Avant-garde/Experimental cinema
by nelsonmichael-70206 | created - 16 Feb 2018 | updated - 30 May 2018 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The '?' Motorist (1906)
3 min | Fantasy, Short, Comedy
A British trick film in which a motorist ends up driving around the rings of Saturn.
Director: Walter R. Booth
Votes: 1,271
Short, experimental animation in the style of Georges Méliés. Produced by R.W. Paul.
2. Suspense (1913)
Not Rated | 10 min | Short, Drama, Horror
Abandoned by her maidservant in an isolated country house, a mother must protect herself and her baby from an invading tramp while her husband races home in a stolen car to save them.
Directors: Phillips Smalley, Lois Weber | Stars: Lois Weber, Val Paul, Douglas Gerrard, Sam Kaufman
Votes: 2,151
Contains early examples of split-screen and a car chase.
3. Hypocrites (1915)
Passed | 54 min | Drama, Fantasy
The parallel stories of a modern preacher and a medieval monk, Gabriel the Ascetic, who is killed by an ignorant mob for making a nude statue representing Truth, which is also represented by a ghostly naked girl who flits throughout the film.
Director: Lois Weber | Stars: Courtenay Foote, Myrtle Stedman, Herbert Standing, Adele Farrington
Votes: 706
Allegorical and highly symbolic religious picture; nude principle character
4. Intolerance (1916)
Passed | 163 min | Drama, History
The story of a poor young woman separated by prejudice from her husband and baby is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Lillian Gish, Robert Harron, Mae Marsh, F.A. Turner
Votes: 16,665 | Gross: $2.18M
Influential film which attempts to tell four stories at once; extensive use of montage
5. The Blue Bird (1918)
Not Rated | 75 min | Family, Fantasy
With the aid and guidance of a magical fairy, two peasant children set out in search of the elusive "Blue Bird of Happiness".
Director: Maurice Tourneur | Stars: Tula Belle, Robin Macdougall, Edwin E. Reed, Emma Lowry
Votes: 1,008
Stylized, almost surrealistic, fantasy film
6. The Young Lady and the Hooligan (1918)
45 min | Drama
A young woman arrives in her school where she must teach for the first time. Her task consists in teaching a class of adults to read and write. All her students are male, ranging from boys ... See full summary »
Directors: Yevgeni Slavinsky, Vladimir Mayakovsky | Stars: Vladimir Mayakovsky, Aleksandra Rebikova, Fyodor Dunayev
Votes: 196
7. The Fall of Babylon (1919)
Not Rated | 82 min | Drama
In the last days of ancient Babylon, a tomboyish mountain girl fights for her king when the city is attacked.
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Constance Talmadge, Tully Marshall, Alfred Paget, Carl Stockdale
Votes: 196
Edited from “Intolerance”, widely influential in Europe; introduced ‘Russian montage’ to Russia
8. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Not Rated | 67 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Hypnotist Dr. Caligari uses a somnambulist, Cesare, to commit murders.
Director: Robert Wiene | Stars: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher, Lil Dagover
Votes: 69,779
Expressionist horror film, greatly influential on avant-garde filmmakers, particularly in the United States
9. La fête espagnole (1920)
67 min | Drama
Coveted by two different men, a woman turns to a third man instead.
Director: Germaine Dulac | Stars: Ève Francis, Gabriel Gabrio, Jean Toulout, Gaston Modot
Votes: 33
First film written by Louis Delluc
10. From Morning to Midnight (1920)
65 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A Cashier in a bank in a small German town is alerted to the power of money by the visit of a rich Italian lady. He embezzles 60, 000 Marks and leaves for the capital city, where he ... See full summary »
Director: Karl Heinz Martin | Stars: Ernst Deutsch, Erna Morena, Roma Bahn, Adolf E. Licho
Votes: 600
Adaptation of Expressionist play, only film made by theatre director Karlheinz Martin; barred from German cinemas at the time
11. Genuine: The Tragedy of a Vampire (1920)
88 min | Horror
Genuine is an ancient and cruel divinity, who seduces men and induce them to kill as a proof of love.
Director: Robert Wiene | Stars: Fern Andra, Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, Ernst Gronau, Harald Paulsen
Votes: 1,128
Particularly extreme example or Expressionism
12. Manhatta (1921)
Not Rated | 11 min | Documentary, Short
This groundbreaking silent documentary captures the beauty and majesty of the New York City in its streets, skyscrapers, bridges, rail yards and harbors.
Directors: Charles Sheeler, Paul Strand
Votes: 1,630
First city film
13. The Smiling Madame Beudet (1923)
26 min | Short, Drama
An unhappily married woman devises a scheme to get rid of her husband.
Director: Germaine Dulac | Stars: Germaine Dermoz, Madeleine Guitty, Jean d'Yd, Yvette Grisier
Votes: 2,927
Considered one of the first feminist films; social drama with experimental techniques
14. The Faithful Heart (1923)
Not Rated | 87 min | Drama, Romance
Marie wants to escape from her job and also from her lover, Paul, an unemployed drunk. She dreams of going off with Jean, a dockworker. The two men quarrel and fight over Marie on two ... See full summary »
Director: Jean Epstein | Stars: Léon Mathot, Gina Manès, Edmond Van Daële, Claude Benedict
Votes: 1,449
Naturalist melodrama, experimental sequence; cited in Curtis
15. Return to Reason (1923)
3 min | Short
Experimental film, white specks and shapes gyrating over a black background, a light-striped torso, a gyrating eggcrate. One of the first Dadaist films.
Director: Man Ray | Star: Kiki of Montparnasse
Votes: 2,192
Insert film for a Dadaist soirée
16. The Adventures of an Octoberite (1924)
35 min | Short, Comedy
Directors: Grigoriy Kozintsev, Leonid Trauberg | Stars: Yevgeni Kumeiko, Sergey Martinson, Zinaida Tarakhovskaya, Antonio Tserep
Votes: 10
First production of FEKS; lost film
17. Aelita, the Queen of Mars (1924)
Not Rated | 111 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Engineer Mstislav Sergeyevich Los travels to Mars where he leads a popular uprising against the ruling group of Elders with the support of Queen Aelita who has fallen in love with him after watching him through a telescope.
Director: Yakov Protazanov | Stars: Yuliya Solntseva, Igor Ilyinsky, Nikolai Tsereteli, Nikolay Batalov
Votes: 2,883
18. Ballet mécanique (1924)
19 min | Short
A pulsing, kaleidoscope of images set to an energetic soundtrack. A young women swings in a garden; a woman's face smiles. The rest is spinning cylinders, pistons, gears and turbines, ... See full summary »
Directors: Fernand Léger, Dudley Murphy | Stars: Kiki of Montparnasse, Fernand Léger, Dudley Murphy, Katherine Murphy
Votes: 3,282
Cubist film, with music score by George Antheil
19. Entr'acte (1924)
22 min | Short
An absolute dada movie. Somebody gets killed, his coffin gets out of control and after a chase it stops. The person gets out of it and let everybody who followed the coffin dissapear.
Director: René Clair | Stars: Jean Börlin, Inge Frïss, Francis Picabia, Marcel Duchamp
Votes: 4,191
Dadaist insert film for Erik Satie‘ ballet “Relâche”
20. L'inhumaine (1924)
Not Rated | 135 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
Claire Lescot is a famous first lady. All men want to be loved by her and among them is the young scientist Einar Norsen. When she mocks at him, he leaves her house with the declared intention to kill himself.
Director: Marcel L'Herbier | Stars: Jaque Catelain, Léonid Walter de Malte, Philippe Hériat, Fred Kellerman
Votes: 1,031
Highly stylized science fiction feature
21. Kino Eye (1924)
Not Rated | 78 min | Documentary
This documentary promoting the joys of life in a Soviet village centers around the activities of the Young Pioneers. These children are constantly busy, pasting propaganda posters on walls,... See full summary »
Director: Dziga Vertov
Votes: 1,197
22. Help! (1924)
18 min | Short, Comedy, Horror
Max accepts a wager that he cannot remain in a haunted castle for one hour (11 PM to midnight) without crying for help. As soon as he arrives he encounters strange and nightmarish visions, ... See full summary »
Director: Abel Gance | Stars: Max Linder, Jean Toulout, Gina Palerme, Gaston Modot
Votes: 476
Horror-comedy, highly experimental in style
23. Diagonal Symphony (1924)
7 min | Animation, Short, Music
A tilted figure, consisting largely of right angles at the beginning, grows by accretion, with the addition of short straight lines and curves which sprout from the existing design. The ... See full summary »
Director: Viking Eggeling
Votes: 1,478
Abstract animation; in production from 1921
24. Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Not Rated | 66 min | Drama, History, Thriller
In the midst of the Russian Revolution of 1905, the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutiny against the brutal, tyrannical regime of the vessel's officers. The resulting street demonstration in Odessa brings on a police massacre.
Director: Sergei Eisenstein | Stars: Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barskiy, Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Ivan Bobrov
Votes: 61,270 | Gross: $0.05M
‘Odessa Steps’ sequence is a textbook example of Russian montage
25. Strike (1925)
Not Rated | 82 min | Drama
A group of oppressed factory workers go on strike in pre-revolutionary Russia.
Director: Sergei Eisenstein | Stars: Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Maksim Shtraukh, Mikhail Gomorov, I. Ivanov
Votes: 8,579
26. Anemic Cinema (1926)
Not Rated | 7 min | Short
A spiral design spins dizzily. It's replaced by a spinning disk. These two continue in perfect alternation until the end: a spiral design, a disk. Each disk is labelled and can be read as ... See full summary »
Director: Marcel Duchamp
Votes: 1,838
Dadaist semi-animated film
27. Ménilmontant (1926)
38 min | Short, Drama
A couple is brutally murdered in the working-class district of Paris. Later on, the narrative follows the lives of their two daughters, both in love with a Parisian thug and leading them to separate ways.
Director: Dimitri Kirsanoff | Stars: Nadia Sibirskaïa, Yolande Beaulieu, Guy Belmont, Jean Pasquier
Votes: 2,718
Urban realist melodrama
28. Mother (1926)
Not Rated | 89 min | Drama
A story about a family torn apart by a worker's strike. At first, the mother wants to protect her family from the troublemakers, but eventually she realizes that her son is right and the workers should strike.
Director: Vsevolod Pudovkin | Stars: Vera Baranovskaya, Nikolay Batalov, Aleksandr Chistyakov, Anna Zemtsova
Votes: 3,059
Gripping social realist drama, heavy use of montage
29. A Page of Madness (1926)
Not Rated | 70 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A man takes a job at an asylum with hopes of freeing his imprisoned wife.
Director: Teinosuke Kinugasa | Stars: Masuo Inoue, Ayako Iijima, Yoshie Nakagawa, Hiroshi Nemoto
Votes: 4,532
Surreal, intense representation of insanity using highly advanced film techniques
30. Secrets of a Soul (1926)
Not Rated | 97 min | Drama
A scientist is tormented by an irrational fear of knives and the irresistible compulsion to murder his wife.
Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst | Stars: Werner Krauss, Ruth Weyher, Ilka Grüning, Jack Trevor
Votes: 806
Co-written by psychoanalysts Karl Abraham and Hanns Sachs, with dream sequence and sets by Ernő Metzner.
31. The Sixth Part of the World (1926)
68 min | Documentary
"Sixth Part of the World" was the size of Soviet Union of the time. Many peoples of many customs composed it. Ice and desert, forest and ocean. Bread, furs, machines. All and every is a part of great unity.
Director: Dziga Vertov
Votes: 590
32. Bed and Sofa (1927)
86 min | Comedy, Drama
A married couple have a small apartment in Moscow. When an old friend of the husband's arrives in the city, he is unable to find lodgings. Kolia, the husband, invites his friend to move in with them.
Director: Abram Room | Stars: Vladimir Fogel, Nikolay Batalov, Lyudmila Semyonova, Leonid Yurenev
Votes: 1,330
Written by Viktor Shklovsky
33. Berlin: Symphony of Metropolis (1927)
Not Rated | 65 min | Documentary
This movie shows us one day in Berlin, the rhythm of that time, starting at the earliest morning and ends in the deepest night.
Director: Walter Ruttmann | Star: Paul von Hindenburg
Votes: 4,776
City film
34. Emak-Bakia (1926)
18 min | Short
A long series of unrelated images, revolving, often distorted: lights, flowers, nails. A lightboard appears from time to time carrying the news of the day. Then, an eye. A woman in a car ... See full summary »
Director: Man Ray | Stars: Kiki of Montparnasse, Jacques Rigaut
Votes: 1,402
Extract from “A Quoi revent les jeunes films?”
35. Konets Sankt-Peterburga (1927)
Not Rated | 85 min | Drama
A peasant comes to St. Petersburg to find work. He unwittingly helps in the arrest of an old friend who is now a labor leader. The unemployed man is arrested and sent to fight in World War I. After three years, he returns to rebel.
Directors: Vsevolod Pudovkin, Mikhail Doller | Stars: Aleksandr Chistyakov, Vera Baranovskaya, Ivan Chuvelyov, Vladimir Obolensky
Votes: 1,855
Historical epic
36. La glace à trois faces (1927)
45 min | Drama, Romance
Psychological narrative avantgarde film about a wealthy young businessman who consecutively falls in love with a classy English woman (Pearl), a Russian sculptress (Athalia), and a naive ... See full summary »
Director: Jean Epstein | Stars: Jeanne Helbling, Suzy Pierson, Olga Day, Raymond Guérin-Catelain
Votes: 963
Avant-garde projection of a narrative romance
37. Napoleon (1927)
330 min | Biography, Drama, History
A film about the French general's youth and early military career.
Director: Abel Gance | Stars: Albert Dieudonné, Vladimir Roudenko, Edmond Van Daële, Alexandre Koubitzky
Votes: 8,755
Enormous historic epic, experimental techniques and multi-screen
38. Vasha znakomaya (1927)
60 min | Drama
Director: Lev Kuleshov | Stars: Aleksandra Khokhlova, Pyotr Galadzhev, Yuri Vasilchikov, Boris Ferdinandov
Votes: 65
Art direction by Aleksandr Rodchenko. Only a small fragment survives.
39. L'étoile de mer (1928)
21 min | Short, Romance
Two people stand on a road, out of focus. Seen distorted through a glass, they retire upstairs to a bedroom where she undresses. He says, "Adieu." Images: the beautiful girl, a starfish in ... See full summary »
Director: Man Ray | Stars: Kiki of Montparnasse, André de la Rivière, Robert Desnos
Votes: 1,553
Surrealist film financed by Charles De Noailles; written by Robert Desnos
40. Ghosts Before Breakfast (1928)
6 min | Short
Hans Richter, noted for his abstract shorts, has everyday objects rebelling against their daily routine.
Director: Hans Richter | Stars: Werner Graeff, Walter Gronostay, Paul Hindemith, Darius Milhaud
Votes: 1,971
Dadaist fantasy
41. The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra (1928)
Not Rated | 11 min | Short, Drama, Horror
A wannabe movie star experiences the surreal horrors of dehumanization at the bottom of Hollywood's social ladder as his hopes for success vanish and his identity is reduced to a number.
Directors: Robert Florey, Slavko Vorkapich | Stars: Jules Raucourt, Voya George, Robert Florey, Adriane Marsh
Votes: 1,424
Ultra low budget anti-Hollywood film
42. October (Ten Days that Shook the World) (1927)
95 min | Drama, History
A large-scale view on the events of 1917 in Russia, when the monarchy was overthrown.
Directors: Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Sergei Eisenstein | Stars: Boris Livanov, Nikolay Popov, Vasili Nikandrov, Layaschenko
Votes: 8,430
Contains Sergei Eisenstein‘s most radical use of montage
43. The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928)
40 min | Short, Drama, Fantasy
Obsessed with a general's woman, a clergyman has strange visions of death and lust, struggling against his own eroticism.
Director: Germaine Dulac | Stars: Alex Allin, Lucien Bataille, Genica Athanasiou
Votes: 2,276
Surrealist dream film written by Antonin Artaud. Often dated to 1927, but premiered in Paris, February 9, 1928
44. There It Is (1928)
Approved | 19 min | Short, Comedy
Two Scotland Yard detectives travel to New York to investigate the "Fuzz-Faced Phantom": a strange entity who seemingly has the power to cause bizarre, surreal incidents.
Directors: Harold L. Muller, Charles R. Bowers | Stars: Charles R. Bowers, Kathryn McGuire, Melbourne MacDowell, Buster Brodie
Votes: 471
Two reel comedy, absurd in the extreme
45. The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)
Unrated | 13 min | Short, Horror
An avant-garde take on Poe's classic story of a traveller taking shelter at a household under a mysterious curse.
Directors: James Sibley Watson, Melville Webber | Stars: Herbert Stern, Hildegarde Watson, Melville Webber, Friedrich Haak
Votes: 1,430
Short film
46. Zvenigora (1928)
109 min | Drama, Fantasy
An old Ukrainian man protects and searches for a legendary treasure in the midst of political upheavals.
Director: Aleksandr Dovzhenko | Stars: Nikolai Nademsky, Semyon Svashenko, Aleksandr Podorozhnyy, Polina Sklyar-Otava
Votes: 1,162
Film poem with fantasy elements
47. Arsenal (1929)
Not Rated | 70 min | Drama, War
A soldier returns to Kyiv after surviving a train crash and encounters clashes between nationalists and collectivists.
Director: Aleksandr Dovzhenko | Stars: Semyon Svashenko, Georgi Khorkov, Amvrosi Buchma, Dmitri Erdman
Votes: 2,325
48. Drifters (1929)
49 min | Documentary
A silent documentary film by John Grierson telling the story of Britain's North Sea herring fishery.
Director: John Grierson
Votes: 476
Documentary with a distinctly modernist orientation
49. H2O (1929)
13 min | Documentary, Short
A study on water, the reflections and motions of the liquid that accentuates its ethereality and metallic beauty.
Director: Ralph Steiner
Votes: 771
50. Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
Not Rated | 68 min | Documentary
A man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.
Director: Dziga Vertov | Stars: Mikhail Kaufman, Elizaveta Svilova
Votes: 27,843
51. The Mysteries of the Chateau de De (1929)
27 min | Documentary, Short
Two masked men playing dice in a bar leave, get in a car, and drive to the ruins of a castle on a hill. There. they find a modern chateau filled with contemporary furniture and abstract art. Time to roll the dice.
Director: Man Ray | Stars: Man Ray, Jacques-André Boiffard, Georges Auric, Le Comte de Beaumont
Votes: 719
Surrealist short funded by by Charles De Noailles
52. Rain (1929)
12 min | Documentary, Short
Regen is an experimental documentary film directed by Joris Ivens in 1929. It can be defined as a cinematic-poem. In 2021 Breve Storia Del Cinema restored the film with a new score composed by Nikolas Labrinakos.
Directors: Mannus Franken, Joris Ivens
Votes: 1,903
53. An Andalusian Dog (1929)
Not Rated | 16 min | Short, Fantasy, Horror
Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí present 16 minutes of bizarre, surreal imagery.
Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Pierre Batcheff, Simone Mareuil, Luis Buñuel, Pancho Cossío
Votes: 53,632
Short surrealist film written by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí
54. The Golden Age (1930)
Not Rated | 63 min | Comedy, Drama
A surrealist tale of a man and a woman who are passionately in love with each other, but their attempts to consummate that passion are constantly thwarted by their families, the Church, and bourgeois society.
Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Gaston Modot, Lya Lys, Caridad de Laberdesque, Max Ernst
Votes: 14,770 | Gross: $0.03M
Surrealist feature, produced by Charles de Noailles
55. Bezucelná procházka (1930)
9 min | Documentary, Short
A young man sets out for an aimless stroll by tram from the center to the outskirts of Prague.
Director: Alexander Hammid
Votes: 207
City film
56. Borderline (1930)
Not Rated | 63 min | Drama
A negro woman having an adulterous affair with a white man causes his wife to go mad and re-enforces the towns-folk's prejudice against Negroes.
Director: Kenneth MacPherson | Stars: Paul Robeson, Eslanda Robeson, Hilda Doolittle, Gavin Arthur
Votes: 572
Pool film; silent
57. Earth (1930)
Unrated | 75 min | Drama
In the peaceful countryside, Vassily opposes the rich kulaks over the coming of collective farming.
Director: Aleksandr Dovzhenko | Stars: Stepan Shkurat, Semyon Svashenko, Yuliya Solntseva, Yelena Maksimova
Votes: 6,374
Silent feature; part of the director’s Ukraine Trilogy
58. People on Sunday (1930)
Not Rated | 73 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Two men and two women enjoy a pleasant Sunday at the beach amid the unending toil of the working week.
Directors: Robert Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer, Rochus Gliese, Curt Siodmak, Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Erwin Splettstößer, Brigitte Borchert, Wolfgang von Waltershausen, Christl Ehlers
Votes: 3,526
City film, partly written by Billy Wilder; silent
59. À Propos de Nice (1930)
Not Rated | 24 min | Documentary, Short, Comedy
What starts off as a conventional travelogue turns into a satirical portrait of the town of Nice on the French Cote d'Azur, especially its wealthy inhabitants.
Directors: Boris Kaufman, Jean Vigo
Votes: 4,610
City film
60. Sentimental Romance (1930)
20 min | Comedy, Short
A short, experimental, slightly poetic montage of city and abstract images.
Directors: Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Sergei Eisenstein | Star: Mara Griy
Votes: 647
‘Étude cinematographique’
61. Enthusiasm (1930)
Not Rated | 67 min | Documentary
How the miners of the Don coal basin (one of the industrial regions of Ukraine) were striving to fulfill in four years their part of the Five Year Plan.
Director: Dziga Vertov
Votes: 1,045
Documentary film with montage of both visuals and sound
62. Limit (1931)
Not Rated | 114 min | Drama, Romance
Three people (Raul Schnoor, Olga Breno and Tatiana Rey) sail aimlessly while remembering their past.
Director: Mario Peixoto | Stars: Olga Breno, Tatiana Rey, Raul Schnoor, Brutus Pedreira
Votes: 2,861
Advertised as ‘pure cinema’; first Brazilian avant-garde film
63. Taris (1931)
Not Rated | 10 min | Documentary, Short, Sport
Jean Vigo films the talents of great swimming champion Jean Taris performing different acts. Vigo film technique allied with Taris swimming style are intertwined with grace and effect.
Director: Jean Vigo | Star: Jean Taris
Votes: 2,503
Documentary about a swimming champion
64. The Blood of a Poet (1932)
Not Rated | 55 min | Fantasy
Told in four episodes - an unnamed artist is transported through a mirror into another dimension, where he travels through various bizarre scenarios.
Director: Jean Cocteau | Stars: Enrique Rivero, Elizabeth Lee Miller, Pauline Carton, Odette Talazac
Votes: 7,338
Surrealist feature, produced by Charles de Noailles; often misdated to 1930-31
65. The Idea (1932)
Not Rated | 25 min | Short, Animation
When a liberal idea emerges in a tyranny ruled society, power and wealth unite to bring it down.
Director: Berthold Bartosch
Votes: 484
Surreal animation; music by Arthur Honegger
66. Kuhle Wampe or Who Owns the World? (1932)
71 min | Drama
During Great Depression, a family is evicted from their apartment and with no other option they move to a tent camp called Kuhle Wampe.
Director: Slatan Dudow | Stars: Hertha Thiele, Ernst Busch, Martha Wolter, Adolf Fischer
Votes: 815
Agitprop film, written by Bertolt Brecht with music by Hanns Eisler
67. ¡Que viva Mexico! (1932)
Not Rated | 88 min | History
Having revolutionized film editing through such masterworks of montage as Potemkin and Strike, Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein emigrated west in hopes of testing the capabilities of the American film industry.
Directors: Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Sergei Eisenstein | Stars: Félix Balderas, Sara García, Martín Hernández, David Liceága
Begun in 1931, never completed by Sergei Eisenstein; edited into numerous other films
68. Deserter (1933)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama
A wise and forgiving communist leader decides to send a young worker, Karl Renn, as an international delegate to the Soviet Union after the worker had deserted a picket-line and had ... See full summary »
Director: Vsevolod Pudovkin | Stars: Boris Livanov, Vasili Kovrigin, Aleksandr Chistyakov, Tamara Makarova
Votes: 320
Asynchronous use of sound and image
69. Las Hurdes (1933)
30 min | Documentary, Short
A surrealist film, a pseudo-documentary portrait of Las Hurdes, a remote region of Spain where civilisation has barely developed, showing how the local peasants try to survive without even the most basic utilities and skills.
Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Abel Jacquin, Alexandre O'Neill
Votes: 6,237
Documentary, co-written by Luis Buñuel and surrealist poet Pierre Unik, with music by Darius Milhaud
70. Lot in Sodom (1933)
Not Rated | 28 min | Short, Drama
Lot in Sodom is a sensual depiction of the Sodom and Gomorrah story filled with sinewy and semi-clad bodies, delirious bacchanales devoted to physical pleasure, and a searing, cataclysmic ... See full summary »
Directors: James Sibley Watson, Melville Webber | Stars: Friedrich Haak, Hildegarde Watson, Dorthea House, Lewis Whitbeck
Votes: 698
Experimental short based of biblical stories
71. Zero for Conduct (1933)
Not Rated | 47 min | Drama
In a repressive boarding school with rigid rules of behavior, four boys decide to rebel against the direction on a celebration day.
Director: Jean Vigo | Stars: Jean Dasté, Robert le Flon, Louis Lefebvre, Du Verron
Votes: 9,326
72. Happiness (I) (1935)
Not Rated | 95 min | Comedy, Drama
A hapless man undergoes misadventures with avaricious clergy, a tired horse, and a walking granary on his road to collectivized happiness.
Director: Aleksandr Medvedkin | Stars: Pyotr Zinovyev, Yelena Yegorova, Mikhail Gipsi, Viktor Kulakov
Votes: 1,195
Soviet satire; stylized, silent
73. The Hearts of Age (1934)
8 min | Short
A colonial scene in the U.S. An old lady sits astride a bell while a man in blackface, wig, and livery pulls the bell rope. From an upper door emerges an old man, dressed as a dandy, who ... See full summary »
Directors: William Vance, Orson Welles | Stars: Orson Welles, Virginia Nicolson, William Vance, Edgerton Paul
Votes: 1,268
Amateur experimental film; made at the Todd School, Chicago
74. Man of Aran (1934)
Not Rated | 76 min | Documentary, Drama
In this blend of documentary and fictional narrative from pioneering filmmaker Robert Flaherty, the everyday trials of life on Ireland's unforgiving Aran Islands are captured with attention to naturalistic beauty and historical detail.
Director: Robert J. Flaherty | Stars: Colman 'Tiger' King, Maggie Dirrane, Michael Dirrane, Pat Mullin
Votes: 2,313
Fictionalized documentary
75. The City (I) (1939)
43 min | Documentary, Short
A prescient documentary about city planning, which presents idyllic suburbs and nuclear families as a solution to the chaos, poverty and social decay of industrialized inner cities.
Directors: Ralph Steiner, Willard Van Dyke | Star: Morris Carnovsky
Votes: 368
City film for New York World’s Fair, written by Pare Lorentz
76. Moods of the Sea (1942)
Unrated | 10 min | Short, Musical
A recently unearthed experimental documentary of the crashing sea set to Mendelssohn's "Fingal's Cave." An example of the filmmakers' "new cinema" theory which held that film should be more... See full summary »
Directors: John Hoffman, Slavko Vorkapich
Votes: 269
Black & white, sound credits The Hebrides (overture) by Félix Mendelssohn
77. Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)
Not Rated | 14 min | Short, Fantasy, Mystery
A woman returning home falls asleep and has vivid dreams that may or may not be happening in reality. Through repetitive images and complete mismatching of the objective view of time and space, her dark inner desires play out on-screen.
Directors: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid | Stars: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid
Votes: 15,128
Black & white; sound by composer Teiji Ito added in 1959. Established the movement known as ‘New American Cinema’
78. Witch's Cradle (1944)
12 min | Short, Fantasy, Mystery
The surrealist film shows repetitive imagery involving a string fashioned in a bizarre, almost spiderweb-like pattern over the hands of several individuals, most notably an unnamed young woman and an elderly gentleman.
Director: Maya Deren | Stars: Marcel Duchamp, Pajorita Matta
Votes: 872
Black & white; silent. Never finished; survives as workprint or gathering of trims
79. At Land (1944)
15 min | Short, Drama, Fantasy
Silently, a woman wakes on a beach as the tides go in reverse. Her dreamscape unfolds as she tries to locate a chess piece traveling from the beach to a party to a country road and then back.
Director: Maya Deren | Stars: John Cage, Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid, Hella Heyman
Votes: 3,321
80. Dreams That Money Can Buy (1947)
Approved | 99 min | Drama, Fantasy
After learning how to look inside himself, a poetic bum sells people vivid dreams.
Director: Hans Richter | Stars: Jack Bittner, Libby Holman, Josh White, Norma Cazanjian
Votes: 940
81. Fireworks (1947)
20 min | Short, Drama, Horror
A dissatisfied dreamer awakes, goes out in the night seeking a 'light' and is drawn through the needle's eye. A dream of a dream, he returns to bed less empty than before.
Director: Kenneth Anger | Stars: Kenneth Anger, Gordon Gray, Bill Seltzer
Votes: 2,889
82. Lady in the Lake (1946)
Passed | 105 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
The lady editor of a crime magazine hires Phillip Marlowe to find the wife of her boss. The private detective soon finds himself involved in murder.
Director: Robert Montgomery | Stars: Robert Montgomery, Audrey Totter, Lloyd Nolan, Tom Tully
Votes: 6,316
83. Motion Painting No. 1 (1947)
11 min | Animation, Short
A short painted film by Oskar Fishchinger which films images to the music of Johann Bach.
Director: Oskar Fischinger
Votes: 572
84. Le tempestaire (1947)
22 min | Short, Drama, Fantasy
In a village in Brittany, a young maid and an old woman are spinning while the wind blows threateningly outdoors. In spite of the bad omen, the young maid's boyfriend decides to sail away. ... See full summary »
Director: Jean Epstein
Votes: 756
85. The Lead Shoes (1949)
18 min | Short
A short experimental film by Sidney Peterson using double overlapping lenses to tell the story of a woman and a deep sea diver.
Director: Sidney Peterson | Stars: Jeremy Anderson, Elma Barrett, Jack Klough
Votes: 270
86. Pacific 231 (1949)
9 min | Short, Music
An engine moves from the roundhouse to a track where it couples with several passenger cars. At 2:10 in the afternoon, it starts a trip out of the station through the countryside to its ... See full summary »
Director: Jean Mitry
Votes: 384
87. Puce Moment (1949)
6 min | Short
A soundtrack plays folk rock as a woman prepares, at noon, to take her Borzois for a walk. She goes through her dresses, all 1920s style flapper gowns, holding them one at a time, shaking ... See full summary »
Director: Kenneth Anger | Star: Yvonne Marquis
Votes: 1,866
88. Adventures of Jimmy (1950)
12 min | Short
Off-camera, Jimmy narrates the story of his search for his destiny. We see him living alone in a cabin in the woods; he has pictures of his parents. He paddles his canoe toward his destiny.... See full summary »
Director: James Broughton | Star: James Broughton
Votes: 113
Music by Weldon Kees
89. Song of Love (1950)
Not Rated | 26 min | Short, Drama, Fantasy
Two prisoners in complete isolation, separated by the thick brick walls, and desperately in need of human contact, devise a most unusual kind of communication.
Director: Jean Genet | Stars: Bravo, Jean Genet, Java, Coco Le Martiniquais
Votes: 3,693
Jean Genet’s only film
90. Orpheus (1950)
Not Rated | 112 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
A poet in love with Death follows his unhappy wife into the underworld.
Director: Jean Cocteau | Stars: Jean Marais, François Périer, María Casares, Marie Déa
Votes: 13,353
91. Eaux d'artifice (1953)
Not Rated | 12 min | Short
A woman dressed in an elegant period dress wanders through the water gardens at the Villa d'Este.
Director: Kenneth Anger | Star: Carmilla Salvatorelli
Votes: 1,781
Color, added to the National Film Registry in 1993
92. The Pleasure Garden (1955)
38 min | Short, Comedy
People quietly or campily pass the time in an overgrown garden full of statues, while a puritanical, funereal gentleman posts bills prohibiting all leisure activities.
Director: James Broughton | Stars: Jean Anderson, Lindsay Anderson, Maxine Audley, Jill Bennett
Votes: 182
93. Statues also Die (1953)
30 min | Documentary, Short
A documentary of black art.
Directors: Ghislain Cloquet, Chris Marker, Alain Resnais | Stars: Jean Négroni, François Mitterrand, Pope Pius XII, Sugar Ray Robinson
Votes: 1,368
94. Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954)
38 min | Short, Fantasy, Horror
Historical, biblical, and mythical characters gather in the pleasure dome and become part of a visual feast of superimposed images, hallucinations, and decadence.
Director: Kenneth Anger | Stars: Samson De Brier, Marjorie Cameron, Joan Whitney, Katy Kadell
Votes: 2,342
Color, edited into at least three distinct versions
95. Dementia (1955)
Not Rated | 61 min | Film-Noir, Horror, Mystery
This film, with no dialogue at all, follows a psychotic young woman's nightmarish experiences through one skid-row night.
Directors: John Parker, Bruno VeSota | Stars: Adrienne Barrett, Bruno VeSota, Ben Roseman, Richard Barron
Votes: 2,555
Essentially silent psychological horror film, music by George Antheil
96. A Flirtatious Woman (1955)
10 min | Short, Comedy
A young woman is tempted to flirt with a stranger.
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: Maria Lysandre, Roland Tolmatchoff, Carmen Mirando, Jean-Luc Godard
Votes: 632
97. 8 X 8: A Chess Sonata in 8 Movements (1955)
80 min | Music
It is a fairy tale for the subconscious based on the game of chess. Partly Sigmund Freud, partly Lewis Carroll.
Directors: Jean Cocteau, Hans Richter | Stars: Jean Arp, Paul Bowles, Ceal Bryson, Alexander Calder
Votes: 280
98. Glimpse of the Garden (1957)
5 min | Documentary, Short
An exploration of a garden, accompanied by birdsong.
Director: Marie Menken
Votes: 431
Selected for addition to the National Film Registry in 2007
99. A Movie (1958)
12 min | Short
Clips of atomic explosions, pornography, and B-movies are spliced together to evoke certain emotions.
Director: Bruce Conner | Star: Theodore Roosevelt
Votes: 1,454
Iconic collage film
100. Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama, Romance
A French actress filming an anti-war film in Hiroshima has an affair with a married Japanese architect as they share their differing perspectives on war.
Director: Alain Resnais | Stars: Emmanuelle Riva, Eiji Okada, Stella Dassas, Pierre Barbaud
Votes: 35,753 | Gross: $0.09M
Written by Marguerite Duras
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