yo thoughts on my list of best avant-garde films

haha it's probably the one that's the most on the fence, but given how it doesn't really have a linear plot and is more focused on scattered scenes i would be inclined to say it qualifies as experimental at the very least.

Good list. I'm not a fan of Spring Breakers and I absolutely loathed The Idiots, but I love all the other films on there that I have seen.

I've only seen 14 of them, but I like/love just about all. My least favorite on there is definitely Spring Breakers although Goodbye to Language and Prenom: Carmen left me pretty cold too.

I've only seen 15, I dislike quite a few and quite like others. I'd love to hear your definition for avant-garde!

I might make my versions of this as well as your underrated/obscure list

Thanks for your insight, Film Socialism

I've seen excactly half of these, The Tree of Life being my favorite. I didn't "really" like Wavelength, conceptually it is amazing but watching it bored the crap out of me. The rest ranges from good to great.

Most want to see:
-The Hart of London (will do soon)
-Synecdoche, New York
-Out 1 (I have the Rivette box at home, so it will be soon definitely)
-Histoire(s) du cinéma
-Adieu au langage

Passion is probably the Godard I'm currently most excited about watching though.

You should check this out:
-More Maddin (especially My Winnipeg and The Saddest Music in the World)
-More Ruiz (especially Mysteries of Lisbon and Dog's Dialouge)
-Possession (and possibly other stuff from Zulawski)
-Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets (need to check this out myself)
-Stuf from Joris Ivens (Regen, Story of the Wind, The Seine meets Paris, ...A Valparaiso) - don't know if this is excactly for you but he made some wonderful locational studies.
-The Fall (2006)
-The Holy Mountain (and other Jordorowsky films)
-Crash (and other avant-garde Cronenberg films)
-Berlin Alexanderplatz

I'm surprised not to find these on the list:
-Daisies (thought you liked that a lot)
-anything by Cocteau
-The Cook, the Wife, the Thief and her Lover
-Man with a Movie Camera
-Sans Soleil

Love 97% of this list!!!!! So many great films. I almost want to rewatch a couple of them now.
I recently caught 'Belladonna of Sadness' for the first time, i'd describe that one as being avant-garde and it absolutely haunted me.

Try Watching this if you haven't already (concerning Ruiz):

And yes, Alexanderplatz is one of the most avant-gardistic avant-garde films I've seen. There's absolutely nothing like it. It's an immersive narrative film but there's lots of crazy stuff going on inbetween, ranging from surrealism to artificial enviroments to didactic structuralist editing to stretching the limits of acting (it's often intesely physical). However apart from that the final 2 hour-long episode (which is what makes this so much of an avant-garde detour) is badshit crazy experimental cinema at it's very best (I don't know any feature film that is as unhinged as this) and it alone is better than (more than) half of TSPDT's top 100. However the final episode only works if you've seen everything preceding it (and it's a little bit of a slog to get into, which is about the same as Fassbinder felt about the book). Alexanderplatz is super underapreciated, likely because it's 15 hours long and people don't go out of their way to watch it. I doubt even a lot of critics have seen the entire thing. It should be seen as a staple of avant-garde and experimental cinema though. The entire concept was incredibly daring and one of a kind.

You should cheeck The Extravagant Shadows (David Gatten) I know people that compare it to Celine and Julie Go Boating

oh btw, I forgot to tell you this, Michael Sicinski my favorite critic of Cinema Scope posted his top ten avant-garde films of 2016

Where the Chocolate Mountains (Pat O’Neill, U.S.)
Old Hat (Zach Iannazzi, U.S.)
Luna e Santur (Joshua Gen Solondz, U.S.)
Indefinite Pitch (James N. Kienitz Wilkins, U.S. / Germany)
If You Can’t See My Mirrors, I Can’t See You (Alee Peoples, U.S.)
Glide of Transparency (Betzy Bromberg, U.S.)
Élysée (Laurent Grasso, France)
Ears, Nose and Throat (Kevin Jerome Everson, U.S.)
AS WITHOUT, SO WITHIN (Manuela De Laborde, Mexico / U.S. / U.K.)
025 Sunset Red (Laida Lertxundi, U.S. / Spain)

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