List of avant-garde films of the 1940s
A list of avant-garde and experimental films released in the 1940s.
Title
Director
Cast
Nation
Notes
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
^ 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 .
^
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 .
^ Public Domain Review, "Lambeth Walk - Nazi Style" [1]
^ Lewis, David. "Tinsel Tree" . Allmovie . Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013 .
^ Los Angeles Filmforum, "Alternative Projections: John Whitney" [2]
^ Oskar Fischinger Filmography [3]
^ P. Adams Sitney, "Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde 1943–2000. Oxford University Press, 2002 pg. 75
^ Lewis, David. "Geography of the Body" . Allmovie . Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013 .
^ MOMA Object Page [4]
^ Lux Entry [5] Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine
^ Dangerous Minds: ‘The Witch’s Cradle’: Watch Maya Deren and Marcel Duchamp’s stunning occult short [6]
^ Charney, Leo. "Meshes of the Afternoon" . Allmovie . Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013 .
^ Lewis, David. "At Land" . Allmovie . Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013 .
^ Lewis, David. "A Study in Choreography for Camera" . Allmovie . Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013 .
^ Lewis, David. "A Study in Choreography for Camera" . Allmovie . Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013 .
^ Lewis, David. "Visual Variations on Noguchi" . Allmovie . Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013 .
^ [7] MUBI entry
^ Lewis, David. "Ritual in Transfigured Time" . Allmovie . Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013 .
^ Erickson, Hal . "Dreams That Money Can Buy" . Allmovie . Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013 .
^ Crow, Jonathan. "Fireworks" . Allmovie . Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013 .
^ 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 .
^ Jake Hinkson -- Through the Camera's Eye: Experiments with Subjective Camera in Film Noir [8]
^ "Motion Painting No. 1" . Allmovie . Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013 .
^ Experimental Cinema -- Jordan Belson [9]
^ Harvard Film Archive Markopoulos retrospective [10]
^ "In the Street" . Film, Video . Library of Congress. Retrieved October 27, 2020 .
^ "In the Street" . Little Fugitive / In the Street / Quiet One . UCLA Library Film & Television Archive. Retrieved October 27, 2020 .
^ "Mediation on Violence" . allmovie . Rovicorp. Retrieved December 18, 2013 .
^ The Worldwide Celluloid Massacre review [11]
^ The Sound of Eye: The Petrified Dog [12]
^ Visionary Film: Weegee [13]
^ ICP: Weegee's New York [14]
^ Lewis, David. "Medusa" . Allmovie . Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013 .
^ "Pacific 231" . Allmovie . Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013 .
^ Lewis, David. "Puce Moment" . Allmovie . Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013 .