Modernist film is related to the art and philosophy of modernism.
History
Early modernist film came to maturity in the era between World War I and World War II, with characteristics such as montage and symbolic imagery, manifesting itself in genres as diverse as
expressionism and
surrealism (as featured in the works of
Fritz Lang and Luis Buñuel)
while postmodernist film – similar to
postmodernism as a whole – is a reaction to modernist works, and to their tendencies (such as
nostalgia and
angst).
Modernist cinema has been said to have "explored and exposed the formal concerns of the medium by placing them at the forefront of consciousness."
The
auteur theory and idea of an author creating a work from their singular vision became a central characteristic of modernist filmmaking. It has been said that "To investigate the transparency of the image is modernist but to undermine its reference to reality is to engage with the aesthetics of postmodernism."
["Reading the Postmodern Image: A Cognitive Mapping," Screen: 31, 4 (Winter 1990) by Tony Wilson] The modernist film has more faith in the author, the individual, and the accessibility of reality itself (and generally has a more sincere tone
) than the postmodernist film.
List of notable modernist films
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Cabiria (1914)
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Intolerance (1916)
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The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
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Manhatta (1921)
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Ballet Mécanique (1923)
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The Last Laugh (1924)
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Sherlock Jr. (1924)
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Battleship Potemkin (1925)
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The Lodger (1927)
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Sunrise (1927)
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Metropolis (1927)
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(1927)
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The Crowd (1928)
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The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
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Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)
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The Cameraman (1928)
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The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)
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Un Chien Andalou (1929)
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Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
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L'Age d'Or (1930)
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Frankenstein (1931)
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Dracula (1931)
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Two Happy Hearts (1932)
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Brumberg sisters (1934)
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A Story of Floating Weeds (1934)
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The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
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Daffy Duck and Egghead (1938)
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Olympia (1938)
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Thugs with Dirty Mugs (1939)
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Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
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Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939)
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Stagecoach (1939)
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Rebecca (1940)
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The Great Dictator (1940)
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The Heckling Hare (1941)
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Citizen Kane (1941)
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The Maltese Falcon (1941)
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Cat People (1942)
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Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)
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Who Killed Who (1943)
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Screwball Squirrel (1944)
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Double Indemnity (1944)
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Rome, Open City (1945)
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Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
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Detour (1945)
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Gilda (1946)
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A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
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Lonesome Lenny (1946)
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The Killers (1946)
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Out of the Past (1947)
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The Naked City (1948)
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The Boy with Green Hair (1948)
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Bicycle Thieves (1949)
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The Third Man (1949)
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Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950)
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The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
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Sunset Boulevard (1950)
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Rashomon (1950)
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Son of Paleface (1952)
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Singin' in the Rain (1952)
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Magical Maestro (1952)
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High Noon (1952)
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Duck Amuck (1953; also been called a postmodernist film)
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La Strada (1954)
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Voyage to Italy (1954)
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Magnificent Obsession (1954)
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Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
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Artists and Models (1955)
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All That Heaven Allows (1955; also been called a postmodernist film)
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The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959)
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Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
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The Girl Can't Help It (1956)
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The Jaywalker (1956)
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The Seventh Seal (1956)
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Wild Strawberries (1957)
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N.Y., N.Y. (1957)
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Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957)
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Vertigo (1958)
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Hiroshima mon amour (1959; also been called a postmodernist film)
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The 400 Blows (1959)
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L'Avventura (1960; also been called a postmodernist film)
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La dolce vita (1960)
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Breathless (1960)
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The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1961)
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Last Year at Marienbad (1961; also been called a postmodernist film)
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Allures (1961)
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La Notte (1961)
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Surogat (1961)
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Gay Purr-ee (1962)
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Now Hear This (1962)
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Experiment in Terror (1962)
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Two Weeks in Another Town (1962)
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The Servant (1963)
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8½ (1963; also been called a postmodernist film)
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Shock Corridor (1963)
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The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon (1963)
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Marnie (1964)
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Bruce Baillie (1964)
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Time Piece (1965)
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Pierrot le Fou (1965, also been called a postmodernist film)
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The Hand (1965)
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Breakaway (1966)
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Persona (1966; also called a postmodernist film)
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Andrei Rublev (1966)
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Fred Mogubgub (1966)
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Here Is Your Life (1966)
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Blowup (1966; also been called a postmodernist film)
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Au hasard Balthazar (1966)
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Playtime (1967; also been called a postmodernist film)
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Accident (1967)
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Report (1967)
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(1968; also called a postmodernist film))
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Black Panthers (1968)
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Medium Cool (1968)
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Monterey Pop (1968)
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(1968; also been called a postmodernist film)
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Les Blank (1968)
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Funeral Parade of Roses (1969; also called a postmodernist film)
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In the Year of the Pig (1969)
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My Name Is Oona (1969)
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The Color of Pomegranates (1969; also been called a postmodernist film)
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Zabriskie Point (1970)
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Gimme Shelter (1970)
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The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971)
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(1971)
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Punishment Park (1971)
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Day for Night (1973; also called a postmodernist film)
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The Holy Mountain (1973; also been called a postmodernist film)
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Apple in the River (1974)
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A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
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The Diary (1974)
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Arabesque (1975)
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Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
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The Mirror (1975)
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Mr. Klein (1976)
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Tale of Tales (1979)
-
Bubble Bath (1979)
-
Dead Mountaineer's Hotel (1979)
List of notable modernist filmmakers
Sources:
[ Modernism and Film - Cinema and Media Studies - Oxford Bibliographies][ Vertigo - Cinema and Media Studies - Oxford Bibliographies][ "Modernism and Citizen Kane" by George R. Robinson - BMCC][ The Big Sleep: Cinema and Modernism > National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea][ German Cinema, 1920-1930 — Modernism Lab][ Film Noir and the Spaces of Modernity —— Edward Dimendberg|Harvard University Press][ Cinema and modernism - The British Library][ The forgotten glamour and modernism of 1930s Italian cinema sets – Museum Crush][ Modernism, Montage, and Social Commentary in Early City Films — Indiana University Cinema][ Hollywood Modernism: Film and Politics in the Age of the New Deal][ How Chantal Akerman's modernist masterpiece changed cinema - BBC Culture][ Screening Modernism —— Cineaste Magazine][ Anthology Film Archives : Film Screenings][ American Stranger: Modernisms, Hollywood, and the Cinema of Nicholas Ray (Suny Series) (Paperback)|University Press Books/Berkeley][ Sirk/Fassbinder: Melodrama Mutations|White City Cinema][ Battleship Potemkin makes us strong|World cinema|The Guardian][ American Stranger - Google Books][ Key avant-garde films from the roaring '20s :: September 2011 :: Cassone][ The sad and the beautiful : Val Lewton and Vincette Minnelli at the Stanford Theatre|The Stanford Daily][ Masterpieces of Modernist Cinema - Indiana University Press][ THE WORK OF IDA LUPINO EARNS SOME OVERDUE PRAISE - Chicago Tribune][ Table of Contents: Masterpieces of modernist cinema/ - Villanova University][ Modernity: A Film by Alfred Hitchcock — Senses of Cinema][ Established Modernism, 1962-1966 - Chicago Scholarship][ “ ‘Saved from the Blessings of Civilization’: Stagecoach, the West, and American Vernacular Modernism” - Michael Valdez Moses, Duke University][ Yasujiro Ozu: 10 essential films|BFI][ The Rashomon Effect|The Current|The Criterion Collection][ A Quickie Look at the Life & Career of Tex Avery - Bright Lights Film Journal][ Tex Avery: Arch-Radicalizer of the Hollywood Cartoon - Bright Lights Journal][ That's All, Folks - The Washington Post][ The 100 Most Influential Sequences in Animation History - Vulture][ The Cartoon Renegades - The New York Times][ Alternative Visions: Animation|BAMPFA][
]
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Independent Spirits: Faith Hubley/John Hubley (2003) - Turner Classic Movies[ Amit Chaudhuri on Satyajit Ray's very Indian modernity: Not a 'beginning' as much as a 'fruition' - Scroll.in][ Cinema, Emergence, and the Films of Satyajit Ray - Google Books (pg.195)][ The Riddle of the Chicken: The Work of Norman McLaren — Senses of Cinema][ The world of Len Lye|Govett-Brewster Art Gallery|Len Lye Centre][ "Pretty Good for the 21st Century||Keep It Moving?][ Film and Literary Modernism - Google Books][ The Statues Still Stood: The Third Man and Third Spaces|Modernism / Modernity Print+][ The Development of a Modernist Narrative in Selected Film of Joseph Losey - CORE][ Black & White & Noir: America's Pulp Modernism on JSTOR][ Ten Great Movies for Placemakers —— Project for Public Spaces][ The Case for Douglas Sirk as the First Postmodern Filmmaker|Collider][ The Daring, Original, and Overlooked "Symbiopyschotaxiplasm: Take One"|The New Yorker][ Blake Edwards's 'The Great Race' and 'The Party' - The New York Times][ The Bitter Essence of Blake Edwards|Screening the Past][ Filmmuseum - Program SD][ Hard Clarity, Vaporous Ambiguity: The Fusion of Realism and Modernism in Antonioni's early 1960s Films - Senses of Cinema][ Modernist Master: Michelangelo Antonioni | BAMPFA][ Mr. Klein | BAMPFA][ Pierrot Le Fou’s Discourse on the Infection of Americanism in Europe and the Absurdity of Modern Society|Culled Culture][ "All right: where am I?" "Looney Tunes" Animation as Modernist Performance on JSTOR][ John Cassavetes: The First Dogma Director? - Bright Lights Film Journal][ Was postmodernism born with Close Encounters of the Third Kind?|Culture|The Guardian][ Kubrick's Total Cinema: Philosophical Themes and Formal Qualities - Google Books][ Time Machines: After Kubrick: A Filmmaker's Legacy, edited by Jeremi Szaniawski · Senses of Cinema][ Hiroshima mon amour's Unforgettable Opening|Current|The Criterion Collection][ Horror versus Terror in the Body Genre | CINEACTION][ Emile de Antonio - Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research][ Lessons of Documentary: Reality, Representation, and Cinematic Expressivity - American Society For Aesthetics][ MUBI Collection: BEING GREEN: JIM HENSON'S EARLY SHORTS|MUBI][ Designers in Context: Film, Advertising, and Modernism - The Visualist][ Agnès Varda Was a Living Work of Art - The Hollywood Reporter][ Eclipse Series 19: Chantal Akerman in the Seventies|The Criterion Collection][ Voyage into the unknown | Movies - The Guardian][ Hippie Modernism: Cinema and Counterculture, 1964-1974 - BAMPFA][ Theater 2 Hippie Modernism Shorts - BAMPFA][ Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia At The Berkeley Art Museum | East Bay Express]
[ Elegy to Ecstasy: Films from Canyon Cinema - BAMPFA][ Festival Express|BAMPFA][ Vulgar Modernism - Artfourm International][ Vulgar Modernism - Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism][ Five films that influenced Jean-Luc Godard|Far Out Magazine][ Jiří Trnka Shorts: Mature Mastery | American Cinematheque][ The Czech Year - Harvard Film Archive]
[ Global Animation Theory - International Perspectives at Animafest Zagreb - Bloomsbury Collections][ Why Do Movies Feel So Different Now? - Thomas Flight on YouTube][ Six facts about Jean-Luc Goddard – the godfather of modernist cinema|Evening Standard][ What Made Buster Keaton’s Comedy So Modern?|The New Yorker][ 'And Walt Went Crazy' - Animation Obsessive]
See also
External links
