Discovering Pure Cinema: avant-garde film in the 20's
Afterimage, Summer 1980, v. 8, no. 1 & 2, pp. 4-7
This article provides a broad survey of avant-garde cinema during the 1920’s, encompassing everything from early abstract animations, documentary, dada, surrealism, and even scientific films. Focusing primarily on films made in the USSR, France, and Germany, Jan-Christopher Horak documents the impulse towards cinèma pur and how it influenced various historically significant directors.
ITEM 1980.061 – available for viewing in the Research Centre
Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited
Fièvre – Germaine Dulac
La Roue – Abel Gance
Les Mystères de Chateau de Dés – Man Ray
L'Age D'Or – Luis Buñuel
Blood of the Poet – Jean Cocteau
Color, Movement, and Rhythm – Léopold Survage
Horizontal-Vertical Orchestration – Viking Eggeling
Diagonal-Symphony – Viking Eggeling
Prelude – Hans Richter
Rhythmus 21 and 23 – Hans Richter
Filmscore Comp/ 11/22 – Hans Richter
Opus I – Walter Ruttman
Opus II-IV – Walter Ruttman
Ballet Mécanique – Fernand Léger
Studies 1-4 – Walter Ruttman
Film Study – Hans Richter
Anémic Cinéma – Marcel Duchamp
Emak Bakia – Man Ray
Jeux des Reflets et de la Vitesse – Henri Chomette
Impatience – Charles Dekeukeleire
Entr'acte – René Clair
Ghosts Before Breakfast – Hans Richter
L'Etoile de Mer – Man Ray
La Coquille et le Clergyman – Germaine Dulac
Un Chiel Andalou – Luis Buñuel
La Fille d'Eau – Jean Renoir
La Petite Marchande d'Allumettes – Jean Renoir
La P'tite Lili – Alberto Cavalcanti
Kino-Pravda – Dziga Vertov
The Great Way – Esfir Shub
Rien que les Heures – Alberto Cavalcanti
Tour au Large – Jean Grémillon
Études de Paris – George Lacombe
La Tour – René Clair
Finis Terrae – Jean Epstein
Berlin, Symphony of a City – Walter Ruttman
Inflation – Hans Richter
Berlin from Below – Alex Strasser
In the Shadow of Machines – Albrecht Viktor Blum
Rain – Joris Ivens
Branding – Manus Franken
IK-Film – Hans van Meerten
Hoogstraat – Andreas von Barsy
Zuidersee – John Ferno
De Bruggen – Paul Schuitema
The Russia of Nicholas II and Leo Tolstoi – Esfir Shub
The Fall of the Romanovs – Esfir Shub
Man with the Movie Camera – Dziga Vertov
Rien que les Heures – Alberto Cavalcanti
La Marche de Machines – Eugène Deslav
Triumph of the Will – Leni Riefenstahl
De Brug – Joris Ivens
The Lady with the Mask – Wilhelm Thiele
Renn-symphony – Hans Richter
Drifters – John Greirson
Voyage au Congo – March Allegret
Nanook of the North – Robert J. Flaherty
La Croisière Noire – Leon Poirier
Chang – Merien C. Cooper, Ernst B. Schoedsack
Pamir, Roof of the World – Vladimir Scheiderov
Crystals – Jan C. Mol
Life in a Waterdrop – Jan C. Mol
The Growth of Flowers – Jan C. Mol
Cinq Minutes de Cinéma Pur – Henri Chomette
Octopi – Jean Painlevé
Sea-Urchins – Jean Painlevé
Original Forms of Art – Karl Blossfeldt