker StanBrakhage haswrittensympathetically aboutCar[Theodor
Withinthis perspective
to theirmainstream
different Dreyer, D.W.Griffiths andF.W Murnau,andthe famousAnthotogy Archive
areproducing fitmswhicharefundamentatty
intensetypersonaland using quite different set up by avant-gardists inctudedthe samefilm-makers and morein its
counterparts- no-budget,
MurraySmithsumsit up well:
circuits. canon(Brakha ge Lg77iSitney1975).lt is an awkwardfactthat all of these
andexhibition
distribution
typesof cinema- mainstream, art cinemaandthe avant-garde - layclaim
is an 'artisanal'or 'personal'mode'Avant-garde to art. Butthesetypesof cinemaare primarity categories of practiceand
The avant-garde
or verysma[[groupsof co[[abo- not necessarily dividedby differentcategories of whataccountsfor orf.
fitmstendto be madeby individuats
aloneor in combination I woutdliketo makea verygeneratdistinction between film-makers who
rators,financedeitherby the fitm-makers
patronage and grants from arts institutions.such films haveborrowedan avant-garde attitude,subiect-matter or desirefromthe
with private
fitm co-operatives, and exhibitedby moreestablished visual(at timestiterary)avant-gardes of paintingand
are usualtydistributedthrough
museums, anduniversities. (1998: 395) sculpture, andthosewho havepitchedtheirtentswithinthe filmtradition
fitmsocieties,
itself.Theformer(e.g.HansRichter, WalterRuttman, MalcolmLe Grice)
traditionof their own,one quiteobviouslyhavea clarityof ambitionand of visuallook not shared
lmportantly, they also form a quiteseparate
by the tatter (e.9. Maya Deren,KennethAngefl. lt also suggestsquite
whichthis bookaddresses.
.avant-garde' also raisesthe controversial question differentmomentsof avant-gardism - for Richteref al. the notionof the
Thenotionof the
avant-garde is one sharedwith wetl-established art formslike painting,
of value.A classicaccountwas that of the art criticclementGreenberg
andthe kifsch,which musicandpoetry.ForAnger andothersit is oneearnedagainstthe steady
(1992)who dividedthe artwortdintothe avant-garde
fitms,and where aesthetic value attached to the for- momentous flowof mainstream cinema. Thisis simplyto acknowledge the
inctudedHotly_wood
is renowned for its opposition to mainstream factthat cinemaby and largeescapedmodernism (butnot modernity) in
mer.Thefilm avant-garde
to the kitsch the twentiethcenturyand yet, in the nameof entertainment, produced
cinema,whoseartisticvatueit hasdeniedand hasassigned
metodramatic and banat. This critique is often couched artists- AtfredHitchcock, JohnFord,FritzLangand JeanRenoir,to name
- the sentimental,
film-maker's meagre artisticcontrol and conse- but a few.
in termsof the mainstream
andbanalities of ideotogy demand- lf we do acknowledge an avant-garde thenwe needto considerwhat
quentsubservience to theconventions
Buthistoricatty thisantagonism is notso clearcut. it is the avant-garde of. In art historythe term'avant-garde'was originally
ed by a massaudience.
film-makers have eschewed the commerciat fietd.on usedto describeFrenchpaintingof the earlydecadesof the nineteenth
Not att avant-garde
on it for financiat reasons and evenfor century(Nochlinry6). lt represented an aesthetically and politicaily
the contrary,theyhaveoftenrelied
Forexample,
it offered. the early abstract anima- motivated attackon traditional ar:tanditsvalues.Borrowed fromsocialist
the creativeopportunities
fitmsin the rgzosandwasinvolved, potiticsin the sameperiod,'avant-garde' is a mititaryterm denotingan
tor oskarFischinger madeadvertising
masterpiece Fantasia(t94t)' advanced groupforgingan assaulton the enemyaheadofthe mainarmy.
atbeitbriefly,in Disney's kitsch
W i thfi tmi n mi nd,we m ayaskwhor epr esentt he s m ainar m yandwhot he
B ut a v a n t.g a rd e fi tm .m a k e rs ti k e JackS mi thandJeffK eenhavece[e-
Hottywgod its tackier
cinema,especialty enemy? Themainarmycouldbe the 'true'ideaof cinemaand film itself
bratedaspectsof the mainstream
.kitsch'end.Avant-garde film-makers haveatsoembraced - or at least andthe enemy, the dom inant t r adit ional
cinem a. O rt he m ainar m ycould
- what is catled 'art cinema" whichhas combined be mainstream cinema,andthe avant-garde its advanced groupforaging
beensympathetic to
The American
arch-avant-garde for newtechniques, formsof expression and subiect-matter.
artisticambitionwith commerciatism.
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However, the term'avant-garde' is commonly encountered in the con- doesnot referto it at att,evenmanaging to discussAndyWarhotwithout
text of twentieth-century modernism. lt describesmodernism's founding mentioning hisfilmwork.
momentsin art movements likefuturism, dada and cubism. This has led Historiansand criticsof the fitm avant-garde havethemselves been
to the two terms- avant-garde and modernism - beingtreatedas syn- extremely waryof the term.Of the classicaccounts of suchfilm-making,
onymous.But,as PautWiltemen argues,the avant-garde imptiesa set of onlyP.AdamsSitney(rgZg)hasembraced the notion,evenif identifying it
historicalrelations... in the
contrast, notionof modernism reduces artistic withwhathe calls'visionary film'.ScottMacDonald hasalsooptedfor the
practiceto a setofformal procedures (tgg+t t+Z)' $ term'avant-garde' arguingthat it hasthe 'widestcurrency' and 'is gener-
ForWillemen, modernism is morelikea periodstyle,suchas cubismor i allyunderstood to refertoan ongoinghistorythathasbeenarticulated in
impressionism, whilean avant-garde denotesa historicalmomentof spe- 1
differentwaysin differentplaces'(1993:16).ForLauraMulvey(1996),the
and
cificactivities practices not necessarilyassociated with anyparticular t
film avant-garde is to be understood at timesas beingthe 'negation'of
artisticstyteor strategy.Raymondwiltiamsacceptsthe difficuttyof easity dominantcinema.DavidCurtis,A.L.Reesand otherssettledfor'experi-
distinguishing modernism but suggests:
fromthe avant-garde, mental'(Curtisr97r; Rees1999),a termthatwasalsopopularin Britainin
the r94os(seeManvelt1949).Yetthe problemwith identifyingavant-garde
Modernism hasproposed a newkind of art for a newkindof social as experimentat fitm is that experiment protiferated as we mightexpect
and perceptualworld.Theavant-garde, aggressive from the begin- underthe conditions of the new medium,for exampleTheBig Swallow
ning,sawitsetfas a breakthroughto the future:its memberswere"' (Williamson's Kinematograph Co.,c.r9ot).Experiment is markedin com-
whichwouldreviveand liberatehuman-
the militantsof a creativity mercialmainstream film-making too. In fact,Eisenstein admittedto the
ity.(r989:sr) innovations of Griffithsfor his own film ideas.Equally, experiment tends
to denotechangesin technique, in methodology; it doesnot heraldan
Whilemodernism dominates the twentieth-century art world,thereare a avant-gardism but simptyprovides traditional cinemawith morevarietyof
finitenumberof avant-gardes and not attof themarenecessarily espous- expression. Theexperimental tag alsosuggests tentativeness and quasi-
ingthe cause of modernism - surrealism is a case in point. scientificrationalistmotivation.lt fails to capture,and in fact seemsto
AndreasHuyssen ctaimsthat the avant-garde is primarilya historicat exclude,the passionsand spontaneity involvedin manyof the fitmsit
term.denotinga particutar short-tived periodwhoseradicalismcannot purportsto cover.Similarly, experiment doesnot implyradicalsociaIor
be repeatedthanksto the repressive toleranceof 'Westernmassmedi- potiticatideasoftenassociated with the avant-gardes. In fact,experimen-
ated cutture in alt its manifestations from Hollywoodfilm, television, tal techniques areto be foundin the conservative film traditionusedfor
advertising, industrialdesign,and architecture to the aesthetization of equallyconservative ends.
technology and commodityaesthetics' (1986: rS). This introduces the Furthermore, ShetdonRenanand ParkerTylerboth used the term
distinction betweenthe notionof the 'avant-garde' usedas referring to a 'underground' (Renan1967;Tyler974); DavidE. James,in his political
moment
oarticularhisforical and one denoting a krnd of or
activity practice. contextualisation of the postwarAmerican film avant-garde settledforthe
ForHuyssen, any potentialgenuineavant-garde, as opposedto the neo- distinctionbetweena potiticaland an aesthetic film avant-garde flames
avant-gardes encountered in contemporary art' wouldmorelikelyoccur 1989);whileMalcolmLeGriceoptedfor'formal'and PeterGidalhasused
in non-artpractices outsidethe 'cuttureindustry'.But Huyssen doesnot 'structural-materialist'and latterly'materiatist'(LeGricery76; Gidalry77,
addressthe unique conditions of so called 'avant'garde' film, in fact he 1989).ForMayaDeren,JonasMekasand others,the expression 'poetic

lr
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backto the rgzos(see In recentyears,the contemporary art galteryhas embraced film and
film'wasusedto distinguish a traditionstretching
of video,afterneglecting themfor decades. As such,avant-garde fitm (and
wotf rggT).Eachof thesetermsdenotesa nuance,a certaindifference
(or including)par- video)hasfinaltyjoinedthe othervisual artsin an art mainstream demar-
approach, and at times acts as a means of exctuding
withthe catedby respectable criticaland academicdiscourse. Theirinctusionin
ticularfitms.Forexample, 'underground fitm'is usuallyidentified
it was originally the art museum withattthatthatentaitsin termsof fitm'scommodification
influentialAmerican 'beatgeneration' of the r95os.But
and culturalacceptability signalsthe end of its 'avant-garde' marginality.
used,paradoxically, by the fitm criticMannyFarber(r97r)to describecon-
Butit doesnot necessarity signalthe endof filmsdedicated to contesting
temporary Hollywood 'B' movies.
and overthrowing such'commodification' or'culturalacceptability, - that
'Underground' has also been associated with a social,sexualand
lts is, an avant-garde.
cutturalsub-cultureoperating'beneath'the traditionalmainstream.
lt doesnot In the end, all of thesenomenclatures - avant-garde, underground,
metaphorical importis quitedifferentto that of 'avant-garde'.
European avant-garde it experimental, modernist, independent - sharesomesenseof outside-
suggestattackbut evasion. Untikethe inter-war
happy to carveout ness,of marginality, of independence. And perhaps that is atl that canbe
neverseriously countenanced revolution and seemed
gleaned fromthesedifferent formulations in a shortintroductory book.But
bohemiannichein Americanculture,evenwhen it
its own individuatist
points, this lackof definitionis alsoa measure of the fitmavant-garde's restless-
retationship
meanta conftictual with it. lt hadno Maxistreference
drugsand conscious- ness.Thisbookdoesnot attemptto resolvethe problem. Thatremainsa
but rathera Romanticistexploration of sexuality,
questfor futureresearchers.
lt wasthe
ness-raising. potiticisation
of Europeanfilm-makersin the early
rgToswhichre-introduced the notionof avant-garde the com-
disptacing
m on p l a c e ' u n d e rg ro u n d ' .' r lt is oftenforgotten
thatin theearlyyearsof theBritishavant-garde,
famous
Fina[y,the avant-garde has been traditonatlyunderstoodas a reac- foritsconceptual rigour,theword'underground'was rife(seeO,pray
1996;
tion to realism(Burger1984; Greenbergry92)- But there are problems LeGrice zooz).
in this opposition, for it can be arguedthat film is intrinsicalty'reatist' in
its mechanicat photographic reproductlon of reality(asholdAnd16Bazin,
stanteycavelt,Gilberto Perez). In fact, the outburstof non-live-action
abstractanimationin the Germanavant-garde of the rgzos marksone of
the fewfllm movements to breakalmosttotallywith realism. Butthereare
generalproblems in the association of anti-reatism mod-
with avant-garde
ernism,especially if we treat the reatistaspects of Manet and courbet's
paintings as foundingartefacts of 'modernism' (seeRosen& Zerner1984)'
Equallythe abstraction aesthetics of paintingsin the earlyyearsof the
twentiethcenturyhada senseofthe realin the ancientPlatonic senseof
.reatity'of forms beyond the surfaceimpressions of
therebeinga basic
ordinaryperceptions of the world.In other words, geometricshapes and
coloursthemselves embodied a 'reality'in its mostfundamental sense.