gotta take a step back first. i think you used the term “experimental” a little too casually. define what you mean a little better.
there are experimental films as in alternative films, avant-garde films. which usually means non-narrative, non-feature length films.
When you talk about experimental film I usually think of Jack Smith, Stan Brakhage or Kenneth Anger, not narrative films.
Well, to add to the list, I would include Emperor Tomato Ketchup, Begotten, Brand Upon the Brain, and Careful. I would also recommend anything by Maya Deren, especially Meshes in the Afternoon and Ritual in Transfigured Time. Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising is a definite classic; I also liked Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome
‘Wax or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees’ is a remarkable one. Samuel Beckett’s ‘Film’ is another great one, but La Jetee is probably the most touching of all.
Faust (contemporary version)
Window Water Baby Moving
Lucifer Rising
The Chelsea Girls by Warhol is one of the great films, and one of the most fun moviegoing experiences of my life. I saw it in a tiny screening room with the split-screen and double alternating soundtrack. Very, very strange, but very alive.
Actually, the most seminal “surrealist” film is available on Criterion, unlike most of them: Ent’racte (’24).
And yeah, it’s best to define “experimental.”
Q: Most Experimental Film?
I’d have to say “Crank,” due to its use of heavy filters! Critically lauded and internationally renowned.
BTW: I love the scene where he has to do the girl on the street. Very surreal, with all those Japanese pedestrians taking photos!
Wow, when I think of “Experimental” film, I certainly don’t think of The Thin Red Line! I generally think of filmmakers like:
Oskar Fischinger
Norman McLaren
Hans Richter
Arthur Lipsett
Len Lye
Stan Brakhage
Michael Snow
Man Ray etc. etc….
As for a single film being the most experimental…hmmm…possibly The Cure for Insomnia, which is an 87 hour film consisting of poet Lee Groban reading a 5000 page poem.
“****(Four Stars)” by Andy Warhol in its complete 25-hour form. (Screened once and one only in December 1967)
Peter Kubelka’s stuff is fantastic, I think. He’s not permitting any of it to be released on DVD, at least currently.
The Cell or The Fall by Tarsem, Anything by Satoshi Kon, any jodorowsky, Fellini stuff, can’t think of anymore at this mo….
The Fall by Tarsem?
Wankfest.
Peter Tscherkassky and Martin Arnold. Without doubt.
Their films have fairly distinct narratives, but their aesthetics (found footage, reconfigured into increasingly shocking betrayals of the intent and form of each source) show virtually no trace of mainstream filmmaking. Austria is where it’s at for the avant-garde, nowadays.
Jon Jost’s narrative films are defiantly experimental…. definitely time someone puts them out on pristine DVDs. He might be one of the three or four best American filmmakers of the last 50 years. The Bed You Sleep In and Sure Fire each have more experimentation in a single scene than the entire ouevre of Steven Soderbergh and most of David Lynch’s work have. He’s the real deal and someday we’ll all regret not paying more attention to him while he was active.
Brakhage might be the “most experimental” just because his experiments were so varied.
Let’s not overlook Godard, who has done more for the moving image than any filmmaker since Murnau, Chaplin and Griffith.
And Godard’s favorite filmmaker of the moment: Abbas Kiarostami. A genuine artist, absolutely fearless.
To a lesser extent I would say that Harmony Korine and David Gordon Greene (the former more than the latter) represent mainstream arthouse attempts at more experimental work, though each has “matured” toward more standard fare.
I’d also say that Steven Soderbergh is an experimental mainstream filmmakers, but at the end of the day, his experiments are often facile and his results are jumbled and ugly. (see above)
Patrick, very knowledgeable. I’ve never heard of Jost but I just googled him and I’m very intrigued to see some of his work.
Begotten,
Dir. E. Elias Merhige
the most experimental film ever
Dog Star Man (Brakhage) is the most experimental yet successful (in an artistic, not monetary sense) film that I have ever seen. Window Water Baby Moving is also amazing. Jack Smith’s Flaming Creatures.
I just saw Women In Revolt (Warhol) the other day.
Micah, Women in Revolt is more of a Paul Morrissey film than a Warhol film. Morrissey was Warhol’s protege, who went from assisting Andy behind the camera to directing in the late 60s/early 70s. Morrissey made Flesh, Trash, Heat, Blood for Dracula, Flesh for Frankenstein, and Women in Revolt. Morrissey’s work is slightly more conventional than Warhol’s. He was trying more to “tell stories” rather than just let the camera go on people as they improvised. I think there ends up being a fair amount of improvisation in some of the films — Flesh and Trash, for instance — and some of my favorite actors are in the Morrissey films, like Holly Woodlawn, Andrea Feldman, and of course Little Joe.
Tetsuo: The Iron Man is one of the most experimental films I’ve ever seen.
But, I think I’ll agree with Genaro Navarro.
Gus Van Sandt’s Elephant and Last Days. The experiment didn’t work. A filmmaker should never force people to sit through this kind of shit.
Well then you’ve never sat thorugh much, Joe.
Try Michael Snow’s “La Region Centrale” the next time it plays.
In terms of WTF, I’m personally fond of the Cremaster Cycle…in as much as one CAN be fond of it…
Justin….. if you have netflix, you can watch Jost’s The Bed You Sleep In, streaming…. it’s a masterpiece, pure and simple…. ought to be regarded as an American classic. I was out of town when he came to Chicago with his latest films…. (a friend of mine went and told me there were about ten people there, go figure.)
All the Vermeers in New York and Surefire are also available on DVD…. both good…. but The Bed You Sleep In is one of the few truly original American movies in the past 20 years. He is indebted to no one…. but shares a kinship with Godard, Sirk, Antonioni and Brakhage.
WAX! one of my all time favorite movies. i don’t think i’ve ever been able to get someone else to sit through the whole thing
According to Amazon, a remastered DVD of Guy Maddin’s “Careful” will be issued March 24/09.
And from Amazon, a DVD version of Jost’s “The Bed You Sleep In” is readily available.
On March 3rd/09, a 5-hr DVD collection entitled "Treasures IV: American Avant Garde Film 1947-86 will be released.
Some of the contents:
“Here I Am” (Bruce Baillie) – 1962,
“Aleph” (Wallace Berman),
“The Riddle of Lumen” (Stan Brakhage) – 1972,
“Eyewash” (Robert Breer) -1959,
“Bridges-Go-Round” (Shirley Clarke) – 1958,
“By Night with Torch and Spear” (Joseph Cornell),
“Pey ote Queen” (Storm De Hirsch),
“nostalgia” (Hollis Frampton),
“Fog Line” (Larry Gottheim) – 1970,
“Little Stabs at Happiness” (Ken Jacobs) – 1960,
“Hamfat Asar” (Lawrence Jordan),
“I, an Actress (George Kuchar) – 1970,
“New Improved Institutional Quality” (Owen Land) – 1969,
“Necrology” (Standish Lawder) -1971,
“Note to Patti” (Saul Levine),
“The End” (Christopher Maclaine) -1953,
“Notes on the Circus” (Jonas Mekas) – 1966,
“Go! Go! Go!” (Marie Menken) – 1964,
“The Off-Handed Jape… and How to Pull It Off” (Robert Nelson & William T. Wiley),
“7362” (Pat O’Neill) – 1989,
“Chumlum” (Ron Rice) – 1964,
“Bad Burns” (Paul Sharits) ,
“Odds & Ends” (Jane Conger Belson Shimane),
“Film No. 3: Interwoven” (Chick Strand) – 1979,
“Mario Banana (No. 1)” (Andy Warhol) -1964
I
Tarsem’s The Fall is available on DVD and Blu-Ray
UCLA Film Archive has restored all of the Kenneth Anger films, available on two DVDs.
Fireworks (1947)
Puce Moment (1949)
Rabbit’s Moon (1950, the rarely seen original 16 minute version)
Eaux d’Artifice (1953)
Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954)
Volume One
and
Scorpio Rising (1964)
Kustom Kar Kommandos (1965)
Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969)
Rabbit’s Moon (1979 version)
Lucifer Rising (1981)
Volume Two
Thanks Patrick and Johnh for the tips.
No problem, Juston….
Johnh, I can’t wait for the Treasures box…. I have the first one, which has some really great stuff, but I’m glad they decided to focus on the avant garde now. The only one I’ve seen is I, an Actress….. which is an absolutely fantastic Kuchar flick. It definitely gets the “direction as performance” thing down, a lot of the Kuchar stuff is about the intersection of film directors and their actors. Hold Me While I’m Naked might be the best….. but I, An Actress might be the most succinct variation on this theme.
Kino has two separate box sets featuring international avant garde films (from 1920-1955)….. definitely worth picking up or taking in over a long weekend. They are called Avant Garde and Avant Garde II.
Also, there is a website, ubu.com that specializes in avant garde art….. they have a films page that includes everything from Robbe-Grillet’s films, the Kuchar brothers, Duchamp, John Lennon, Chris Marker, William Burroughs, Ken Jacobs…. and dozens more…. the quality ranges, and I don’t think they have a fullscreen option for the streaming video….. but it’s an invaluable source: http://www.ubu.com/film/
A personal favorite is Can Dialectics Break Bricks? by Rene Vienet
Martin Arnold’s films are unbelievable and are available on googlevideo: three of his best http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7346135205382749153
Watch and spread the word!
Kurt Walker
They don’t have to be good, but lets just compile a list of experimental films for the hell of it, considering they’re the ones that usually fly under public and critical reception.
The Holy Mountain
Dogville
Inland Empire
The Thin Red Line
Eraserhead
Gummo