List of avant-garde films of the 1940s
A list of avant-garde and experimental films released in the 1940s.
Title | Director | Cast | Nation | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1941 | ||||||
Moods of the Sea | Slavko Vorkapić, John Hoffman | United States | Black & white, sound (Felix Mendelssohn: The Hebrides (overture)[1] | |||
Who Has Been Rocking My Dream Boat | Kenneth Anger | United States | Lost film.[2] | |||
1942 | ||||||
By Night with Torch and Spear | Joseph Cornell | United States | ||||
Lambeth Walk - Nazi Style | Charles A. Ridley | United Kingdom | British propaganda short, which "remixes" marching Nazis to a pop song.[3] | |||
Tinsel Tree | Kenneth Anger | United States | Lost film[4] | |||
Variations on a Circle | James Whitney (filmmaker) | United States | Color, silent. Abstract animation, shot in 8mm. [5] | |||
1943 | ||||||
Allegretto | Oskar Fischinger | United States | Abstract animation, color, sound. Third version, completed in 1943[6] | |||
The Geography of the Body | Willard Maas | Willard Maas, Marie Menken | United States | Film poem, text written and read by George Barker (poet)[7][8] | ||
Meshes of the Afternoon | Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid | Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid | United States | Black & white; sound by composer Teiji Ito added in 1959. Established the movement known as "New American Cinema."[9][10] | ||
The Witch's Cradle | Maya Deren, Marcel Duchamp | Marcel Duchamp, Pajarito Matta | United States | Black & white; silent. Never finished; survives as workprint or gathering of trims.[11][12] | ||
1944 | ||||||
At Land | Maya Deren | Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid, Parker Tyler, John Cage | United States | [13] | ||
1945 | ||||||
The Eye and the Ear | Stefan Themerson, Franciszka Themerson | United Kingdom | ||||
Le Vampire | Jean Painlevé | France | ||||
Out-Takes From a Study in Choreography for Camera | Maya Deren | Talley Beatty | United States | [14] | ||
A Study in Choreography for Camera | Maya Deren | Talley Beatty | United States | [15] | ||
Visual Variations on Noguchi | Marie Menken | United States | [16] | |||
1946 | ||||||
The Potted Psalm | Sidney Peterson, James Broughton | Beatrix Perry, Harry Honig | United States | Live action surrealist short.[17] | ||
Ritual in Transfigured Time | Maya Deren | Maya Deren, Rita Christiani, Frank Westbrook, Anaïs Nin | United States | [18] | ||
1947 | ||||||
The Cage | Sidney Peterson | United States | [citation needed] | |||
Dreams That Money Can Buy | Hans Richter | Max Ernst | United States | [19] | ||
Fireworks | Kenneth Anger | Kenneth Anger, Bill Seltzer, Gordon Gray | United States | [20] | ||
Forest Murmurs | Slavko Vorkapić, John Hoffman | United States | Black & white, sound; made for MGM, but withheld from release. Jacobs dates it to 1941; most other sources give 1947.[21] | |||
Lady in the Lake | Robert Montgomery | Robert Montgomery, Audrey Totter | United States | [22] | ||
Motion Painting No. 1 | Oskar Fischinger | United States | [23] | |||
Private Life of a Cat | Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid | United States | ||||
Le Tempestaire | Jean Epstein | France | ||||
Transmutation | Jordan Belson | United States | Belson's first film, shown at Art in Cinema screenings in San Francisco in the early '50s; lost film.[24] | |||
1948 | ||||||
Du sang, de la volupté et de la mort | Gregory Markopoulos | United States | Color, 70 min. Begun in Los Angeles in 1947; finished in Toledo, Ohio. In three parts: Psyche, Lysis & Charmides.[25] | |||
In the Street | Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb, James Agee | United States | Silent; sound version issued in 1952 [26][27] | |||
Meditation on Violence | Maya Deren | Chao Li Chi | United States | [28] | ||
The Petrified Dog | Sidney Peterson | Gail Randall, Marie Hirsh, Jo Landor | United States | [29][30] | ||
Weegee's New York | Weegee | United States | [31][32] | |||
1949 | ||||||
Christmas, U.S.A. | Gregory Markopoulos | United States | [citation needed] | |||
The Lead Shoes | Sidney Peterson | United States | [citation needed] | |||
Medusa | Maya Deren | United States | [33] | |||
Pacific 231 | Jean Mitry | France | [34] | |||
Puce Moment | Kenneth Anger | United States | [35] |
Notes
- ^ Horak, Jan Christopher (1995). Lovers of Cinema: The First American Film Avant-Garde, 1919-1945. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 38. ISBN 0-299-14680-4.
- ^ Sitney, P. Adams (2002). Visionary Film: The American Avant Garde 1943-2000 third edition. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 84. ISBN 0-19-514885-1.
- ^ Public Domain Review, "Lambeth Walk - Nazi Style" [1]
- ^ Lewis, David. "Tinsel Tree". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
- ^ Los Angeles Filmforum, "Alternative Projections: John Whitney" [2]
- ^ Oskar Fischinger Filmography [3]
- ^ P. Adams Sitney, "Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde 1943–2000. Oxford University Press, 2002 pg. 75
- ^ Lewis, David. "Geography of the Body". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
- ^ MOMA Object Page [4]
- ^ Lux Entry [5] Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Dangerous Minds: ‘The Witch’s Cradle’: Watch Maya Deren and Marcel Duchamp’s stunning occult short [6]
- ^ Charney, Leo. "Meshes of the Afternoon". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
- ^ Lewis, David. "At Land". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
- ^ Lewis, David. "A Study in Choreography for Camera". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
- ^ Lewis, David. "A Study in Choreography for Camera". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
- ^ Lewis, David. "Visual Variations on Noguchi". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
- ^ [7] MUBI entry
- ^ Lewis, David. "Ritual in Transfigured Time". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
- ^ Erickson, Hal. "Dreams That Money Can Buy". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
- ^ Crow, Jonathan. "Fireworks". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
- ^ Lewis Jacobs, "Experimental Cinema in America II," Hollywood Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 3, Spring 1948, reprinted in Smoodin, Eric Loren; Martin, Ann (2002). Hollywood Quarterly: Film Culture in Postwar America, 1945-1957. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. p. 43. ISBN 0-520-23274-7.
- ^ Jake Hinkson -- Through the Camera's Eye: Experiments with Subjective Camera in Film Noir [8]
- ^ "Motion Painting No. 1". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
- ^ Experimental Cinema -- Jordan Belson [9]
- ^ Harvard Film Archive Markopoulos retrospective [10]
- ^ "In the Street". Film, Video. Library of Congress. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
- ^ "In the Street". Little Fugitive / In the Street / Quiet One. UCLA Library Film & Television Archive. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
- ^ "Mediation on Violence". allmovie. Rovicorp. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
- ^ The Worldwide Celluloid Massacre review [11]
- ^ The Sound of Eye: The Petrified Dog [12]
- ^ Visionary Film: Weegee [13]
- ^ ICP: Weegee's New York [14]
- ^ Lewis, David. "Medusa". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
- ^ "Pacific 231". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
- ^ Lewis, David. "Puce Moment". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
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