experimental the movie

• Great Movies That Have Almost No Dialogue
• Movies That Launched Entire Genres
• Are You Talking To Me?
• Movies That End Right at the Beginning
• Movies That Are Great When You Go in Blind
• The Best Movies Critics Hated
• In Which the Mystery Remains a Mystery
• TV Comedies And Dramas With The Exact Same Prem...
• Spoiler: Nobody Is a Winner
• Movies With Great Anticlimactic Endings That Ar...
• Ordinary People Breaking Bad
• 2 Movies in 1
• 16 Movies Where Pretty Much Everyone Dies
• Never Go to a Second Location
• Freakin' Intense
• Movies That Were Eerily Ahead Of Their Time
• The Hero Is Really a Villain!
• Unexpected Horror Movie Hits That Came Out Of N...
• 20 Mind-Bending Movies That Are A Mental Workou...
• In Which Crazy Tech Does More Harm Than Good
• These Stirred Up Huge Controversies

The 30+ Best Experimental Movies

Welcome to the captivating realm of films that challenge conventions, play with form and substance, and provoke discussion. Our expertly-curated Ranker list serves as your guide to the best controversial experimental films that captivated the audience and redefined cinematic storytelling. Wielded by visionary directors, these films push the boundaries, disrupt common tropes, and invoke powerful reactions. 

Rooted in an experimental and provocative ethos, these films are loaded with unique narrative styles, expressive visual language, and characters that defy the mainstream cinema. From surreal dreamscapes to disquieting realities, the chosen films encapsulate a wide range of topics and themes, making this a versatile list that caters to diverse tastes. 

Compare films and dive into the nuances by leveraging our user-friendly interface. Learn about each film's vivid descriptions, key cast members, and notable facts. Enrich your movie watching experience and engage in enlightening conversations as you explore the world of controversial experimental cinema.

Gain instant access to your preferred films with our integrated streaming service buttons. Whether you are a subscriber of Netflix, Disney+, Max, Hulu, Paramount+, or Amazon Prime, our website offers seamless navigation to your streaming platform of choice. Each film entry harbors clickable buttons redirecting to the movie on the above-mentioned platforms, ready to be streamed at your convenience.

Revel in the rich diversity this list offers, from psychological dramas to outlandish horror, each film's distinct style and daring narrative brings something new to the table. Connect with the Ranker community, gather insights, and join the ongoing debate on these ground-breaking films. 

Our Ranker list stands as a testament to cinema's transformative power. Unveiling stories that stay with the audience, these controversial experimental films beckon to the curious and the adventurous. Join others in discovering unexplored cinematic territory and find your next watching experience here on Ranker. Delve deeper, explore further, and embrace the power of experimental films.

Seven Servants

• Released : 1996
• Directed by : Daryush Shokof

Seven Servants is a masterclass in experimental cinema that effortlessly melds together unconventional storytelling techniques with striking visual aesthetics to create an unparalleled viewing experience. The film's intricate story structure challenges traditional notions of linear storytelling, taking viewers on an immersive journey filled with unexpected twists and turns. Its breathtaking cinematography further accentuates the captivating atmosphere created by this remarkable piece of artistry. Combining these elements with thought-provoking themes exploring power dynamics and human relationships, Seven Servants truly transcends cinematic norms to stand as an extraordinary example of innovative filmmaking.

• Released : 2013

Flushers is an avant-garde masterpiece that skillfully pushes the boundaries of conventional storytelling and filmmaking techniques. This experimental gem showcases a bold vision, utilizing daring themes and innovative visual styles to challenge viewers' perception of cinema. With its striking imagery and unconventional story structure, Flushers takes audiences on a surreal journey through uncharted territories, constantly defying expectations while leaving an indelible mark on the world of film. The groundbreaking directorial approach ensures that this enigmatic work stands as a testament to the limitless potential for artistic expression within the medium.

• Released : 2006

Asudem presents an intriguing amalgamation of visceral horror elements and provocative thematic underpinnings. This visionary piece redefines genre conventions by employing cutting-edge visual styles and story devices to create an immersive experience like no other. Through its evocative blend of nightmarish imagery, disturbing symbolism, and thoughtfully constructed plotlines, Asudem offers a startling exploration into the darkest recesses of human nature. With its unrelenting intensity and masterful filmmaking prowess, this standout work leaves a lasting impact on viewers long after the credits have rolled.

• Released : 2007

Breathful is an enthralling tour de force in experimental cinema that successfully marries exceptional visual innovation with audacious thematic explorations. The film's distinct style lends itself to a hypnotic viewing experience, as viewers are drawn into the labyrinthine story that defies traditional expectations. The daring directorial choices and sublime cinematography create an unparalleled atmosphere of intrigue, ensuring that Breathful remains a fascinating example of boundary-pushing cinema. This artistic triumph is sure to captivate film aficionados and casual viewers alike with its unyielding ambition and visionary execution.

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

• Released : 1972
• Directed by : Luis Buñuel

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie stands tall as a groundbreaking entry in experimental cinema, thanks to its inventive blend of biting social commentary and surreal storytelling techniques. This acclaimed work showcases masterful craftsmanship in both its screenplay and visual presentation, resulting in an unforgettable cinematic journey that keeps viewers riveted from start to finish. With its subversive exploration of bourgeois society's hypocrisies and contradictions, this scathing satire delves deep into the human psyche while challenging long-held societal norms. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie undoubtedly serves as a shining example of experimental filmmaking at its finest.

• # 371 of 675 on The Best Movies Roger Ebert Gave Four Stars
• # 172 of 426 on The Greatest Movies in World Cinema History
• # 23 of 74 on The Best Oscar-Winning Foreign Language Films

An Andalusian Dog

• Released : 1929

An Andalusian Dog remains an undisputed classic within the realm of experimental cinema, boasting an impressive legacy that continues to inspire filmmakers today. As one of the earliest examples of surrealist film, this groundbreaking masterpiece effortlessly blurs the lines between reality and fantasy through its dreamlike imagery and unconventional story structure. Its provocative themes exploring human desire, fear, and obsession are expertly woven throughout each frame, sustaining a palpable tension that leaves viewers enthralled long after their initial viewing experience has ended. Timeless in its avant-garde vision, An Andalusian Dog undeniably remains an essential piece within any cinephile's collection.

• # 17 of 86 on The Best Silent Movies of All Time
• # 66 of 97 on The Best French Movies That Are Absolute Masterpieces
• # 272 of 426 on The Greatest Movies in World Cinema History

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, chaz's journal, great movies, contributors, experimenter.

Now streaming on:

Orson Welles once described his approach in “ Citizen Kane ” as “prismatic,” and while there are many differences in subject and style between that cinema milestone and Michael Almereyda ’s “Experimenter,” the two films share a multi-faceted formal playfulness and an essential intellectual seriousness that make them similarly bracing, original and thought-provoking. Part of the latter quality comes from their focus on men (one semi-fictional, the other real) who stand at particular junctures of American history and, like prisms, refract converging elements of our national identity and culture.

The most pleasingly cerebral of recent American films, “Experimenter” concerns Dr. Stanley Milgram ( Peter Sarsgaard in an expertly shaded and intelligent performance), the creator of certain enduringly famous experiments in social psychology, which the film starts out by showing us. In a psych lab at Yale University in 1961, Milgram watches from behind a two-way mirror as an associate (John Palladino) escorts two men into a room where he explains the experiment in which they’ve agreed to participate. One man will be called “Learner” and will try to memorize answers to standardized tests. The other man, “Teacher,” will monitor the responses given by Learner (who’s out of sight) and, when he gives wrong answers, give him a series of increasingly strong electric shocks.

The nominal experiment here is a sham. In reality, Learner is not being shocked; an actor, he plays audiotapes of his voice screaming and protesting as the shocks supposedly mount in intensity. The one being tested is Teacher. How long will he go on shocking a stranger who’s begging him to stop? An overwhelming majority of people say they would stop well before the shocks reach maximum intensity. As it happened, though, both in Milgram’s original experiments and in numerous duplications of them, roughly 65 percent of subjects kept applying the shocks till the end; only 35 percent stopped at some point before.

Temporally, the significance of the Milgram Experiments cuts in every direction.

Past: When they were underway, the Israeli trial of Nazi genocide mastermind Adolf Eichmann, who claimed he was only following orders, was on American television. The son of European Jews who escaped the Nazi terror, Milgram wanted to know how ordinary people could do things that violated their conscious principles. And could it be that folks of other nations – even Americans – would submit just as Germans had? The scandalous book in which he revealed his findings was titled “Obedience to Authority.”

Present (1961): In a sense, the Eichmann trial connects the Holocaust to the era of “The Manchurian Candidate,” when Americans were so fearful of their Communist enemies that they questioned their own psychological make-up, and when an academic-scientific-military complex emerged to deal with such concerns. Needless to say, that complex didn’t disappear along with the Soviet Union.

Future: As the film shows, when Milgram’s findings become public, they spark widespread interest, with some hailing their importance while others denounce the scientist’s methods as unethical and manipulative. Their paradoxical importance continues. During the Vietnam War they are invoked to explain the My Lai massacre. Films of them are still shown to West Point cadets. Need their relevance to the post-9/11 American penchant for torture, both military and more broadly cultural, be stated?

Back to those scenes in the Yale lab. In most movies, no doubt, we would be kept in doubt about the experiment’s real nature until we’d seen at least one Learner shocked to the breaking point. But Almereyda tosses away the possibility of suspense and shows us what’s going on from the first. Filmed with a cool, Kubrickian detachment, these scenes align our p.o.v. not with the experiment’s participants’ but with the scientist’s (and by extension, the filmmaker’s). Rather than conventionally dramatic, the effect is wry, inquisitive, even darkly comic.

During this early sequence, Almereyda intercuts scenes of Milgram meeting the dancer ( Winona Ryder ) who will become his wife. These passages announce that “Experimenter” will concern not just the work but also the man. Yet, if this is a biopic, it’s hardly a conventional one. It seems not at all interested in probing Milgram’s psychology, to wonder why he would undertake this type of work. And, in effect, the film’s wife-and-family parts have a basically negative function in that, rather than explaining anything, simply tell us he was a fairly ordinary guy.

So, ultimately, Almereyda’s emphasis falls on his subject’s work and public life. After the famous experiments and the book that followed, Milgram becomes something of a controversial public intellectual, moves to Harvard (then later City University of NY) and concocts other experimental tests of human behavior, some very interesting but none achieving the notoriety of the earlier ones. As the career unfolds, we become aware of how much the academic-scientific-military complex intersects with the nation’s imagination on various pop-cultural fronts. Milgram himself is on television. He engages with “Candid Camera.” He watches CBS turn his life’s work in a bad TV movie, “The Tenth Level,” starring William Shatner and Ossie Davis .

As we see that monstrosity being shot, Milgram muses to the camera about his chagrin. When he thinks of turning his work into a Broadway musical, he bursts into song on a midtown street. All of which points to one of the film’s chief delights: its eclectic mix of formal stratagems and narrative modes. Almereyda has Milgram address the camera frequently, sometimes telling us of things that haven’t yet happened. He uses rear-screen projection (which serves various purposes, including evoking a bygone cinematic era), various surrealistic touches and all manner of distancing devices.  His tone veers from serious to satiric to wacky to contemplative and back to serious, sometimes within a single scene.

The thread that unifies all this, one might venture, has to do with the issue of free will. The upside of Milgram’s experiments (as one of his mentors attempts to point out) was to show that at least a significant minority of people can resist unwarranted social controls. What about trying to construct an educational system and a society that grow that number? Likewise, though many people love to be manipulated by movies, how about asserting the value of works like “Experimenter,” which, in keeping the emotional temperature low and presenting us with a collage of evidence on related subjects, allows us the interpretive freedom to construct its meanings for ourselves?

No doubt, that kind of freedom is only offered us by a certain type of artist, of which Almeredya is a prime and invaluable example. From early in his career, it was clearly that he was an unusually gifted director, yet rather than allowing himself to be sucked into the mainstream moviemaking system, he has deliberately stayed on the intelligent margins, making a range of films from docs to shorts to modern Shakespeare adaptations to works that deserve the designation experimental. In so doing, he has allowed himself a creative freedom that suffuses his latest like a constant stream of mountain air. “Experimenter,” he might say, “c’est moi.”

Godfrey Cheshire

Godfrey Cheshire is a film critic, journalist and filmmaker based in New York City. He has written for The New York Times, Variety, Film Comment, The Village Voice, Interview, Cineaste and other publications.

Now playing

Crumb Catcher

Robert daniels.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F

Brian tallerico.

The Human Surge 3

Carlos aguilar.

The Nature of Love

Peyton robinson.

Sisi & I

Tomris laffly.

Borderlands

Film credits.

Experimenter (2015)

Rated PG-13 for thematic material and brief strong language

Peter Sarsgaard as Stanley Milgram

Winona Ryder as Sasha Menkin Milgram

Jim Gaffigan as James McDonough

Taryn Manning as Mrs. Lowe

Kellan Lutz as William Shatner

John Leguizamo as Taylor

Anton Yelchin as Rensaleer

Lori Singer as Florence Asch

Dennis Haysbert as Ossie Davis

• Michael Almereyda

Director of Photography

• Kathryn J. Schubert

Original Music Composer

• Bryan Senti

Latest blog posts

The Fairy Tale Shoes: Interview With the Cast and Crew of Cuckoo

On the Trail: India Donaldson on Good One

The Texture of Night: How Collateral Revolutionized Movies

SDCC 2024: Activations, Apes and Other Animals

‘Enter the Void’ & 9 of the Most Interesting Experimental Movies of All Time

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

'National Treasure 3' Gets an Update, Zendaya and Pattinson Get Romantic, and All the Big Movie News You Missed This Week

The 10 best cult classic action movies, ranked, 7 things you need to know about the star-studded 'saturday night live' movie.

Rules are meant to be broken. Surely, this rule applies to any living human, but perhaps more so to artists, especially filmmakers. Throughout the history of cinema, many filmmakers have experimented with movies and bent the rules of what filmmaking should be. But of course, some have done their films poorly, and others have delighted their audiences.

RELATED: 'Skinamarink' & 9 Other Experimental Horror Movies That Are as Strange as They Are Scary

What counts as an experimental movie? They are avant-garde and unconventional approaches to a film’s narrative, structure, and visual style. Movies such as Enter the Void , The Holy Mountain , and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie are experimental films that have defied conventional cinema and what audiences are willing to accept as entertainment or experience.

1 ‘Upstream Color’ (2013)

Upstream Color is written, directed, produced by, and stars Shane Carruth . The film is about two people, Jeff (Shane Carruth) and Kris ( Amy Seimetz ), whose lives and behaviors are unknowingly affected by a parasite. The parasite has a three-stage life cycle that passes from humans to pigs to orchids. At every stage of the life cycle, the parasite reacts differently, which in turn, also affects the behaviors of its victims, and in this case, Kris and Jeff.

Like many experimental films, this one has always been up for interpretation. In several interviews, Carruth has mentioned that the film is about identity: “about whether we control our identity to whether our identity controls us.”

2 ‘Holy Motors’ (2012)

Where to begin? Holy Motors follows the chauffeur Céline ( Edith Scab ) and Monsieur Oscar ( Denis Lavant ), seemingly an actor, who gets into a limo with a dressing room filled with costumes and props. Mr. Oscar’s first "performance" is as a beggar woman wandering the bridge in Paris; and then a gangster; a father; a red-haired man who lives in the sewers; a rich banker; “Mr. Vogan”; a man with chimpanzees as his family.

And although Holy Motors received critical acclaim and high praise from many critics and filmmakers, many still wonder about the true meaning behind the film. Why is a man dressed up as different characters, all within one day?

3 ‘Enter the Void’ (2009)

Enter the Void is a film told through the point-of-view of a young American drug dealer and addict, Oscar ( Nathaniel Brown ), who lives in an apartment in Tokyo with his sister, Linda ( Paz de la Huerta ), who works as a stripper. Once Oscar dives deep into a hallucinogenic trip, his friend Victor ( Olly Alexander ) invites him to deal at “The Void” bar, but once he gets there, a police raid costs him his life.

After his death, Oscar is resurrected in the form of his spirit, and this is where the real journey begins: a psychedelic journey of Oscar’s past, present, and future. The film that premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival has often been praised for its colors and visuals.

RELATED: From 'The Holy Mountain' to 'Yellow Submarine': 10 Most Psychedelic Movies, According to Reddit

4 'Eraserhead' (1977)

Written and directed by filmmaker David Lynch , Eraserhead is a black-and-white surrealist horror film that follows a factory worker Henry Spencer ( Jack Nance ), who discovers that his girlfriend, Mary X ( Charlotte Stewart ), is pregnant. However, their newborn child appears as an inhuman, reptilian-like creature that refuses to stop wailing. When things couldn’t get worse with the baby, Henry experiences visions of other characters, such as the Man in the Planet ( Jack Fisk ) and Lady in the Radiator ( Laurel Near ), troubling him even more.

Eraserhead is not a conventional horror but more so an extreme metaphorical take on the fear of parenthood, for instance, using the “baby” as a terrifying creature who cries endlessly and bizarre visions from perhaps, a parent’s lack of sleep. The film has often been praised for its score and sound design (also done by Lynch): Nathan Lee of The Village Voice wrote, “…to see the film means nothing - one must also hear it.”

5 ‘Mirror’ (1975)

Mirror (or The Mirror ) is a 1975 Russian film by Andrei Tarkovsky . It is told in a non-linear narrative structure with events based on Tarkovsky’s life, consisting of dreams and flashbacks of life pre-war, wartime, and post-war. In the film, Andrei Tarkovsky is represented by Alexei ( Ignat Daniltsev ), a 40-year-old dying man who shares the memories of his life, such as his parents’ divorce and the battlefields of World War II, with his wife ( Margarita Terekhova ) and children.

The film incorporates poems written and read by Tarkovsky’s real-life father, Arseny Tarkovsky , and stars his wife, Larisa Tarkovskaya , and mother, Maria Vishnyakova . Besides the non-linear narrative, the film’s cinematography which slips between black-and-white, color, and sepia, contributes to what Tarkovsky wanted to portray: a man’s stream of consciousness.

6 ‘Celine and Julie Go Boating’ (1974)

Celine and Julie Go Boating (French: Céline et Julie vont en bateau: Phantom Ladies Over Paris ) is a French film that focuses on the friendship that blossoms between two girls: a stage magician, Céline ( Juliet Berto ), and a librarian, Julie ( Dominique Labourier ), who move in together and embark on a new adventure involving an inducing candy, a haunted house, and a murder-mystery melodrama.

In the movie, anything goes. It is this principle that drives the film to be as inventive and experimental as it can be. Céline and Julie Go Boating combine elements of magic and dreams where the characters share endless possibilities of pleasure, adventures, and parallel worlds.

RELATED: 'The 400 Blows' and 9 More of the Best French New Wave Movies, According to IMDb

7 'The Holy Mountain' (1973)

The Holy Mountain is a surrealist-Mexican film written, directed, produced, co-edited, co-scored, and starring Alejandro Jodorowsky . This film is almost too surreal to be true: an alchemist (Alejandro Jodorowsky) and his apprentice, the thief ( Horacio Salinas ), meets seven powerful people who are each introduced as a personification of a planet on the solar system.

Venus is a cosmetics manufacturer; Mars is a weapons manufacturer; Jupiter is a millionaire art dealer; Saturn is a war toy maker; Uranus is a political financial advisor; Neptune is a police chief; Pluto is an architect. Together, these seven people, the alchemist, and his apprentice form a group of nine who seek the Holy Mountain, where they hope to achieve enlightenment and immortality.

8 ‘The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie’ (1972)

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (French: Le Charme discrete de la bourgeoisie ) is a French surrealist film by Jean-Claude Carrière that follows six upper-middle-class people and their repeated failed attempts of having a meal together. Each interruption becomes increasingly surreal as the film progresses. And while the situations become more bizarre and complex, it becomes clearer that these situations are dreams, within dreams, within dreams.

The film conveys what middle-class people represent: “Dinner is the central social ritual of the middle classes, a way of displaying wealth and good manners. It also offers the convenience of something to do (eat) and something to talk about (the food), and that is a great relief since so many of the bourgeoisie have nothing much to talk about, and there are a great many things they hope will not be mentioned.”

9 ‘Persona’ (1966)

Persona is a Swedish psychological drama written and directed by the late filmmaker Ingmar Bergman . The film follows the relationship between two women: an actress, Elisabet Vogler ( Liv Ullmann ), who suddenly stops speaking, and Alma ( Bibi Andersson ), the young nurse who cares for Elisabet in the seaside cottage where they hope she would recover. As Alma becomes the confidant to Elisabet, she begins to have trouble distinguishing herself from her - as if their identities had become one.

The film’s exploration of insanity, duality, and personal identity, is described as a reflection of the Jungian theory of persona , where homosexuality, motherhood, abortion, and other subjects, may fall. Persona is like an open book where every audience has a different interpretation of the film, such as, in the words of film historian Peter Cowie , “Everything one says about Persona may be contradicted; the opposite will also be true.”

RELATED: 10 Best Foreign Films of 2022, According to IMDb

10 ‘Last Year at Marienbad’ (1961)

Set in a baroque hotel filled with wealthy socialites who wear Chanel-designed attires ( yes, Coco Chanel designed the costumes for the film ), Last Year at Marienbad (French: L’Année dernière à Marienbad ) follows a man ( Giorgio Albertazzi ) tries to convince a woman ( Delphine Seyrig ) that they have met at a resort the year before, and had a romantic relationship. However, the woman responds by saying that she has never been to the place, let alone met him. As the film progresses, the woman is confident they never met, but the more convincing the man becomes.

The film is like an unfinished jigsaw puzzle: it presents you with a problem but never resolves itself. Who’s telling the truth? Did they meet previously, or is the man just a genius player and madman? It is up to the audience what they make of it.

KEEP READING: 'Moonage Daydream' and 9 More Experimental Documentaries That Defy Genre Conventions

• Film Theory

What is Experimental Film — History, Examples & Movements

W hat is an experimental film? This elusive and niche genre can be difficult to define, and there are many common misconceptions about experimental filmmaking, but we’ll be sorting through the fact and the fiction to provide a comprehensive overview of what it means for a film to be “experimental”. We’ll get started with a definition, then dig deeper into experimental filmmaking as a genre, and finally close things out by taking a look at some notable examples.

Avant garde film definition

First, let’s define experimental film.

There are many film terms and phrases that could use simple definitions, and we’ve compiled them all in our ultimate guide to filmmaking terminology . You can also look up definitions for every genre of film in our ultimate guide to movie genres .

EXPERIMENTAL FILM DEFINITION

What is an experimental film.

An experimental film is a project bucks the trends of conventional cinema and pushes the medium of film in unexplored ways. The spectrum of experimental films is extremely broad; this genre encompasses a great many types of projects of varying lengths, styles, and goals.

There are experimental feature films, though more experimental projects have shorter runtimes. This is due in part to many experimental films being made for low budgets and/or the fact that the majority of experimental films are never intended for mainstream appeal or traditional distribution.

AVANT GARDE FILM CHARACTERISTICS

• Can be any length
• Niche and often artsy
• Pushes boundaries and tries new things

Experimental filmmakers

Digging deeper into experimental film.

Let’s dig a little deeper into what it means for a project to be classified as an experimental film. There is a modicum of debate over what exactly constitutes an experimental film, and some projects blur the line between traditional cinema and experimental filmmaking by including elements of each. Experimentation can be found in the editing, in the filming, in the subject matter, or in the manipulation of the camera and celluloid’s chemical and mechanical processes.

A beginner’s guide to experimental cinema

There are many misconceptions about what experimental filmmaking is, so let’s dispel a couple. One common belief is that experimental films have no story. While some experimental films certainly lack anything that could be considered a traditional narrative, that does not hold true for all experimental films.

Another commonly held notion is that experimental films are weird for the sake of being weird or that they are simply filmed nonsense. This is quite a reductive stance to take on the entire genre, but it is an opinion shared by many. The audience for experimental films can be extremely niche, and experimental filmmakers are aware of this. They are not made for everyone.

Surreal = experimental is another common misconception. Containing an element of surrealism does not automatically make a project experimental in nature. However, there is an intrinsic linkage between surrealism and experimental cinema, so the misconception is understandable. Let’s clarify this point with an example.

Sexy Beast  •  dream sequence

This dream sequence from the gangster flick Sexy Beast is undoubtedly surreal yet there is nothing experimental at play. The surrealism is conjured through traditional filmmaking means only. So, while surrealism and experimental cinema often go hand-in-hand, surrealism alone is not enough to constitute a film being labeled as experimental; the filmmaking methods and the pushing or warping of boundaries play important roles as well.

Related Posts

• Read More: What is Surrealism →
• Read More: How to Design a Surreal Film Score →
• FREE: Break Down Scripts Using StudioBinder Software →

The history of experimental cinema

Experimental filmmaking over the years.

Since the first camera was invented , artists have been experimenting with the tool. At the dawn of cinema, everything was an experiment. It was only through the intervention of time that certain techniques and methods became standard.

While many of the techniques used in Voyage dans la Lune seem antiquated by modern filmmaking standards, they were absolutely boundary shattering way back in 1902. Radical experimentation was necessary to pull off so many things that had never before been seen or created in the medium of film.

A Trip to the Moon

As cinematic techniques improved and became seen as standards, there were still filmmakers willing to experiment and push the envelope. 1929’s Un Chien Andalou was an early masterpiece of both surrealism and experimental filmmaking. Many of the techniques used in Un Chien Andalou were experimental at the time but have since been integrated into more standard filmmaking techniques as the decades have passed. Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel were two master surrealists and played an important role in the common linkage between surrealism and experimentation through their boundary pushing methods.

Un Chien Andalou

By the 1940s, surrealism and experimental filmmaking were further linked through the work of Maya Deren. Over time, she has proven to be one of the most influential experimental filmmakers of all time. She created a number of experimental short films, the first of which, Meshes of the Afternoon , is often credited as a turning point for experimental and avant garde cinema. The short remains a highlight of the genre more than 70 years after it was first released.

If you are interested in making your own short films, check out our how to make a short film guide first.

Meshes of the Afternoon  •  Maya Deren

Andy Warhol is a name well known in the pop art world, but he made numerous contributions to the experimental film world as well. Warhol made nearly 150 experimental short films throughout his lifetime, and a number of them made throughout the 1960s were considered important contributions to the form. Below is a compilation of six of Warhol’s shorts made between 1964 and 1966.

Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests

David Lynch is perhaps the most well-known filmmaker to consistently experiment in his films. He earned a spot on our list of the best directors of all time . Some Lynch projects explore a blend between experimental cinema and traditional filmmaking, while other Lynch projects comfortably fall into the “wholly experimental” category. Since his debut feature in 1977 with Eraserhead , Lynch has continued to employ experimental techniques in his feature films to this day. A significant degree of Eraserhead’s experimentation can be found in the atmospheric sound design . Listen closely to the trailer below.

Eraserhead  •  trailer

Now that we’ve explored a brief history of experimental filmmaking, let’s see if we can sort experimental films into a few distinct categories.

Experimental film examples

Types of experimental films.

Though experimental films in general can be a bit difficult to categorize as they defy convention by their very nature, there are a few common types we can examine from a bird’s eye view . The first type is: experimental films that challenge the form of filmmaking . This includes projects that defy the expectation of what a film is and manipulate the creation process, like Stan Brakhage’s Dog Star Man .

Dog Star Man  •  complete

This piece of experimental filmmaking was originally produced as four shorts before being compiled as a singular project. Dog Star Man is often hailed as an experimental masterpiece and was made through various manipulations to the film stock, experimenting with different exposure types, and radical editing techniques.

Another film that lands in the “challenges the form” category is Derek Jarman’s Blue . This one-hour-19-minute experimental film features just a single, unchanging visual for the entire duration: a solid blue screen. An intricately orchestrated audio track underscores the static visual, and the two combine to form a highly emotional experience.

Blue  •  Derek Jarman

Our next type of experimental film is the experimental documentary . Check out our list of the best documentaries to set a baseline for traditional documentary filmmaking before we jump into the experimental side of the genre. This experimental category encompasses projects like the nearly century old Soviet-produced Man With a Movie Camera . The full documentary is available to watch below.

Man With a Movie Camera

Another experimental documentary found in this category comes from none other than Orson Welles with For for Fake . This documentary, essay-film hybrid blurs the lines between fact and fiction in a fascinating way.

F for Fake Video Essay

Experimental Animation is a tried and true category of experimental filmmaking with many worthwhile and envelope pushing entries. Again, you can set a baseline for the non-experimental side of this genre by checking out our list of the best animated films ever made . As for the experimental side of the medium, first, we can return to David Lynch for his contribution to the category.

Six Men Getting Sick

The above short film, Six Men Getting Sick , was David Lynch’s very first foray into filmmaking. He began his journey into the arts as a painter, and you can see him bridging the gap with this painted filmmaking experiment.

For further examples of experimental animation, we can look to the Quay Brothers. Their shorts utilize a dreamy blend of stop-motion animation and puppetry. A number of their shorts are in the criterion collection; here is a highlight reel for four of their shorts.

Criterion teaser for the Quay Brothers

And for one last example of experimental animation found in a recent film, we can look to 2018’s German-Chilean production La Casa Lobo . Sculpture, stop-motion, traditional animation, and other artistic techniques were blended together in jaw dropping fashion that utilized life-size sets and dizzying camerawork. This experimental production pushes the boundaries of animation and accomplishes things never before seen in the medium. It gives the absolute best stop-motion films a run for their money.

The Wolf House  •  trailer

Experimental filmmaking remains alive and well in the modern filmmaking age. As long as there are boundaries left to push, filmmakers will continue to experiment.

What Was Dogme 95?

If you’re interested in experimental filmmaking, the Dogme 95 cinematic vow of chastity makes a fascinating case study into a radical filmmaking experiment. Learn about the movement, why and how it was created, the films that comprise it, and more, up next.

Up Next: What was Dogme 95? →

Showcase your vision with elegant shot lists and storyboards..

Create robust and customizable shot lists. Upload images to make storyboards and slideshows.

Learn More ➜

• Pricing & Plans
• Product Updates
• Featured On
• StudioBinder Partners
• Ultimate Guide to Call Sheets
• How to Break Down a Script (with FREE Script Breakdown Sheet)
• The Only Shot List Template You Need — with Free Download
• Managing Your Film Budget Cashflow & PO Log (Free Template)
• A Better Film Crew List Template Booking Sheet
• Best Storyboard Softwares (with free Storyboard Templates)
• Movie Magic Scheduling
• Gorilla Software
• Storyboard That

A visual medium requires visual methods. Master the art of visual storytelling with our FREE video series on directing and filmmaking techniques.

We’re in a golden age of TV writing and development. More and more people are flocking to the small screen to find daily entertainment. So how can you break put from the pack and get your idea onto the small screen? We’re here to help.

• Making It: From Pre-Production to Screen
• What is Call Time in Production & Why It Matters
• How to Make a Call Sheet in StudioBinder — Step by Step
• What is a Frame Narrative — Stories Inside Stories
• What is Catharsis — Definition & Examples for Storytellers
• How to Make a Shot List in 8 Steps — Process Explained
• 3 Pinterest

By Amelia Ames

April 17, 2017

After MoMA's Bruce Conner retrospective this past summer and the Whitney's celebrated "Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art" survey, experimental film finally seems to be back on the New York art world's agenda. But for a long time, film was the thorn of art history after that thing called "Hollywood" came along, which threatened the avant-garde film's separation from mainstream cinema.

Experimental or avant-garde film can be traced all the way back to canonical artists like Marcel Duchamp and Many Ray , but what happens post-Hollywood? Here's a quick guide to postwar experimental film in the United States, ranging from Expanded Cinema of the '60s to the origins of underground queer cinema with artists like Jack Smith. We've got the critics and the crucial texts you need to read (each essay has been linked) and the artists you need to know.

Expanded Cinema of the '60s

Critic to Know: GENE YOUNGBLOOD Seminal Text to Know: Expanded Cinema (1970)

Gene Youngblood was a crucial theorist of media arts and alternative cinema during the 1960s and '70s. He was the first to consider video an art form, folding computer and media art into the genre. His seminal book Expanded Cinema was the first to define one of the most heterogeneous movements in film history. As you can probably guess from term, “expanded cinema” refers to cinema that expands beyond the bounds of traditional uses of celluloid film, to inhabit a wide range of other materials and forms including video, television, light shows, computer art, multimedia installation and performance, kinetic sculpture, theater, and even holography. Mixing psychedelic consciousness and Marxist theory, Youngblood explains “when we say expanded cinema we actually mean an expanded consciousness.” So if you’re still confused after seeing Stan Vanderbeek’s immersive psychedelic Movie Drome (1965) at the Whitney’s Dreamlands exhibition this year, take a look at the first chapter of Youngblood’s Expanded Cinema (the entire book is available on the PDF link above).

ARTISTS TO KNOW: Stan Vanderbeek, Carolee Schneemann , Malcom Le Grice, Mark Leckey

Found Footage Film

Critic to Know: CRAIG BALDWIN Seminal Text to Know: From Junk to Funk to Punk to Link : A survey of found-footage film in San Francisco Bay Area

Any narrative of postwar experimental film has to begin in California. Reacting against the expansion of Hollywood, experimental film was, in essence, a form of cinema that radically opposed the aesthetics and politics of mainstream media. The rise of psychedelic light shows, beatnik films, and alternative outdoor venues like Canyon Cinema (a filmmakers cooperative started by Bruce Baillie that exhibited independent, non-commercial film) all lead the Bay area to become an epicenter of avant-garde film in the second half of the century. Experimental filmmaker Craig Baldwin’s essay “From Junk to Funk to Punk to Link” is a must-read for anyone interested in a short genealogy of found footage film, seen in likes of Bruce Conner and Gunvor Nelson's work. A pioneer of found-footage himself, Baldwin remains in San Francisco to this day where he continues to program content for Artist’s Television Access, which broadcasts art films on Public-access television. For more on experimental film in the Bay Area click here to see the Berkeley Art Museum’s catalogue, “Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-2000.”

ARTISTS TO KNOW: Bruce Conner , Craig Baldwin, Robert & Gunvor Nelson, Chick Strand

Structuralist Film

Critic to Know: PETER GIDAL Seminal Text: "Introduction" of Structural Film Anthology (1976)

Structuralist or Materialist film is what Minimalism was to sculpture in the 1960s. In his paradigm book Structural Film Anthology (1976), English theoretician and filmmaker Peter Gidal writes frankly that "Structural/Materialist film attempts to be non-illusionist" in its attempt to "demystify the film process." Structuralist film, like Minimalist objects, doesn't actually represent anything. Instead, it exposes the relations between the camera and the way an image is presented, and explores the characteristics specific to the medium—spotlighting elements like flatness, grain, light, and movement. Tony Conrad's film The Flicker (1966), exemplary of the movement, consists purely of rapidly alternating black and white frames, achieving a kind of strobe light effect. If you're hesitant to submit yourself to the full fifteen minutes of Flicker (we don't blame you), then take a look at Gidal's introduction in the Structural Film Anthology to get a better idea about what this strange movement was really about.

ARTISTS TO KNOW: Tony Conrad, Hollis Frampton, Michael Snow

Feminist Film

Critic to Know: LAURA MULVEY Seminal Text: Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975)

Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist, currently teaching film and media studies at Birbeck, University of London. Drawing from psychoanalysts Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, Mulvey’s seminal essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” (1975) was crucial in inaugurating the intersection of film theory, psychoanalysis, and feminism. Mulvey was the first to term what has come to be known as the “male gaze.” In the essay, she argues that classic Hollywood cinema inevitably positioned the spectator as a masculine and active voyeur, and the passive woman on screen as object of his scopic desire. The essay challenged conventional film theory and paved the way for an entire era of feminist artist’s work on the male gaze (think Cindy Sherman’s Untitled film stills.). After reading “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” you’ll never look at a Hitchcock or John Wayne the same.

ARTISTS TO KNOW: Peggy Ahwesh, Barbara Hammer, Laurie Simmons

Camp & Queer Cinema

Critic to Know: SUSAN SONTAG Seminal Text: "Notes On Camp" (1964)

Susan Sontag was one of the most revered writers, filmmakers, political activists, and critics of her generation. Sontag wrote extensively about photography, culture and media, AIDS, and the Vietnam War. Sontag’s most well known essay, “Notes on Camp,” is crucial for anyone interested in the legacy of queer filmmakers like Jack Smith, who is most known for his banned film Flaming Creatures (1963) that right-wing politician Strom Thurmand mentioned in anti-pornography speeches. Although Sontag does not define camp, she writes that the essence of a “camp” sensibility lies in “its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration.” For anyone interested in the kitschy, exotic films of Jack Smith and underground Queer Cinema, Sontag’s “Notes on Camp” is a must.

ARTISTS TO KNOW: Jack Smith, Andy Warhol , Isaac Julien

[related-works-module]

Related Works

Cindy Sherman

C-print on Kodak matte paper

Related Articles

Current Shows

Receive our award winning emails & enjoy 10% off your first purchase, thanks for signing up for our newsletter., that email has already been subscribed..

Now, personalize your account so you can discover more art you'll love.

a treasure trove of fine art from the world's most renowned artists, galleries, museums and cultural institutions. We offer exclusive works you can't find anywhere else.

through exclusive content featuring art news, collecting guides, and interviews with artists, dealers, collectors, curators and influencers.

authentic artworks from across the globe. Collecting with us means you're helping to sustain creative culture and supporting organizations that are making the world a better place.

with our art advisors for buying advice or to help you find the art that's perfect for you. We have the resources to find works that suit your needs.

INSIDER ACCESS TO THE WORLD'S BEST ART

Artspace offers you authentic, exclusive works from world-renowned artists, galleries, museums and cultural institutions. Collecting with us helps support creative culture while bringing you art news, interviews and access to global art resources.

COLLECT FROM 300+ GALLERIES & MUSEUMS

Sign in for personalized experiences, exclusive access to new works, special offers, invitations and features.

Collect the world's best

Sign up to view price and receive personalized experiences exclusive access to new works, special offers, invitations and features.

Thank you for signing up

Tailor your art, news & information to your preferences.

THANK YOU FOR SIGNING-UP TO ARTSPACE

Welcome to the world's premier online marketplace for fine art.

Enjoy 10% on your next purchase by using coupon code WELCOME10 at checkout.

THANK YOU FOR RETURNING TO ARTSPACE

The world's premier online marketplace for fine art.

Enjoy 10% on your next purchase by using coupon code PHAIDON10 at checkout.

Forgot your password?

Please enter your email below and we will send you a new password.

We've emailed you a new password. Sign In

Interested in Firstname Lastname?

To follow this artist and get updates on new work & exclusives, you must be signed into your Artspace account. Don't have one? Create one now.

You are now following first name last name

Interested in saving this work.

To save this work to your personal gallery and to access other features like this, you must be signed into your Artspace account.

prompt placeholder

A Critical Guide to Understanding Experimental Film

Share this article

Use this form to share great articles with your friends.

Enter your email

Enter your friend's email

Your message was sent

Thank you for sharing with your friends.

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Pinterest

Your email has been submitted and a 10% off discount code sent to you. Next, personalize your Artspace experience by creating an account.

Please select the statement that best describes you:

• I am an existing collector.
• I am a new and aspiring collector.

Types of art that interest you

Select all that interest you:, partners you'd like to follow, enter or select all partners that interest you:.

Your preferences have been saved to your account. Update them at any time in your Preference Center

How it Works

How bidding works.

To place a bid, enter the maximum amount you are willing to pay for the work. Artspace will accept a bid at the next increment, and save any excess amount as a maximum bid. If you are outbid, we will continue bid on your behalf up to your maximum bid.

Bid Increments

Bidding increments increase at the following intervals:

• Below $400: $50
• Between $400 and $699: $100
• Between $700 and $1,499: $200
• Between $1,500 and $2,499: $300
• Between $2,500 and $4,999: $500
• Between $5,000 and $9,999: $1,000
• Between $10,000 and $19,999: $2,000
• Between $20,000 and $29,999: $3,000
• Between $30,000 and $49,999: $4,000
• Between $50,000 and $99,999: $5,000
• Above $100,000: $10,000

You will receive an email confirmation of your bid and when you are outbid.

If you are the winning bidder, you will be contacted 48 hours after of the close of the auction.

Maximum Bidding

Every bid submitted is treated as a maximum bid. You should always bid the maximum you are willing to spend for a work, though this does not necessarily mean you will pay that price. As the auction unfolds, we will increase your bid by increments to ensure you remain the highest bidder. If the winning amount is less than your maximum bid, you will pay the current increment. If your maximum bid no longer exceeds the current bid, you will receive an outbid notification email, and have the option to bid again.

In the case of multiple bidders placing the same maximum bid, the first person to place the maximum amount takes precedence as the highest bid until another bidder exceeds the maximum amount.

Buyer's Premium & Additional Charges

For Artspace Auctions winning bidders are charged a 15% Buyer's Premium on top of the hammer price. For Artspace Benefit Auctions, Buyer's Premiums are not applied. If they are, this will be clearly noted. Purchases made from all auctions, including benefit auctions, are subject to sales tax.

Winning bidders will be contacted within 48 hours to arrange shipping and to provide final price including commission, shipping, and taxes and duties when applicable. Promotion codes cannot be applied to auction works.

Auction Pre-Registration

Credit Card Validation

In order to secure a bid, please enter your credit card details below. We will not charge your card but only use it to validate your bid. We only need to validate your card once. You will be notified that you are the winning bidder before your card is charged, and you will have the option to change your payment method at that time.

Create an Artspace account

All our frames are manufactured in the USA, using eco-friendly & sustainably sourced engineered hardwood for durability and a uniform finish that is free of defects. Frames are available in Black or White Satin and Honey Pecan.

• White Satin
• Honey Pecan
• Black Satin

All prints are hinged to a conservation quality, acid-free and lignin-free Alpha Cellulose matboard, using an acid-free linen tape. The mat's surface paper is fade and bleed resistant and is attached to a conservation quality foam-core mounting board that will keep the work safe from deterioration over time. Artworks with a deckled or decorative edges will be floated on the matboard, with acrylic spacers to separate the art from the glazing. All mounting is fully reversible, without any potential damage to the art.

Acrylic Glazing

All of our frames come with picture quality .090 mm plexiglass, which blocks 66% of UV to prevent color fading from exposure to light, keeping your art protected for years to come. It is now considered the industry standard for artists, museums and galleries throughout the world.

For images up to 30" x 40"

• 1 1/4” wide, 3/4” deep, with a 2 1/2” wide mat.
• We generally leave 1/4” - 1/2” of paper showing around the image, to accommodate signatures and for visual appeal.

For sheet sizes larger than 30” x 40”

• Please contact an Artspace advisor for a custom quote.

Artists you'd like to follow

Enter or select all artists that interest you:.

• Entertainment
• General Knowledge

10 Terrifying Serial Killers from Centuries Ago

10 Hilariously Over-Engineered Solutions to Simple Problems

10 Ironic News Stories Straight out of an Alanis Morissette Song

10 Lesser-Known Far-Right Groups of the 21st Century

Ten Revealing Facts about Daily Domestic Life in the Old West

10 Everyday Products Surprisingly Made by Inmates

10 Actors Dragged out of Retirement for One Key Role

10 Lesser-Known Shapeshifter Legends from Around the World

10 Amazing Animal Tales from the Ancient World

10 Game Characters Everyone Hated Playing

Who's behind listverse.

Jamie Frater

Head Editor

Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author.

Top 10 Experimental Films to Watch Right Now

The experimental film genre goes back as far as film history takes us. One of the first experimental films was done by Thomas Edison’s assistant, William Dickson, on the kinetoscope called “Monkeyshines No. 1” around 1889 or 1890. In fact, you could say all early silent cinema was experimental as the filmmakers were literally figuring out how to use the camera and editing to tell a story or use it to express or explore dreamlike visual art.

Out of experimental film came many new offshoots of the genre. One of the more prominent ones was avant-garde, which usually has no conventional point to them and focuses on exploring innovative and creative issues such as time, fantasy, dreams, or perception. The German silent film classic, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is one of the more famous early examples of dreams or perception.

Today, the genre has given birth to other offshoots, such as cinematic poetry and the cinematic diary, akin to the works of the late great Jonas Mekas. Even the experimental documentary has been around longer than viewers realize; the city symphony films are an early example or, more recently, Guy Maddin’s “My Winnipeg.”

Pulling from experimental film history and more recent works, here are ten experimental films you should watch.

Related: 10 Sci-Fi Short Films That Will Give You The Creeps

10 “Un Chien Andileu” (1929)

This is many film students’ introduction to experimental film. The French title translates to “An Andalusian Dog” and has nothing to do with the film itself. Crafted by Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali, this silent surrealist journey uses dream logic to construct a non-narrative that is very Freudian in its design and meant to be shocking.

The film’s concept is actually a mix of two dreams that both the creators had—Dali’s hand covered in ants and Bunuel cutting an eye with a blade. When watched, the film invokes unease in that you are trying to make sense of a dream and can’t. Our brains try to find something relatable in the film and sometimes can’t. When we do feel some sort of connection, it’s a completely different interpretation, which is what the filmmakers wanted. They wanted to leave you thinking and trying to make sense of it. They know you can’t exactly be just like a piece of surreal art; it’s always up for debate without any true solution.

This is what makes “Un Chien Andileu” a must see for anyone interested in experimental film. [1]

9 “The Life and Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra” (1928)

This film is a silent-film hidden gem. The film was made for $97 in 1928, and in American avant-garde cinema is considered one of the early pillars in the genre.

It centers on an actor who makes his way to Hollywood hoping to hit the big time, only to be dehumanized by studios, landing the role of a simple extra. They even write 9413 on his head, making him just a number in their system.

What makes the film so unique is how they leaned into their budget with a lack of resources and visually gave Hollywood this surreal emptiness, something that people from the outside had not seen before depicted. The use of German expressionist lighting, superimposition, twisting shapes, and disorienting angles really makes the film memorable as it visually shows the actor’s descent into madness and death caused by the demeaning dark side of Hollywood. [2]

8 “Manhatta” (1921)

This film is considered to be the true first American avant-garde film by many. “Manhatta” was a collaboration between painter Charles Sheeler and photographer Paul Strand. The non-narrative documentary is a visual poem that is simply exploring two things. First, it provided an abstract view of the city through carefully set up visual compositions. The second one is actually how the camera is used. This is done by experimenting with photography, film, minimalistic camera movement, and incidental motion in each film frame by exploring their relationships with each other.

Being a silent-era film, it does use intertitles, but unlike most films, it uses a Walt Whitman poem instead of dialogue or scene explanations. [3]

7 “From Afar” (2020)

An absolutely beautiful short film that will only take two minutes of your time. This is part of the cinematic poetry genre I mentioned earlier. Its simplicity and use of editing make it an experience that lingers.

Much like “The Life and Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra,” filmmaker and poet Andrei Purcarea uses what he has to his advantage to visually push the poem along. Many of the shots don’t have anything to do with what’s being said exactly when you watch, but at the same time, you get this feeling of understanding.

However, unlike “The Life and Death of 9413,” this film doesn’t have fast cuts or superimpositions. In fact, the editing and pacing are more akin to “Manhatta,” visually telling us a story to go along with the poem. Is this whole film really about a ship, or is it more about something in life that represents a ship we missed and can’t see anymore? What did the characters miss? Who did they miss? The use of the lone red chair and the mirror on this beach looking out at sea…very existential. Very experimental. Very moving. [4]

6 “Catharsis” (2018)

This short film beautifully uses the experimental style to invoke emotion as we journey into the subject’s mind. It is a surreal reminder that we may not know what someone is going through, even if they seem calm on the outside. This film by Naleeka Dennis follows Marsha as she struggles to cope with the loss of her beloved by attempting to live in a fantasy world. But she must eventually deal with her grief.

The ending shot especially hammers this home as the world seems very eerie around her now. It was the same before we dove into her mind, but knowing what she is dealing with really changes your perspective. [5]

5 “Until There Was Nothing” (2020)

This wonderful short was released last year and really takes on a fantastic premise—standing on Earth in its final moments as it enters a black hole. Created by Paul Trillo, the images at first seem beautiful but suddenly change as they stretch toward the sky. While it may seem like a bleak film at first, Trillo notes, “Someday this will pass and there will be nothing left… That’s not something to fear ‘because we come from nothing’ as Alan Watts puts it… and from nothing comes something new.”

The surreal visuals caused by intense gravitational forces with the use of philosopher Alan Watt’s talking about the meaning of nothingness really gives the film a much deeper feel. [6]

4 “Stellar” (1993)

Stan Brakhage is the perfect mix of artist and filmmaker. With 380 films to his credit, it’s hard to choose which one to even pick. Brakhage’s work is unique and can be best described as live paintings. Meaning that he would paint or scratch or do something on each frame and then project it. The results were really mind-blowing. “Stellar” stands out to me as it feels like something that could’ve been used in early sci-fi films like 2001: A Space Odyssey or TV shows like the original Star Trek .

The last few frames are particularly surprising as a strange picture appears amongst the starry images. Like all art, “Stellar” is whatever you perceive it to be. For me, its a journey through space and the birth of the universes, with the first creature in the universe coming into being at the end. See how you interpret it. [7]

3 “Night Mayor” (2009)

A fantastic gem of a film. Guy Maddin’s visuals harken back to early silent film while giving a touch of modernity by filming on newer formats that even include VHS. Yet it’s his use of lighting, old-school tricks, and editing that really helps give this film its surreal aspect. Like we are watching a dream.

“Night Mayor” is a visual journey into the mind of a Bosnian immigrant, Nihad Ademi, who thinks he has discovered a way to harness the power of the Aurora Borealis in order to broadcast imagery from coast to coast. [8]

An absolute must-see short film!

2 “Light Is Calling” (2004)

Bill Morrison is an amazing filmmaker. He is unique in that he helps bring forgotten or close to decaying films back to life as experimental cinema. I highly suggest his film Decasia (2002) and Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016).

“Light Is Calling” is a short he did in 2004 in which he takes decaying nitrate film from 1926 titled “The Bells” and gives it new life.

After having the film optically reprinted, it is edited into a new format to go along with a 7-minute composition by Michael Gordon. IMDb describes the film best as a “meditation on the fleeting nature of life and love, as seen through the roiling emulsion of film.” [9]

A magnificent decaying dream.

1 “Meshes of the Afternoon” (1943)

Maya Deren was a jack of all trades. She was a dancer, choreographer, film theorist, poet, photographer, avant-garde promoter, and experimental filmmaker.

Deren believed that film should be an experience. “Meshes of the Afternoon” is definitely that—and a very important experimental piece. The film is considered one of the most influential experimental films in the history of American cinema.

The film is essentially a dream. Using dreamlike logic to create a unique experience for the viewer, it follows a female character who falls asleep after returning home. Her vivid dreams draw us in as her darker inner desires play out before our eyes. It’s actually hard to distinguish reality from the dream, but that is the point. She involves you mentally. [10]

A very influential piece on many filmmakers, including the works of David Lynch.

More Great Lists

site categories

Disneyland announces pandora-themed land based on ‘avatar: the way of water’, breaking news.

50 Avant Garde And Experimental Films Gallery: From ‘Meshes Of The Afternoon’, ‘The Holy Mountain’, ‘Scorpio Rising’ To ‘The Lighthouse’ & More

By Robert Lang

Robert Lang

Photo Editor

More Stories By Robert

• Hollywood Shows Up Strong For Simone Biles & Team USA’s Gold Win In Women’s Gymnastics Team Final
• Oscar Nominees 2024: The Class Photo
• ‘Finestkind’: First Look At Brian Helgeland’s Crime Thriller Starring Jenna Ortega, Tommy Lee Jones & Ben Foster Ahead Of TIFF World Premiere

Since the creation of the camera and the dawn of cinema, film has been one long experiment. Experimental film has often been defined through its rejection of traditional storytelling and structure, its defiance of logic or reason while creating mesmerizing scenes through dreamlike abstraction and subjective narrative.

A key figure in the early history of experimental film was the French filmmaker Georges Méliès. In the late 1890s and early 1900s, Méliès was one of the first filmmakers to use special effects and trick photography to create fantastical and surreal images on the screen. His films, such as A Trip to the Moon and The Impossible Voyage , were some of the first examples of what would later be called experimental film. Another important trailblazer during the silent era was female director Lois Weber who is credited in creating an estimated 200 to 400 films. She was credited with pioneering the use of the split screen technique to portray simultaneous action in her 1913 film Suspense .

The 1920s and 30s saw the development of experimental film with the rise of surrealism and the Dada movement with artists Man Ray, Salvador Dali, Marcel Duchamp, Robert Florey who pioneered the boundaries and medium of creative short film.

Director Maya Deren would lead the movement into the ’40s with her groundbreaking short Meshes of the Afternoon . She abandoned surrealism and instead focused on using multiple exposures and superimposition in her work creating striking imagery.

Underground cult directors Jack Smith, Kenneth Anger, Steven Arnold James Bidgood ( Pink Narcissus , 1971) and Wakefield Poole all created visual imagery of transgressive sexuality that have become artifacts of queer cinema. Anger would blaze the trail with his legendary films Rabbit’s Moon (1950); Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954) and Scorpio Rising (1963).

Jonas Mekas, one of the most important figures in avant-garde film, was part of the underground movement in the ’60s pushing the boundaries of censorship (and legality) with his films The Brig (1963), Lost Lost Lost (1975) Gun of the Trees (1962). Of course, in France, director Jean-Luc Godard helped popularize the French New Wave with Breathless (1960).

The decade also saw a new wave of Black directors contributing to the medium. Edward Owens’ critically-acclaimed 1966 short film Private Imaginings and Narrative Facts opened the space for Black filmmakers and led the wave of emerging talents contributing to the medium in the ’70s. This included Charles Burnett with his 1978 film Killer of Sheep and Barbara McCullough with Still from Water Ritual #1: An Urban Rite of Purification .

Filmmakers have continued to push the boundaries of cinema with modern masterpieces in recent years such as Béla Tarr Ágnes Hranitzky’s The Turin Horse ; The Lobster directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and Enter The Void by Gaspar Noé.

Scroll down to take a trip through the history of experimental cinema from its inception to the films that carry the transgressive torch today.

THE LIGHTHOUSE, 2019

Dir. Robert Eggers, starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson.

THE WOLF HOUSE, (aka LA CASA LOBO), 2018

Dir. Joaquín Cociña and Cristóbal León, featuring Amalia Kassai(voice), Rainer Krause(voice) and Karina Hyland.  

THE LOBSTER, 2015

Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos, starring Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz.

THE TURIN HORSE, (aka A TORINOI LO), 2011

Dir. Béla Tarr Ágnes Hranitzky(co-director), starring Erika Bok, János Derzsi and Mihály Kormos.

ENTER THE VOID, (aka SOUDAIN LE VIDE), 2009

Dir. Gaspar Noé, starring Nathaniel Brown, Paz de la Huerta and Cyril Roy.  

RUSSIAN ARK, 2002

Dir. Aleksandr Sokurov, starring Sergey Dreyden, Mariya Kuznetsova and Leonid Mozgovoy.

GUMMO, 1997

Dir. Harmony Korine, starring Jacob Sewell, Nick Sutton, Lara Tosh and Chloë Sevigny.

THE WATERMELON WOMAN, 1996

Dir. starring Cheryl Dunye, Valarie Walker and Guinevere Turner.

CHRONOS, 1985

Dir. Ron Fricke

KOYAANISQATSI, 1983

Dir. Godfrey Reggio

STALKER, 1979

Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky, starring Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy and Nikolay Grinko.

WATER RITUAL #1: AN URBAN RITE OF PURIFICATION, 1979

Dir. Barbara McCullough

KILLER OF SHEEP, 1978

Dir. Charles Burnett starring Henry G. Sanders amd Kaycee Moore.

HOUSE, (aka HAUSU), 1977

Dir. Nobuhiko Ôbayashi, starring Miki Jinbo, Kimiko Ikegami and Kumiko Ôba.

ERASERHEAD, 1976

Dir. David Lynch, starring Jack Nance.

THE MIRROR, (aka ZERKALO), 1975

Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky, starring Margarita Terekhova, Filipp Yankovskiy and Ignat Daniltsev.

JEANNE DIELMAN, 23 QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES, 1975

Dir. Chantal Akerman, starring Delphine Seyrig, Jan Decorte and Henri Storck.  

THE HOLY MOUNTAIN, (aka LA MONTANA SAGRADA), 1973

Dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky, starring Alejandro Jodorowsky, Horacio Salinas and Zamira Saunders.

THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE, (aka LE CHARME DISCRET DE LA BOURGEOISIE), 1972

Dir. Luis Buñuel, starring Delphine Seyrig, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Bulle Ogier, Milena Vukotic, Paul Frankeur, Stephane Audran and Fernando Rey.

PINK NARCISSUS, 1971

Dir. James Bidgood,  starring Bobby Kendall and Don Brooks.

LUMINOUS PROCURESS, 1971

Dir. Steven Arnold, starring Pandora, Steve Solberg and Ronald Farrell.  

EL TOPO, 1970

Dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky, starring Alejandro Jodorowsky, Brontis Jodorowsky and José Legarreta.

VALERIE AND HER WEEK OF WONDERS (aka VALERIE A TYDEN DIVU), 1970

Dir. Jaromil Jires, starring Jaroslava Schallerova, Helena Anýzová and Petr Kopriva.

THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES (SAYAT NOVA), 1969

Dir. Sergei Parajanov, starring Sofiko Chiaureli, Melkon Alekyan and Vilen Galstyan.

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, 1968

Dir. Stanley Kubrick, starring Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood and William Sylvester.

WAVELENGTH, 1967

Dir. Michael Snow, features Hollis Frampton, Lyne Grossman and Naoto Nakazawa.

PERSONA, 1966

Dir. Ingmar Bergman, starring Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson.

PRIVATE IMAGINGS AND NARRATIVE FACTS, 1966

Dir. Edward Owens

THE CHELSEA GIRLS, 1966

Dir. Andy Warhol, starring Brigid Berlin, Randy Borscheidt and Christian Päffgen.  

DAISIES, (aka SEDMIKRASKY), 1966

Dir. Vera Chytilová, starring Jitka Cerhova and Ivana Karbonova.

I AM CUBA (aka SOY CUBA/YA KUBA), 1964

dir. Mikhail Kalatozov, starring Luz Maria Collazo, Sergio Corrieri, Salvador Wood and José Gallardo.  

SCORPIO RISING, 1963

Dir. Kenneth Anger, starring Ernie Allo, Bruce Byron and Frank Carifi.

8 1/2, 1963

Dir. Federico Fellini, starring Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimée and Claudia Cardinale.

LA JETEE, 1962

Dir. Chris Marker, starring Jacques Ledoux, Étienne Becker, Jean Négroni(voice) and Hélène Chatelain.

LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD, (aka L’ANNEE DERNIERE A MARIENBAD), Delphine Seyrig, Giorgio Albertazzi, 1961

Dir. Alain Resnais, starring Delphine Seyrig and Giorgio Albertazzi.

GUNS OF THE TREES, 1961

Dir. Jonas Mekas starring Ben Carruthers, Argus Speare Julliard, Adolfas Mekas, Frances Stillman and Ben Carruthers.

BREATHLESS, 1960

Dir. Jean-Luc Godard, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg and Daniel Boulanger.

THE SEVENTH SEAL, 1957

Dir. Ingmar Bergman, starring Bengt Ekerot, Max von Sydow and Gunnar Björnstrand.

RASHOMON, 1950

Dir. Akira Kurosawa, starring Toshiro Mifune and Machiko Kyo.

INAUGURATION OF THE PLEASURE DOME, 1954

Di. Kenneth Anger, starring Samson De Brier, Marjorie Cameron and Joan Whitney.

MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON, 1943

Dir. Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid, starring Maya Deren.

RAINBOW DANCE, 1936

Dir. Len Lye starring Rupert Doone.

THE BLOOD OF A POET, (aka LE SANG D’UN POETE), 1930

Dir. Jean Cocteau, starring, Enrique Rivero, Elizabeth Lee Miller and Pauline Carton.

THE MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA, 1929

Dir. Dziga Vertov, starring Mikhail Kaufman and Elizaveta Svilova.

UN CHIEN ANDALOU, (ANDALUSIAN DOG), 1929

Dir. Luis Buñuel, written by Salvador Dalí and starring Pierre Batcheff, Simone Mareuil and Luis Buñuel.

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF 9413 — A HOLLYWOOD EXTRA, 1928

Dir. Robert Florey and Slavko Vorkapich, starring Jules Raucourt, Voya George and Robert Florey.

ENTR’ACTE, 1924

Dir. René Clair, starring Jean Börlin, Inge Frïss and Francis Picabi.

RETURN TO REASON (Le Retour à la raison), 1923

Dir. Man Ray, starring Kiki of Montparnasse

SUSPENSE, 1913

Dir. Lois Weber, starring Lois Weber, Val Paul and Douglas Gerrard.

A TRIP TO THE MOON, 1902

Dir. Georges Méliès featuring Georges Méliès, Victor André and Bleuette Bernon.

Must Read Stories

Closing ceremony tv review; paris hands off to los angeles; photo gallery.

Surpasses $1B Worldwide; No. 1 Again In U.S. With $54M Frame

$50m in u.s. debut; how blake lively was “tour de force” for pic, joe biden on ‘cbs sunday morning’: staying in race would be “distraction”, read more about:, subscribe to deadline.

Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy.

No Comments

Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Ten Masterpieces of Experimental Cinema

The following list by Justin Remes, author of Motion(less) Pictures: The Cinema of Stasis and the forthcoming Absence in Cinema: The Art of Showing Nothing , considers ten canonical experimental films. You can also watch the films below.

•  •  •  •  •  •

“I don’t like experimental films.” 

“What experimental films have you seen?”

“Well, I’m not sure I’ve ever really seen one, but…”

I’ve had this conversation more times than I can count.

While almost everyone has seen avant-garde paintings by Picasso and Pollock, few have ever had the opportunity to see an avant-garde film by Buñuel or Brakhage. Those who are interested in exploring this cinematic terrain might want to check out one or more of the following films, listed in chronological order. Since experimental films are often difficult to find, I have only included works that can currently be seen in high-quality versions online. 

Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, Un Chien Andalou ( An Andalusian Dog ) (1929) (16 minutes) (NSFW)

In his autobiography, My Last Sigh , the great Surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel wrote, “I’ve tried my whole life to simply accept the images that present themselves to me without trying to analyze them.” This is precisely how one should approach the bizarre and irrational images of Un Chien Andalou : an eyeball being sliced open by a razor, ants swarming out of a hole in a man’s hand, two corpses buried in sand on a beach. Buñuel and Dalí pair these bewildering images with a soundtrack that includes a couple of sensual tangos, as well as the magisterial “Liebestod” (or “love death”) from Wagner’s opera Tristan and Isolde . Un Chien Andalou is disturbing, disorienting, and startlingly original. Those who see it never forget it.

Walter Ruttmann, Wochenende ( Weekend ) (1930) (11 minutes)

To create this odd intermedia experiment, the German filmmaker Walter Ruttmann wandered through the streets of Berlin and recorded his surroundings with a camera without ever removing the lens cap. In other words, Wochenende features a complex sound collage of voices, marching bands, and sirens, but it is completely devoid of images. Instead, spectators are free to imagine whatever content they like on the blank cinema screen before them. In the words of the Dada artist Hans Richter, Wochenende is “a symphony of sound, speech-fragments, and silence woven into a poem.”

Joseph Cornell, Jack’s Dream (c. 1938) (4 minutes)

American artist Joseph Cornell was a pioneer of found footage filmmaking (that is, creating films by reworking content from preexisting films), and Jack’s Dream is one of his most compelling cinematic remixes. As one listens to the gorgeous strains of Debussy’s Clair de Lune , one sees a number of apparently disconnected images: a puppet show, seahorses, a sinking ship. Like many actual dreams, Jack’s Dream is ephemeral and enigmatic.

Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid, Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) (13 minutes)

Albert Einstein once wrote, “The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.” It is hard to think of a more mysterious film than Meshes of the Afternoon , a dreamscape that is replete with haunting and cryptic images: a flower that transforms into a knife, a woman who pulls a key out of her mouth, a hooded figure with a mirror for a face. Deren influenced just about every American experimental filmmaker who came after her, prompting Stan Brakhage to call her “the mother of us all.”

Note: When Meshes of the Afternoon was originally released, it was completely silent, but in 1959 a musical score by Deren’s third husband, Teiji Ito, was added. The silent version of the film is more compelling than the sound version, however, so if the version you are watching has sound, I would encourage you to mute it.

Stan Brakhage, Window Water Baby Moving (1959) (12 minutes) (NSFW)

The filmmaker Marjorie Keller once mused, “I don’t know that there could be an avant-garde filmmaker in America that is not in some way indebted to Stan Brakhage, has not studied his films, has not thought about them and taken them seriously.” While Brakhage made over 350 films, one of his most memorable and influential is Window Water Baby Moving , a work that documents the birth of Stan and Jane Brakhage’s first child, Myrrena. Brakhage uses rapid nonlinear editing, out-of-focus shots, reverse motion, and jump cuts to capture just how frenetic and disorienting childbirth can be.

Kenneth Anger, Scorpio Rising (1963) (28 minutes) (NSFW)

In the early 1960s, pop artists like Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol were revolutionizing the art world by appropriating images from popular culture: comic book characters, Hollywood celebrities, cans of Campbell’s soup. Kenneth Anger brought a similar sensibility to his film Scorpio Rising , a heady brew of religion, drugs, motorcycles, Nazis, and homoerotic sadomasochism. At a time when most filmmakers used classical music for their soundtracks, Anger used only contemporary pop songs, like Elvis Presley’s “You’re the Devil in Disguise” and Bobby Vinton’s “Blue Velvet.” Scorpio Rising is also populated with images drawn for popular culture: comic strip panels, gay pornography, and appropriated images of James Dean, Marlon Brando, Jesus, Dracula, and Hitler. One of Anger’s many acolytes, Martin Scorsese, confessed that when he first saw Scorpio Rising , he was “astonished”: “Every cut, every camera movement, every color, and every texture seemed, somehow, inevitable.”

Joyce Wieland, Cat Food (1967) (14 minutes)

Spectators of Cat Food hear crashing waves while watching Wieland’s insatiable cat, Dwight, voraciously eat fish. Whenever one fish starts to be consumed, another seems to miraculously appear. The film has a mythic quality, bringing to mind the New Testament story of Jesus feeding a crowd with only five loaves of bread and two fish, as well as the ancient Greek story of Prometheus, whose liver was eaten out by an eagle every day, only to regenerate and be eaten again. Films like Cat Food prompted Hollis Frampton to opine, “The thought of some Purgatory wherein I might be deprived of seeing Joyce Wieland’s films makes me regret my every sin and dereliction.”

Hollis Frampton, Carrots and Peas (1969) (5 minutes)

Carrots and Peas is a cinematic still life in which images of the titular vegetables are paired with the voice from an exercise film played in reverse. Early in the film, Frampton manipulates the imagery by flipping it upside down, adding a color filter, and painting the filmstrip itself. As the film continues, however, the interventions cease, and the viewer ends up staring at a single static image of carrots and peas for a prolonged period of time. Once this happens, one begins to notice details of the shot had originally escaped one’s attention: the indentations on individual peas, for example—or the way one carrot slice seems to be hiding from the others. Carrots and Peas is so odd and inexplicable, it makes me giggle with glee.

Norman McLaren, Synchromy (1971) (7 minutes)

To create this exuberant abstract film, McLaren photographed striated cards with colorful lines on them and placed them onto the film’s soundtrack to produce a series of specific pitches. McLaren then placed these same cards onto the film’s visual track, thus creating a precise synchronization of sound and image. The result is an orgy of color and sound, an exhilarating experiment in cinematic synesthesia.

Naomi Uman, removed (1999) (7 minutes) (NSFW)

Uman erases the women from an old pornographic film using nail polish and bleach, and the result is a provocative and playful deconstruction of cinema’s representational codes. Uman invites viewers to do whatever they want with these “holes.” One can attempt to “peek” at the women who are being erased (since they occasionally become visible, in whole or in part, for a split second). One can enjoy the absences as absences, taking pleasure in the film’s shimmering voids. Or one can fill in the blanks with one’s own desiderata. In the words of Claire Stewart, “The hole in the film becomes an erotic zone, a blank on which a fantasy body is projected.”

Enter our  SCMS 2020  drawing  for a chance to win a free book. Although we encourage you to buy from your local bookstores, we are offering a  30 percent conference   discount  when you order from our website. Use  coupon code SCMS20  at checkout to save on our  SCMS books on display .

Categories: Film ​ Media Studies ​ Society For Cinema and Media Studies ​ Virtual Exhibits

Tags: Absense in Cinema Justin Remes Motion(less) Pictures SCMS2020

Related Posts

Chromatic Modernity Wins the Katherine Singer Kovács Book Award!

New Books in Film and Media Studies from Auteur, transcript publishing, and the Austrian Film Museum

New Book Tuesday! Rethinking Readiness, Doctors’ Orders, Stories from the Field, and More!

There’s More to 3D Than Meets the Eye By Nick Jones

Anxious Afterthoughts on Anxious Cinephilia by Sarah Keller

Q&A: Claudia Breger on Making Worlds , and What Films to Watch While Social Distancing

Comedies of Catastrophe, Contagion, and Self-Quarantine: A Spectral Playlist for the Impromptu Apocalypse

Welcome to Our SCMS 2020 Virtual Exhibit Booth!

Leave a reply cancel reply.

You must be logged in to post a comment.

This website uses cookies as well as similar tools and technologies to understand visitors’ experiences. By continuing to use this website, you consent to Columbia University Press’ usage of cookies and similar technologies, in accordance with the  Columbia University Press Blog Cookie Notice .

• Screenwriting \e607
• Directing \e606
• Cinematography & Cameras \e605
• Editing & Post-Production \e602
• Documentary \e603
• Movies & TV \e60a
• Producing \e608
• Distribution & Marketing \e604
• Festivals & Events \e611
• Fundraising & Crowdfunding \e60f
• Sound & Music \e601
• Games & Transmedia \e60e
• Grants, Contests, & Awards \e60d
• Film School \e610
• Marketplace & Deals \e60b
• Off Topic \e609
• This Site \e600

Dissecting the Experimental Genre in Film and TV

Are you ready to experiment inside the confines of film and television .

Have you ever been watching a show or movie that doesn't seem t conform to your expectations of what the medium should hold? Well, you may have been indulging in an experimental film or TV show. 

Experimental films and TV shows offer a refreshing break from the conventional narratives and styles that dominate the entertainment industry. These productions challenge viewers to think outside the box and provide a platform for artists to experiment with various storytelling techniques, editing styles, and visual effects.

In this article, we will dissect the experimental genre in film and TV, exploring its origins, characteristics, and notable examples.

We will also examine how experimental films and TV shows differ from traditional productions, and what makes them so fascinating to watch. Whether you are a film buff or just a casual viewer, join us as we delve into the intriguing world of experimental film and television.

Let's experiment together! 

Is Experimental a Genre? 

There is some debate on this topic, so it feels like we should broach it up top. I got an email from the amazing people at RE: Voir, who publish DVDs of experimental films and have some amazing articles on their site. 

They wrote me an email that said " Experimental film is not a genre. This is important. It is a category apart from narrative and documentary, even if some films intersect between these categories, such as Eraserhead which is definitely a narrative film that can be qualified as somewhat experimental. Other films are purely experimental such as Stan Brakhage's hand-painted films. I think the radical approach of experimental filmmakers and their break from the film industry should not be understated. "

I had never considered this point of view, and it was a really interesting one. And I think valid, even if I don't agree with it. 

I don't want to understate anyone's artistic merit, but I am of the opinion that experimental films are a genre, just like I think documentary is a genre as well. Maybe I'm wrong. My only reason for believing this is the definition of genre, which is "A ny form or type of communication in any mode with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. "

I think the conventions of experimental films exist. They are the unconventional approach to narrative and emotion. I think this abstraction is what groups them together, but again, I might be wrong! 

I feel like Experimental fits that category, but again, open to anyone else's ideas here, which is why I included this section. 

I think we can all agree, you should watch as many of these movies as you can to expand your point of view. 

Dissecting The Experimental Genre in Film and TV 

The experimental genre offers an exciting opportunity for filmmakers to push boundaries, explore new ideas, and create unique and thought-provoking content that captivates audiences. Now, we must define it. 

Experimental Genre Definition 

The experimental genre in film and TV refers to productions that deviate from the traditional narrative structure and style of mainstream entertainment. These productions often challenge viewers to think outside the box and explore unconventional ideas and perspectives.

The experimental genre is characterized by its willingness to take risks and push boundaries, whether through abstract visuals, innovative storytelling techniques, or unconventional editing styles.

What Do Experimental Film and TV Projects Look Like? 

Experimental productions can range from avant-garde art films to surrealistic TV shows and are often created by independent filmmakers and artists who seek to explore new ways of communicating ideas and emotions.

While not always commercially successful, the experimental genre provides a valuable platform for artists to experiment with different forms of expression and offers viewers a unique and thought-provoking viewing experience.

The History Of The Experimental Film and TV Genre 

The experimental film and TV genre has a rich and fascinating history that spans over a century of artistic innovation and experimentation. The roots of the genre can be traced back to the early days of cinema when pioneering filmmakers like Georges Méliès and the Lumière brothers were experimenting with new visual techniques and storytelling methods.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the experimental film movement gained momentum with the emergence of surrealism and other avant-garde art movements. Filmmakers like Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dali, and Maya Deren pushed the boundaries of traditional narrative structures and created films that explored themes of identity, memory, and perception through unconventional imagery and editing techniques.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the experimental film movement continued to flourish with the emergence of new technologies like video and the development of independent cinema. Filmmakers like Stan Brakhage, Jonas Mekas, and Andy Warhol created works that challenged traditional notions of cinematic form and explored new ways of capturing and presenting reality.

In the world of TV, the experimental genre began to emerge in the 1990s with shows like Twin Peaks and The X-Files that pushed the boundaries of traditional narrative structures and incorporated elements of surrealism and other experimental techniques.

Today, the experimental film and TV genre continues to thrive with the rise of independent filmmaking and the growing popularity of streaming platforms that provide a platform for artists to experiment with new styles and techniques.

The genre remains a vital and exciting part of the film and TV landscape, pushing the boundaries of visual storytelling and challenging viewers to think outside the box.

Why Do Experimental Films and TV Shows Matter? 

Experimental films and TV shows matter for a variety of reasons.

First, they provide a platform for artists to experiment with new and unconventional storytelling techniques, visual styles, and editing techniques. This can lead to the creation of groundbreaking and thought-provoking works that challenge viewers to think outside the box.

Second, experimental productions often explore complex and challenging ideas and themes that are not typically addressed in mainstream entertainment. This can lead to important conversations about society, culture, and the human experience, and can inspire viewers to reflect on their own lives and perspectives.

Third, the experimental genre in film and TV plays a vital role in pushing boundaries and evolving the art form of visual storytelling. By challenging traditional narrative structures and styles, experimental productions can inspire new forms of storytelling and pave the way for future innovations in film and TV.

Finally, experimental films and TV shows offer a refreshing break from the often formulaic and predictable narratives of mainstream entertainment. By embracing risk and uncertainty, these productions can create a sense of excitement and unpredictability that keeps viewers engaged and entertained.

Examples of Experimental Films 

One of my favorite courses of study, when I was in film school, was experimental films. I loved when my professors dragged out the projector to show us things or the untold wonders and surprises of something from Don Hertzfeldt or Chantal Akerman.  

There are countless examples of experimental films that have pushed the boundaries of visual storytelling and challenged traditional narrative structures. Here are a few notable examples:

Un Chien Andalou   (1929) - Directed by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali, this surrealist short film is famous for its bizarre and disturbing imagery and nonlinear narrative structure.

Meshes of the Afternoon   (1943) - Directed by Maya Deren, this avant-garde film uses dreamlike visuals and repeated imagery to explore themes of identity, memory, and perception.

Koyaanisqatsi (1982) - Directed by Godfrey Reggio, this experimental documentary film combines stunning visuals of natural and urban landscapes with a haunting score by composer Philip Glass.

Eraserhead (1977) - Directed by David Lynch, this surrealistic horror film tells the story of a man named Henry Spencer who becomes increasingly isolated and alienated from his surroundings.

La Jetée (1962) - Directed by Chris Marker, this experimental science fiction film tells the story of a man sent back in time to prevent a catastrophic event from occurring.

These are just a few examples of the wide range of experimental films that have been created over the years. Each of these films challenges traditional storytelling techniques and provides a unique and thought-provoking viewing experience.

They are the tip of the iceberg, and I encourage you to journey deeper into what experimental films have to offer. 

Examples of Experimental TV Shows 

Experimental TV shows have become more common in recent years, with streaming platforms providing a platform for independent filmmakers and artists to push boundaries and experiment with different styles and formats. Here are a few notable examples of experimental TV shows:

Twin Peaks (1990-1991) - Created by David Lynch and Mark Frost, this surrealistic drama series follows an FBI agent investigating the murder of a young woman in a small town. The show's dreamlike visuals, nonlinear narrative structure, and bizarre characters make it a classic example of experimental TV.

Black Mirror (2011-2019) - Created by Charlie Brooker, this science fiction anthology series explores the dark side of technology and its impact on society. Each episode is a self-contained story that often subverts expectations and challenges viewers to think about the consequences of our relationship with technology.

Legion (2017-2019) - Created by Noah Hawley, this superhero drama series follows a young man with mutant powers who struggles to distinguish between reality and his delusions. The show's surreal visuals, nonlinear narrative structure, and unconventional use of sound and music make it a unique and challenging viewing experience.

Atlanta (2016-present) - Created by and starring Donald Glover, this comedy-drama series follows a young rapper trying to make it in the Atlanta music scene. The show's use of surrealistic and absurdist humor, combined with its exploration of race and identity, make it a standout example of experimental TV.

Undone (2019-present) - Created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg and Kate Purdy, this animated series uses rotoscope animation to tell the story of a young woman who gains the ability to travel through time after a near-death experience. The show's unique visual style, nonlinear narrative structure, and exploration of mental illness and trauma make it a fascinating and thought-provoking viewing experience.

Each of these shows challenges traditional narrative structures and provides a unique and innovative viewing experience.

The Difference Between Experimental Films and Art Films 

Experimental films and art films are both forms of cinema that often challenge traditional storytelling techniques and explore complex themes and ideas. However, there are some key differences between the two genres.

Experimental films are often characterized by a focus on form over narrative, with filmmakers using unconventional techniques and structures to explore new ways of presenting reality. These films often feature abstract imagery, non-linear narratives, and avant-garde techniques such as collage, found footage, and direct manipulation of film stock. The emphasis is often on creating a sensory experience for the viewer rather than telling a traditional story. Experimental films may also be shorter in length and have a smaller budget than mainstream films.

Art films, on the other hand, are often more narrative-driven and character-focused, but they still push the boundaries of traditional storytelling. These films often explore complex themes and ideas and challenge viewers to think critically about the world around them. They may use unconventional techniques such as non-linear storytelling, symbolic imagery, or an emphasis on mood and atmosphere over the plot. Art films may have a longer runtime and may have larger budgets than experimental films.

Another key difference between the two genres is their intended audience. Experimental films are often aimed at a more niche audience, such as film students or cinephiles, while art films may have a broader appeal and may be marketed to a wider audience.

In summary, while both experimental films and art films share a focus on innovation and challenging traditional storytelling techniques, experimental films place a greater emphasis on form and creating a sensory experience for the viewer, while art films are more narrative-driven and character-focused, with a broader appeal to audiences.

Summing Up The Experimental Genre in Film and TV 

In conclusion, the experimental genre in film and TV is a captivating and thought-provoking form of entertainment that offers a unique perspective on storytelling.

From its origins in the early 20th century to the present day, experimental films and TV shows have challenged viewers to think beyond the traditional narrative structure and explore new ways of communicating ideas and emotions.

Whether through abstract visuals, unconventional editing techniques, or innovative storytelling, experimental productions continue to push boundaries and inspire audiences. While not always commercially successful, these productions offer valuable insights into the human experience and can spark important conversations about society, culture, and the world around us.

As we continue to evolve and explore new ways of storytelling, the experimental genre in film and TV will undoubtedly continue to play a vital role in shaping our collective understanding of the world we live in.

What are some of your favorite experimental films? 

Let me know in the comments. 

How to Write Your Script's Climax

Learning how to write a climax will help keep your script tight and exciting. but how do you do it.

When you're writing your screenplay you'll find mapping things out based on story structure can be cathartic. It eases you into each scene and provides a story map for where you are going.

For me, writing the climax is the most satisfying part of screenwriting. You get to anticipate the audience. Surprise them. And it means you're almost done.

But how can you write those scenes with confidence and learn how to master writing the climax?

Today, we'll learn how to write a climax in your script and talk about the basic tenents that can push your climax over the edge.

Let's go.

How to Write a Climax

Many people cite the climax as their favorite part of a movie or television episode. But what does the climax truly mean?

A climax is the most intense, exciting, or important point of a movie or television show. It marks the amalgamation of all the scenes that came before it and includes most of the payoffs within the film or episode.

When you're writing the climax there are certain elements you want to keep in mind no matter what genre you're writing.

The climax may involve:

1. expensive set-pieces.

Climaxes are usually where all the money is spent. They have set pieces that are huge. Think about what has never been done before? Where can you do something that blows an audience away and showcases your unique talents? How and you amp up your wow factor?

Example : Think the helicopter chase from Mission Impossible: Fallout

2. Outrageous stunts

As a Jackie Chan fan, I knew the best stunts came at the end of the movie. You can write anything and let the coordinators figure it out later. So write something nuts. It can even be as nuts as just getting hit by a bus, like in Mean Girls . Just make it memorable.

Example : Think the ending on Police Story

3. Intense emotional payoffs

Climaxes don't only happen in action movies. And no matter what your story is about either, you need people juked ed at the end. That means giving them all the emotions they can handle. In a drama, that might be a final farewell or just the reunion of two characters kept apart. You want the emotions to mix with both points above to make the story exciting.

Example : Mad Men 's last call between Betty and Don

The beats of the climax

Every climax has specific story beats that make them clue the audience in that we're approaching the end. Take a look at these examples from our Beat Sheet.

Story Beats:

• Rock Bottom

What's the lowest point for your character?

• The Bounce Back

How does your protagonist face the odds to persevere?

How does your character win out against the odds? Or maybe they lose...

Climax examples

While these beats don't have to happen in the climax, I thought it would be good to look at some examples as you structure your climaxes. When you think about your climax, you want to approach it like writing any other scene . There should be conflict, drama, and intrigue. But this time, since it's at the end of your movie or episode, you want it to pay off what we've seen previously.

So, in something like Breaking Bad S05 E16, when Walt takes on the meth-making gang of white supremacists, you want to understand everything he's set up with the machine gun, car, and remote control. We also know his continued losses to this gang and his determination to make them pay.

His triumph here comes at a great coast, but it frees his best friend.

Again, this doesn't all have to be action. One of my favorite movies of all time is Young Adult.

The climax of that underrated film happens at a baby shower, where Mavis tries to get the father of the baby -- and her old crush -- to leave the city with her. Here, we get a huge reveal of who the self-centered Mavis is and why she behaves this way. We find out about the trauma she has endured and actually begin to feel sorry for her.

In this drama, the bounce back and triumph come a scene later: She finds the adulation she's always wanted and therefore is able to revert to her high school mindset once again.

Summing up how to write climaxes

Now that you understand what goes into the climax, it's time for you to assess your own story and see what it needs. As you approach your screenplay, ask yourself what character moments you can pay off to see the arc .

These answers should be in your character's development .

If you're struggling for a place for the climax to be set, go back to act one and see if you can plant a location and then pay it off later. And if you're having trouble writing the final pages, maybe scrolls through our action genre and comedy genre pages to see how the masters do it.

Now get out there and get writing!

The 'Longlegs' Ending Explained

The ending of 'challengers' explained, the best free screenwriting software options, what are the best film noir movies of all time, preview dji’s forthcoming lightweight and 4k-ready neo drone, sandisk unveils world’s first 4tb microsd and 8tb sd cards, which screenwriting competitions are worth entering, ssff & asia open submissions for kodansha cinema creators' lab 2025, let's dig into steven spielberg's aperture choices, how 'cuckoo' achieved its unique shots and in-camera effects.

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

The Experiment

26 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that ultimately spirals out of control. 26 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that ultimately spirals out of control. 26 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that ultimately spirals out of control.

• Paul T. Scheuring
• Mario Giordano
• Christoph Darnstädt
• Adrien Brody
• Cam Gigandet
• Forest Whitaker
• 149 User reviews
• 55 Critic reviews

Top cast 36

• (as Lavell 'David Banner' Crump)

• Female Administrator
• (as Jack W. Mishler)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

• Trivia This movie is a remake of a movie ( The Experiment (2001) ) based on a book that was inspired by the real-life Stanford prison experiment. Although the experiment's purpose is not explicitly mentioned in the film, the original study was meant to observe the effects of power, rules, group identity and dehumanization in a simulated prison environment. The Stanford prison experiment also employed test subjects as either guards of prisoners, but ended early as both groups took their respective roles too seriously. The experiment will never be redone, because although it was deemed ethical at the time under the later-amended rules of the American Psychiatric Association, any research done must not physically or mentally harm the participants.
• Goofs In the scene near the end, where Travis is beating up Barris, Travis had recently grabbed the blade of the knife when Barris tried to stab him. His hand was shown to be very bloody. However, when the red light and the alarm went on and Travis raised his hands to his head, his hand was completely clean and unharmed.

Archaleta : Justice is what keeps us safe as a society. Ordered law.

Travis : Justice is what starts wars. And eye for and eye for an eye. It takes a turning of the cheek for this species to evolve.

Archaleta : Ah, so you're the one who knows what it's going to take for this society to evolve.

Travis : I'm just regurgitating what people have been saying for a long time.

• Connections References Red Dawn (1984)
• Soundtracks You're the Only One For Me Written by Alan Ett and William Ashford Performed by The Music Collective

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 36 minutes
• Black and White
• Dolby Digital

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed.

5 Great Experimental Films Everyone Should See

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

The Most Cringe Moments in Live-Action Disney Remakes

10 underrated horror movies you can stream for free on tubi, the most annoying characters in otherwise perfect movies.

There's nothing quite like the jolt of seeing something truly out there on the big screen that truly shakes an audience member to the core. Experimental filmmaking has been a trend throughout the history of cinema, and many filmmakers have taken a stab at it with varying levels of success. When it's done well, an experimental film can truly transcend the boundaries of the genre and deliver a singular and unforgettable experience.

What defines a film as experimental can be a bit broad; it's usually characterized by a bold, avant-garde, and unconventional approach towards narrative and structure. The following films take the experimental label to the highest level, resulting in some of the most memorable entries in the subgenre to date. Take a look at what makes these experimental films five of the most unforgettable and uncompromising of the subgenre.

5 Enter The Void

This 2009 psychological thriller is the epitome of a head-trip. Enter the Void , from unorthodox filmmaker Gaspar Noé, follows an American drug dealer named Oscar who is shot and killed near the beginning of the film, initiating an out-of-body experience that allows him to recall moments from his past and hover over reality with a God's eye view. The film defies traditional narrative to place us directly in Oscar's head and depicts the metaphysical experience in a truly unique and artistic approach.

The film utilizes a neon-soaked Tokyo atmosphere to add texture and mood, and its cinematography is inspired by psychedelics like DMT, contributing to the distorted nature of the film. Enter the Void is a purely sensory experience that immerses us in our protagonist's confusion and delivers some truly breathtaking and chaotic imagery in the process.

Enter the Void drew a mixed reception upon release but has developed its fair share of ardent fans, and is considered a 21st century cult classic by many for its imaginative storytelling, visual style, and abstract take on the concepts of grief, loss, spirituality, and death. It's certainly one of the most accomplished experimental films of the past decade and continues to resonate with audiences, still being considered one of the most hypnotic films ever made.

Ingmar Bergman has subverted the modern traditions of filmmaking numerous times throughout his career, and his landmark film Persona is a more than strong showcase for his talents and for experimental cinema in general. The film follows a young nurse caring for a former actress who has gone mute; in the process the two form a symbiotic relationship that ends up leading to obsession. The film draws on the surreal perspective of its protagonists to create an air of tension and unease throughout, and Bergman's black and white visuals are consistently haunting and surreal.

Related: Here Are Some of the Most Visually Stunning TV Shows Ever Made

Persona defies linear narrative and visually and thematically plays with themes of identity, motherhood, and reality. Featuring an astounding, extended sequence of truly haunting, avant-garde images and filmmaking techniques, Persona has since gone on to be considered one of the greatest films ever made and has been analyzed frequently by critics and scholars. Persona is considered a textbook example of an experimental film, with its endless meanings and ambiguous nature towards its own storytelling.

3 Holy Motors

The French film Holy Motors takes the idea of double roles to an artful and experimental extreme, and consequently creates an incredible meditation on the art of acting and cinema itself. Leos Carax's film follows a man named Mr. Oscar who takes on the form of several individuals living out moments in their daily lives, as he careens through city streets in his limousine. The ever-shifting narrative makes for some dynamic storytelling and filmmaking, and each segment represents a particular cinematic style or aesthetic. The juggling narratives and tonal shifts ensure that Holy Motors is an evolving cinematic experience, one that at times purely defies convention to deliver some imaginative visuals and wonderful musical sequences.

The film never settles for a straightforward or traditional narrative and is consistently challenging its audience with its dense yet thought-provoking storytelling. Holy Motors was met with critical acclaim upon release and has been lauded for its unapologetic originality and abstract themes and presentation. The film competed for the Palme d'Or prize at Cannes and has since earned itself a cult following in the years since. As a piece of filmmaking, Holy Motors is gloriously experimental, and one of the most distinct visual experiences in modern cinema.

2 Mulholland Drive

Experimental filmmaking is something David Lynch is no stranger to, and his 2001 masterpiece Mulholland Drive is no exception. Mulholland Drive defies the norms of genre and convention through its tale of murder, romance, and obsession set against the backdrop of Hollywood. Mulholland Drive, like many of David Lynch's movies , is full of surreal sequences that combines genres to deliver a memorably unpredictable experience.

Related: Here's What Makes Mulholland Drive One of the Greatest Fantasy Films Ever Made

The film is full of ambiguous plot threads and themes that, in true Lynchian fashion, are never neatly resolved or addressed, but leave fans engaged nonetheless. Mulholland Drive has long been open to speculation over its themes and plot, and has the kind of ending which should be watched twice . Considered one of the most influential films of the past few decades, Mulholland Drive set the bar for experimental filmmaking this century with a high benchmark that continues to inspire and captivate viewers.

1 The Holy Mountain

Master of the midnight movie , Alejandro Jodorowsky is accustomed to creating surreal cinematic experiences, and The Holy Mountain reigns chief among them. The film is a surrealist experience involving a strange and spiritual journey among seven individuals to a territory known as the Holy Mountain. The film lacks a clear-cut presentation or story beyond that, but manages to deliver rich symbolism, haunting visuals, and imaginative filmmaking in the process.

Jodorowsky's psychedelic and subversively twisted perspective is deeply captivating, and while it's hard to take in all of its subtext at once, The Holy Mountain is pure cinema through and through. The film has steadily earned its admirers and followers throughout the years and for some is considered Jodorowsky's masterpieces. While it may not always get the attention of some of his other films such as El Topo , The Holy Mountain is still a powerful, insightful, and complex work of art that continues to draw viewers in with its mysteries, and is now an established part of the experimental filmmaking canon.

• Movie Lists

• Drama Movies
• Movie Themes
• Sci-Fi Movies

The 13 Best Movies About Scientists and Experiments

If you buy something using our links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Scientific exploration represents the intellectual pursuit of the unknown. It's a quest for knowledge that has driven many to obsession or even madness, especially when failure looms increasingly overhead.

All kinds of films have been made about enigmatic characters who dedicate their lives to science and experiments. Such films tend to be sci-fi thrillers, but there are also compelling dramas and hilarious comedies that bring fresh energy to the premise.

Here are my picks for the best movies about scientists and their experiments, spanning the gamut of genres but all still worth watching for their own special reasons.

13. Junior (1994)

Directed by Ivan Reitman

Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, Emma Thompson

Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi (1h 49m)

4.7 on IMDb — 39% on RT

Directed by one of the best comedic directors in history, Junior is a cautionary tale of scientific experimentation if there ever was one.

Our story finds two scientists, Dr. Alex Hesse (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Dr. Larry Arbogast (played by Danny DeVito), who have created a new pregnancy drug to cure infertility.

Unfortunately, bureaucratic red tape threatens to derail the duo's experiment: due to ethical reasons, they can't test the drug on real human subjects. So, Alex decides to take the drug himself—and despite precautionary measures, even he couldn't predict what happens next.

Yes, that's right: we're kicking off this list with a movie about Arnold Schwarzenegger impregnating himself! Don't worry, as most of the other films on this list will be more serious. But if you're looking for an easy-to-watch comedy, don't let Junior 's poor critical reception deter you.

12. The Andromeda Strain (1971)

Directed by Robert Wise

Starring James Olson, Arthur Hill, David Wayne

Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller (2h 11m)

7.2 on IMDb — 67% on RT

Directed by Robert Wise, The Andromeda Strain is a classic film to watch if you're interested in movies about scientific experiments.

Dr. Jeremy Stone (played by Arthur Hill) is tasked with leading a team of scientists to contain the spread of an extraterrestrial organism that lands on Earth. However, it soon becomes clear throughout their experiments that they're way out of their depth...

Based on the phenomenal novel by sci-fi extraordinaire Michael Crichton, the film adaptation was lauded for its suspense and its creative use of split-screens long before it was widely used.

11. I Origins (2014)

Directed by Mike Cahill

Starring Michael Pitt, Steven Yeun, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey

Drama, Mystery, Romance (1h 46m)

7.3 on IMDb — 52% on RT

PhD student Ian Gray (played by Michael Pitt) is studying the evolution of the human eye. One day, while attending a college party, he meets a woman with the most beautiful eyes he has ever seen.

Later, several years in the future, what begins as a purely scientific study turns into something much more: an experimental investigation into the origins of the human soul.

Directed by the unconventionally meditative Mike Cahill, I Origins is an underrated sci-fi drama that's well worth your time.

10. A Beautiful Mind (2001)

Directed by Ron Howard

Starring Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly

Biography, Drama (2h 15m)

8.2 on IMDb — 74% on RT

Directed by Ron Howard, A Beautiful Mind follows the life of Nobel Prize-winning mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. (played by Russell Crowe), who was a real person and commonly known as John Nash.

Demonstrating himself to be a brilliant scientist and economist, Nash not only gains the attention of the CIA, but eventually starts working there to help advance the field of cryptography.

However, paranoid delusions gradually start to blur the lines between his personal life and reality. Russell Crowe went on to win the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for A Beautiful Mind .

9. The Nutty Professor (1996)

Directed by Tom Shadyac

Starring Eddie Murphy, Jada Pinkett Smith, James Coburn

Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi (1h 35m)

5.7 on IMDb — 64% on RT

The second (and last) comedy on our list is another terrific adaptation of a classic piece of literature: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , which was written by Robert Louis Stevenson back in 1886.

Exactly 110 years after publication, Stevenson's novella was given a comedic spin with The Nutty Professor .

In a bid to win the heart of his dream woman, Sherman Klump (played by Eddie Murphy) is desperate to lose weight. So, he conducts an experiment using his vast knowledge of biochemistry.

While he does successfully lose an enormous amount of weight, it comes at a terrible cost... The Nutty Professor stars Eddie Murphy in an impressive seven roles, and it's a laugh-out-loud affair.

8. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

Directed by Rupert Wyatt

Starring James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow

Action, Drama, Sci-Fi (1h 45m)

7.6 on IMDb — 82% on RT

Planet of the Apes started as a novel in 1963, which was turned into a film series in 1968, then rebooted into another film series in 2011 starting with Rupert Wyatt's acclaimed Rise of the Planet of the Apes .

Will Rodman (played by James Franco) is a chemist who's experimenting on chimpanzees with an innovative new serum that's one step closer to finding a cure for Alzheimer's disease. However, the serum has unforeseen effects on the primates...

Featuring Andy Serkis as ape leader Caesar using revolutionary performance capture technology, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is one of the best cautionary tales of science gone awry.

Remaking this iconic franchise was a risky decision given that there was a previous reboot attempt in 2001 with Planet of the Apes , which went nowhere due to all kinds of production difficulties. Fortunately, Wyatt pulled it off and the resulting series is just fantastic.

7. Hidden Figures (2016)

Directed by Theodore Melfi

Starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe

Biography, Drama, History (2h 7m)

7.8 on IMDb — 93% on RT

Directed by Theodore Melfi, Hidden Figures is a biographical film that brings us an incredible story that should've been told long ago. Fortunately for us, we get to experience it now.

The narrative follows three women scientists: Dorothy Vaughan (played by Octavia Spencer), Katherine Goble Johnson (played by Taraji P. Henson), and Mary Jackson (played by Janelle Monáe).

Despite their instrumental contributions to America's success during the Space Race, these women were buried and remained unrecognized for years. Why? Simply for being African-American.

Hidden Figures is the tough but inspiring journey of how these women worked to gain the respect that they deserved without ever giving up even in the face of constant discrimination and harassment.

6. The Theory of Everything (2014)

Directed by James Marsh

Starring Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Tom Prior

Biography, Drama, Romance (2h 3m)

7.7 on IMDb — 80% on RT

Stephen Hawking is a man who needs no introduction, but in case you've been living under a rock for the past several decades, suffice it to say that he was one of the most brilliant minds of modern science.

In The Theory of Everything , we get to see his genius on display as he excels at the University of Cambridge, where he published all kinds of groundbreaking works on theoretical physics.

However, perhaps more interestingly, we're given insight into his tumultuous personal life and the challenges he faced as a victim afflicted by ALS (a neurodegenerative disease that affects muscle control).

With a heart-melting score and stunning performances from Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything truly encapsulates the human desire to understand the world we're born into.

5. Contact (1997)

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Starring Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Skerritt

Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi (2h 30m)

7.5 on IMDb — 68% on RT

Based on the 1985 novel by Carl Sagan, Robert Zemeckis adapted the grounded sci-fi drama to great success.

Dr. Eleanor "Ellie" Arroway (played by Jodie Foster) is a SETI scientist who makes a breathtaking discovery: an alien transmission.

After establishing contact with extraterrestrials using radio waves, Arroway leads an experiment to create a machine according to the instructions of said extraterrestrial communicators.

While Contact is mostly interesting for its thought experiment of a premise than its characters, the result is still one of the most intriguing movies about a scientific experiment. If you're in search of a realistic take on sci-fi concepts, you can't miss this one.

4. Annihilation (2018)

Directed by Alex Garland

Starring Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson

Adventure, Drama, Horror (1h 55m)

6.8 on IMDb — 88% on RT

When writer-director Alex Garland is at the helm of a film, you know you're in for an experience unlike any other. He's had his ups and downs, but when he's hot, the results are unforgettable.

Annihilation follows a group of women scientists of varying fields who are tasked with investigating the origins of a supernatural entity that has arrived on Earth. The thing is, previous explorers either haven't returned or have come back changed in some way...

Starring Natalie Portman and Jennifer Jason Leigh, they venture into the enigmatic quarantined zone called "The Shimmer" to collect data and uncover what's causing the mutation of plants and animals.

With Annihilation , Alex Garland successfully crafted another worthy entry into his filmography and the cosmic horror canon.

3. The Imitation Game (2014)

Directed by Morten Tyldum

Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode

Biography, Drama, Thriller (1h 54m)

8.0 on IMDb — 90% on RT

Cryptanalyst Alan Turing is well-known today as the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence, but that wasn't always the case. In fact, he was ostracized while he was alive for being gay.

In this superb film directed by Morten Tyldum, we get to see the fantastic legacy he left behind, as well as his role in ending one of the most gruesome conflicts in history: World War II.

During WW2, the Nazis communicated using messages that were encrypted by their Enigma machine. Alan Turing was approached by British intelligence officers in 1939 and hired to break the Enigma codes, as he was the only one with enough expertise to do it.

Benedict Cumberbatch's performance as the man who almost single-handedly decided the fate of World War II with his brilliant brain is both insightful and gut-wrenching.

2. Awakenings (1990)

Directed by Penny Marshall

Starring Robert De Niro, Robin Williams, Julie Kavner

Biography, Drama (2h 1m)

7.8 on IMDb — 84% on RT

Penny Marshall's drama Awakenings isn't just well-written, well-acted, and emotionally affecting—it's based on a true story.

Dr. Malcolm Sayer (played by Robin Williams) is a neurologist studying catatonia. When he begins implementing a new treatment of L-DOPA in coma patients, he's initially disappointed by the results. However, there's eventually a breakthrough when one patient suddenly wakes up.

For the first time in years, Leonard Lowe (played by Robert De Niro) is able to see the world through his own eyes again.

As Dr. Sayer uncovers the reason behind Leonard's sudden awakening, the two of them fear that this experiment may not last. In fact, it may very well be a race against the clock. In the end, Awakenings is an underrated gem that will absolutely have you in tears.

1. Oppenheimer (2023)

Directed by Christopher Nolan

Starring Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon

Biography, Drama, History (3h)

8.5 on IMDb — 93% on RT

Why is Oppenheimer at the top of this list? Maybe it's recency bias. Or maybe it's the massive cult-like following the film had pre-release. Or maybe it's the glowing reviews that came after its release.

All combined, Oppenheimer still sticks out in my mind as the best film about a scientist and his experiments.

J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy) is a brilliant theoretical physicist who's headhunted to lead a team of scientists tasked with creating the world's first atomic bomb.

Oppenheimer is tense and suspenseful as director Christopher Nolan employs his trademark nonlinear narrative style to create total immersion in Oppenheimer's race against time and persecution.

The film is doubly effective as a cautionary tale, which is why I'm ranking it at number one. Oppenheimer is cinema's best depiction of a scientist haunted by his greatest achievement and tormented by his own legacy.

Oppenheimer's most impressive experiment came at massive cost: the fate of the entire world. Few films have managed to establish stakes so monumental and deliver a climax worthy of said stakes.

Film Theory

Theories about films.

An Experimental Cinema

May 14, 2015 By admin Leave a Comment

Introduction

An experimental cinema is a genre in film making which is characterized by the use of a non-linear narrative, use of an asynchronous or no soundtrack at all. It is a low budget film, usually self-funded or financed by small grants and funds. The crew consists of a very few people, sometimes just one person who is the filmmaker.

The origin of experimental films dates back to around the 1920s when visual media was gaining popularity as a form of art. It was a distinct part of the avant-garde movements back then. Surrealists and French impressionists laid emphasis on exploring the genre whilst experimenting with the non-linear narrative, soundtracks and camera work. By the 1950s, the movement reached France. Artists like Hans Richter, Jean Cocteau, Dudley Murphy and many others became important experimental filmmakers who contributed to the European Avant Grande.

Films of Time

The most famous experimental films of all times were considered to be Luis Bunnel and Un-Chien andalou . Others in the list are ‘ Berlin: Symphony of a metropolis ’ by Walter Ruttman and ‘ The man with a movie camera ’ by Dziga Vertov filmed in Berlin and Kiev respectively. These films and many others were instrumental in creating a new focus angle, slightly away from classical Hollywood films.

Growth of Experimental Cinema

The actual ‘ birth ’ of experimental cinema took place in the post-world war Avant Grande in America. Although the European Avant Grande had its influence on Hollywood since the 1920’s, with films like Manhattan by Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler and also Life and Death of 9413: A Hollywood extra , it had left a mark on Hollywood. These films were made before the world war and were characterized by artists working in isolation. These series of activities in film societies continued over the next two decades when in around 1962, the perspective started changing. Films such as A Movie and Cosmic Ray , unlike the early experimental films started shifting the focus from individual consciousness and first personification to abstraction, from non-linear narrative to oblique angled narratives.

In fact, the later works even saw the addition of soundtracks in their films like the film Scorpio Rising by Brakhage where he surprised the audience with the addition of a rock soundtrack. That was the era of structural-materialist film makers. Around the 1970s, experimental films became more and more conceptualized. Yoko Ono was one such well-known name who contributed to the experimental film society with her notorious and bold film called Rape .

Conceptual films also encouraged feminist film makers where they promoted ideas that defy gender norms and patriarchy. Most of the artists who were involved in experimental film remained aloof from mainstream Hollywood and became professors at universities like State Universities of New York, California Institute of the Arts, Massachusetts College of Art and a few others. Though these filmmakers themselves do not hold college degrees, they continue to pursue their practices and refine them while continuing to teach. The inclusion of this subject in the film courses has further led to the popularization of the genre.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Today's news
• Reviews and deals
• Climate change
• 2024 election
• Newsletters
• Fall allergies
• Health news
• Mental health
• Sexual health
• Family health
• So mini ways
• Unapologetically
• Buying guides

Entertainment

• How to Watch
• My watchlist
• Stock market
• Biden economy
• Personal finance
• Stocks: most active
• Stocks: gainers
• Stocks: losers
• Trending tickers
• World indices
• US Treasury bonds
• Top mutual funds
• Highest open interest
• Highest implied volatility
• Currency converter
• Basic materials
• Communication services
• Consumer cyclical
• Consumer defensive
• Financial services
• Industrials
• Real estate
• Mutual funds
• Credit cards
• Balance transfer cards
• Cash back cards
• Rewards cards
• Travel cards
• Online checking
• High-yield savings
• Money market
• Home equity loan
• Personal loans
• Student loans
• Options pit
• Fantasy football
• Pro Pick 'Em
• College Pick 'Em
• Fantasy baseball
• Fantasy hockey
• Fantasy basketball
• Download the app
• Daily fantasy
• Scores and schedules
• GameChannel
• World Baseball Classic
• Premier League
• CONCACAF League
• Champions League
• Motorsports
• Horse racing

New on Yahoo

• Privacy Dashboard

Locarno Pro Awards: Experimental Feature ‘Dream Of Another Summer’ From Beirut-Based Filmmaker Irene Bartolomé Takes Top Prize

Experimental feature Dream of Another Summer has picked up Locarno Pro’s Antaviana Films First Look Award, the biggest prize handed out by the festival’s industry section. The award comes with post-production services up to €50,000.

The feature is helmed by Barcelona-born, Beirut-based filmmaker Irene Bartolomé. Producers on the project are Pere Marzo (Colibrí Studio), Bartolomé (I.B. Films), and Elie Kamal (The Attic Productions).

More from Deadline

Alfonso Cuarón Says He's Been Trying To Develop A Horror Film And Talks Why David Fincher & James Cameron Told Him To Ditch 'Gravity' - Locarno

Palestinian Activists Host Alternative Piazza Grande Screening At Locarno 

Radu Jude Teases Upcoming Dracula Film And Says The Romanian Film Centre Is Run By "An Idiot" - Locarno

Discussing their choice, the Locarno Pro jury — comprised of Beatrice Fiorentino (Artistic Director, Venice’s International Film Critics’ Week), Kerem Ayan (Director, Istanbul Film Festival), and Mercedes Martínez-Abarca (Programmer, International Film Festival Rotterdam) — said the film is “a poetic and rigorous project that elaborates on collective trauma by rewriting the topography of a city wounded many times by history.”

The jury added: “In its dual public and private dimensions, it restores the complexity of a territory marked by the past and the drive for modernity.”

Elsewhere, The Music Library &SFX/Acorde Award worth € 45,000 in music supervision services went to Río abajo, un tigre directed by Víctor Diago and produced by Montse Pujol Solà (Boogaloo Films), which also nabbed the award by Laserfilm cine y vídeo, worth € 5,000.

The second annual Heritage Online Restoration Contest was won by Liliana Cavani’s I Cannibali (The Cannibals , 1969). The film, represented by Minerva Pictures, will receive a full restoration by German-based film lab Cinegrell and will be shown at the 2025 Locarno Film Festival.

Check out the full winners list below.

Antaviana Films First Look Award 

Up to € 50,000 in post-production services

·   Dream of Another Summer Directed by: Irene Bartolomé Produced by: Pere Marzo (Colibrí Studio), Irene Bartolomé (I.B. Films) and Elie Kamal (The Attic Productions)

Jury statement: “ A poetic and rigorous project that elaborates on collective trauma by rewriting the topography of a city wounded many times by history. In its dual public and private dimensions, it restores the complexity of a territory marked by the past and the drive for modernity. ”

Music Library &SFX/Acorde Award 

€ 45,000 in music supervision services at Music Library &SFX ’s labs

·   Río abajo, un tigre Directed by: Víctor Diago Produced by: Montse Pujol Solà (Boogaloo Films)

Laserfilm cine y vídeo Award

€ 5,000, which can, for example, be spent on subtitles, audio descriptions, spotting lists, transcriptions or a DCP

Jannuzzi Smith Award

The design of an international poster worth € 10,000.

·   Mares Directed by: Ariadna Seuba       Produced by: Carles Brugeras, Marieke van der Bersselaar (Polar Star Films), María Nova López (Intactes Films)

Le Film Français Award

€ 5,600 of advertising space

·   Bodegón con fantasmas

Directed by: Enrique Buleo

Produced by: Alejandra Mora (Quatre Films Audiovisuales SL), Alicia Yubero (Cuidado con el perro), Snezana van Houwelingen (This and that), Roberto Butragueño (Sideral)

ALLIANCE 4 DEVELOPMENT

Alphapanda Market Breakout Award

Consultancy services in the value of € 3,500

·   Bourgeois Paranoia by Lukas Nathrath, produced by Linus Günther (Klinkerfilm Production, Germany)

Alphapanda states: “ The Alphapanda Market Breakout Award 2024 goes to a promising vision that we cannot wait to cringe about. Humour, discomfort, obsession, revenge and bourgeois paranoia are stretched to the limits and we’re in for the bloody ride. ”

Script Consultancy Residency at DreamAgo offered by the Valais Film Commission

·   6 Mois 6 jours ( 6 Months 6 Days ) by Michale Boganim, produced by Mathilde Leite (Vilanova Productions, France), co-produced by Dorothe Beinemeier (Red Balloon Film, Germany)

Pascale Rey (DreamAgo) and Tristan Albrecht  (Valais Film Commission) state: “ This project is a strong story (validated by the criteria of DreamAgo) and a great potential on the production side (validated by the Valais Film Commission). Therefore we are very happy to offer the writer a script doctoring by Sir Christopher Hampton, during Plume & Pellicule in June 2025. ”

MIDPOINT Consulting Award

A in-depth online script consultancy with one of the MIDPOINT Institute experts

·   La Fin de l’été (Atlantic Mirage) by Hakim Mao, produced by Emma Binet and Charles Meresse (Furyo Films, France) MIDPOINT states: “ We are excited to support a compelling and gripping story that uniquely blends themes and genres, set against the mysterious backdrop of the cosmopolitan city of Agadir. Hakim Mao convinced us with his strong artistic vision, and we are eager to help him bring it to life. ”

Ticino Film Commission Residence Award

A 2-day location scout (worth CHF 4,000) and Letter of Intent (LOI) for financial support for the production company (worth up to CHF 12,000), if all or part of the film will be shot in Ticino

·   Itaca (Ithaca) by Alessandro Grande, produced by Alessandro Amato and Luigi Chimienti (dispàrte, Italy)

Jury statement: “ The Ticino Film commission is proud to award its prize to the project Itaca , in which the landscapes play a fundamental role in expressing the violent rupture that its young protagonist experiences – being kidnapped from its southern homeland and moved to a northern, mountainous, region. We are confident that, with our support, the production will be able to find the perfect locations to recreate this touching real-life story and present it to a wider public. ”

HERITAGE RESTORATION CONTEST

·   I Cannibali   ( The Cannibals , 1970) by Liliana Cavani

Alliance 4 Development is possible thanks to partnerships with CNC (Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée), France; FFA (Filmförderungsanstalt), Germany; DGCA-MiC (Direzione Generale Cinema e Audiovisivo del Ministero della Cultura), Italy; ÖFI (Österreichisches Filminstitut), Austria; the Federal Office of Culture (FOC) / MEDIA Desk Suisse, Switzerland. A4D is also made possible by contributions from Eurimages, which promotes and sponsors one of the initiative’s networking events, and from the European Producers Club, which offers consultancy on the various issues covered.

Best of Deadline

How To Watch Today's Paris Olympics Closing Ceremony: Is It Streaming?

2024 Premiere Dates For New & Returning Series On Broadcast, Cable & Streaming

‘It Ends With Us’ Soundtrack: All the Songs You’ll Hear

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter . For the latest news, follow us on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram .

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

Toronto film fest adds wang bing, roberto minervini, miguel gomes films to wavelengths.

TIFF unveiled its experimental film program, to include the 14 hour documentary ‘exergue-on documenta 14,’ from director Dimitris Athiridi.

By Etan Vlessing

Etan Vlessing

Canada Bureau Chief

• Share on Facebook
• Share to Flipboard
• Send an Email
• Show additional share options
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Pinterest
• Share on Reddit
• Share on Tumblr
• Share on Whats App
• Print the Article
• Post a Comment

The Toronto Film Festival has unveiled its Wavelengths program for artist-driven experimental work that includes films by avant garde directors Wang Bing, Roberto Minervini and Miguel Gomes.

With 11 features on offer, the Wavelengths section includes a 14-hour documentary, exergue – on documenta 14 , from director Dimitris Athiridi set to be presented over three screenings.

Related Stories

Irena medavoy's vacation diary, locarno pro unveils winners of works-in-progress and co-development programs.

Wavelengths last year in Toronto screened Wang’s Youth (Spring) , the Cannes competition title about Chinese garment workers.

Other North American premieres for the 2024 edition of Wavelengths include Jessica Sarah Rinland’s Collective Monologue , set in a community of zoos and animal rescue centers across Argentina; the queer romancer Viêt and Nam by filmmaker Trương Minh Quý, which bowed in Cannes; and Lázaro at Night by filmmaker Nicolás Pereda, a drama about a love triangle in Mexico City.

The Wavelengths strand also booked North American bows for the Venice title Perfumed With Mint , from director Muhammed Hamdy, about a doctor treating a patient with mint plants sprouting from his body; and The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire , a biopic by Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich about an anti-colonialist writer and Afro-surrealist pioneer.

There’s also a Wavelengths special presentation for Drama 1882 , Wael Shawky’s opera for the Egyptian pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2024.

Short film highlights for TIFF ‘s Wavelengths selection include world premieres of Archipelago of Earthen Bones — To Bunya , by Malena Szlam; A Black Screen Too , by director Rhayne Vermette; and the North American premiere of Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s The Diary of a Sky.

The Toronto Film Festival is set to run from Sept. 5 to 15.

THR Newsletters

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Producer for todd haynes’ gay romance film addresses joaquin phoenix exit: “a nightmare”, when hollywood first dreamed up a woman president, box office milestone: ‘deadpool & wolverine’ crosses $1b globally on way to becoming top r-rated pic of all time, lively-reynolds box office domination: ‘deadpool & wolverine’ stays no. 1 with $54m, ‘it ends with us’ soars to huge $50m, margaret menegoz, ‘amour,’ ‘the white ribbon’ producer, dies at 83.