List of avant-garde films of the 1940s

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2008)

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A list of avant-garde and experimental films released in the 1940s.

Title | Director | Cast | Nation | Notes

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1941
Moods of the Sea | Slavko Vorkapić, John Hoffman |  | United States | Black & white, sound (Felix Mendelssohn: The Hebrides (overture)[1]
Who Has Been Rocking My Dream Boat | Kenneth Anger |  | United States | Lost film.[2]
1942
By Night with Torch and Spear | Joseph Cornell |  | United States  |
Lambeth Walk - Nazi Style | Charles A. Ridley |  | United Kingdom | British propaganda short, which "remixes" marching Nazis to a pop song.[3]
Tinsel Tree | Kenneth Anger |  | United States | Lost film[4]
Variations on a Circle | James Whitney (filmmaker) |  | United States | Color, silent. Abstract animation, shot in 8mm. [5]
1943
Allegretto | Oskar Fischinger |  | United States | Abstract animation, color, sound. Third version, completed in 1943[6]
The Geography of the Body | Willard Maas | Willard Maas, Marie Menken | United States | Film poem, text written and read by George Barker (poet)[7][8]
Meshes of the Afternoon | Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid | Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid | United States | Black & white; sound by composer Teiji Ito added in 1959. Established the movement known as "New American Cinema."[9][10]
The Witch's Cradle | Maya Deren, Marcel Duchamp | Marcel Duchamp, Pajarito Matta | United States | Black & white; silent. Never finished; survives as workprint or gathering of trims.[11][12]
1944
At Land | Maya Deren | Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid, Parker Tyler, John Cage | United States | [13]
1945
The Eye and the Ear | Stefan Themerson, Franciszka Themerson |  | United Kingdom  |
Le Vampire | Jean Painlevé |  | France  |
Out-Takes From a Study in Choreography for Camera | Maya Deren | Talley Beatty | United States | [14]
A Study in Choreography for Camera | Maya Deren | Talley Beatty | United States | [15]
Visual Variations on Noguchi | Marie Menken |  | United States | [16]
1946
The Potted Psalm | Sidney Peterson, James Broughton | Beatrix Perry, Harry Honig | United States | Live action surrealist short.[17]
Ritual in Transfigured Time | Maya Deren | Maya Deren, Rita Christiani, Frank Westbrook, Anaïs Nin | United States | [18]
1947
The Cage | Sidney Peterson |  | United States | [citation needed]
Dreams That Money Can Buy | Hans Richter | Max Ernst | United States | [19]
Fireworks | Kenneth Anger | Kenneth Anger, Bill Seltzer, Gordon Gray | United States | [20]
Forest Murmurs | Slavko Vorkapić, John Hoffman |  | United States | Black & white, sound; made for MGM, but withheld from release. Jacobs dates it to 1941; most other sources give 1947.[21]
Lady in the Lake | Robert Montgomery | Robert Montgomery, Audrey Totter | United States | [22]
Motion Painting No. 1 | Oskar Fischinger |  | United States | [23]
Private Life of a Cat | Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid |  | United States  |
Le Tempestaire | Jean Epstein |  | France  |
Transmutation | Jordan Belson |  | United States | Belson's first film, shown at Art in Cinema screenings in San Francisco in the early '50s; lost film.[24]
1948
Du sang, de la volupté et de la mort | Gregory Markopoulos |  | United States | Color, 70 min. Begun in Los Angeles in 1947; finished in Toledo, Ohio. In three parts: Psyche, Lysis & Charmides.[25]
In the Street | Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb, James Agee |  | United States | Silent; sound version issued in 1952 [26][27]
Meditation on Violence | Maya Deren | Chao Li Chi | United States | [28]
The Petrified Dog | Sidney Peterson | Gail Randall, Marie Hirsh, Jo Landor | United States | [29][30]
Weegee's New York | Weegee |  | United States | [31][32]
1949
Christmas, U.S.A. | Gregory Markopoulos |  | United States | [citation needed]
The Lead Shoes | Sidney Peterson |  | United States | [citation needed]
Medusa | Maya Deren |  | United States | [33]
Pacific 231 | Jean Mitry |  | France | [34]
Puce Moment | Kenneth Anger |  | United States | [35]

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Horak, Jan Christopher (1995). Lovers of Cinema: The First American Film Avant-Garde, 1919-1945. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 38. ISBN 0-299-14680-4.
2. ^ Sitney, P. Adams (2002). Visionary Film: The American Avant Garde 1943-2000 third edition. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 84\. ISBN 0-19-514885-1.
3. ^ Public Domain Review, "Lambeth Walk - Nazi Style" [1]
4. ^ Lewis, David. "Tinsel Tree". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
5. ^ Los Angeles Filmforum, "Alternative Projections: John Whitney" [2]
6. ^ Oskar Fischinger Filmography [3]
7. ^ P. Adams Sitney, "Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde 1943–2000. Oxford University Press, 2002 pg. 75
8. ^ Lewis, David. "Geography of the Body". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
9. ^ MOMA Object Page [4]
10. ^ Lux Entry [5] Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine
11. ^ Dangerous Minds: ‘The Witch’s Cradle’: Watch Maya Deren and Marcel Duchamp’s stunning occult short [6]
12. ^ Charney, Leo. "Meshes of the Afternoon". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
13. ^ Lewis, David. "At Land". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
14. ^ Lewis, David. "A Study in Choreography for Camera". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
15. ^ Lewis, David. "A Study in Choreography for Camera". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
16. ^ Lewis, David. "Visual Variations on Noguchi". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
17. ^ [7] MUBI entry
18. ^ Lewis, David. "Ritual in Transfigured Time". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
19. ^ Erickson, Hal. "Dreams That Money Can Buy". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
20. ^ Crow, Jonathan. "Fireworks". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
21. ^ Lewis Jacobs, "Experimental Cinema in America II," Hollywood Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 3, Spring 1948, reprinted in Smoodin, Eric Loren; Martin, Ann (2002). Hollywood Quarterly: Film Culture in Postwar America, 1945-1957. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. p. 43\. ISBN 0-520-23274-7.
22. ^ Jake Hinkson -- Through the Camera's Eye: Experiments with Subjective Camera in Film Noir [8]
23. ^ "Motion Painting No. 1". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
24. ^ Experimental Cinema -- Jordan Belson [9]
25. ^ Harvard Film Archive Markopoulos retrospective [10]
26. ^ "In the Street". Film, Video. Library of Congress. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
27. ^ "In the Street". Little Fugitive / In the Street / Quiet One. UCLA Library Film & Television Archive. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
28. ^ "Mediation on Violence". allmovie. Rovicorp. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
29. ^ The Worldwide Celluloid Massacre review [11]
30. ^ The Sound of Eye: The Petrified Dog [12]
31. ^ Visionary Film: Weegee [13]
32. ^ ICP: Weegee's New York [14]
33. ^ Lewis, David. "Medusa". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
34. ^ "Pacific 231". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
35. ^ Lewis, David. "Puce Moment". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.

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