Surrealism, Dada, and Avant-Garde Cinema: Key Concepts and Techniques

Cadavre exquis

Surrealist technique where multiple people collaboratively create a single work (drawing, poem, or story) without seeing the preceding contributions.

Automatic writing

The imaginary takes over the quotidian, destroying or breaking down the distinction between the two.

Surrealism

Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express -- verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner -- the actual functioning of thought.

Mainstream cinema

Product, mastery, novel/literary, theatrical, third person, illusionistic, industrial/professional, universal/mass appeal.

Avant-Garde cinema

Process, experiment, visual, poem, performative, first person, anti-illusionist, artisanal/amateur, singular/idiosyncratic.

Mainstream cinema vs. underground cinema

Mainstream: mass culture, dominant, status quo, universal, for profit, mass audiences; Underground: popular culture, liminal, oppositional, individualistic, for self-expression, specific audiences.

Photomontage

Technique first used by the dadaists in 1915 in their protests against the First World War, later adopted by surrealists to bring together disparate images.

Dada

Revolutionary, anti-war art movement that began in Zurich during WWI around 1916, rejecting logic and reason in favor of chaos and spontaneity.

Tristan Tzara Dada Manifesto

Rejects logic, beauty, and all forms of organized belief, advocating for a 'continuous contradiction' and chaos.

Dada Manifesto

A manifesto by Tzara that expresses the idea of performing contradictory actions simultaneously and rejecting traditional aesthetic values.

Hugo Ball Dada Manifesto

A declaration that art serves as an opportunity for true perception and criticism of contemporary times.

Ciné-club

A group co-founded by Germaine Dulac and Abel Gance that promoted and presented the work of new young filmmakers.

Pure Cinema

An approach to filmmaking that emphasizes the unique visual and aural qualities of film, prioritizing elements like motion, editing, lighting, and sound over dialogue and narrative.

Cinematic syntax

The grammar and arrangement of visual and auditory elements in a film to create meaning and tell a story.

Dialectical montage

A film editing technique that juxtaposes contrasting images to create a new, synthesized meaning and evoke an intellectual or emotional response.

Cinema 16

A historic film society founded in New York City by Amos Vogel from 1947 to 1963, known for exhibiting and distributing experimental films.

Art in Cinema (SF)

A pioneering film society that screened avant-garde and independent films at the San Francisco Museum of Art and UC Berkeley.

Cut on action across disjunctive spaces

A film editing technique that combines cross-cutting with cutting on action to create seamless transitions or disorienting effects.

Bolex

A brand of high-quality 16mm movie cameras known for their durability, portability, and handheld aesthetic.

Diary Film

A cinematic genre where filmmakers use personal footage to express personal reality.

Film Diary

An autobiographical filmmaking genre where a filmmaker uses their own life and experiences to create a movie.

Intermedial

The concept of cinema as a mixed medium that incorporates and interacts with other media, such as literature, theater, and video games.

Beat Generation

A post-World War II literary and social movement that rebelled against mainstream American values through writing, art, and lifestyle.

Happenings

Unconventional, improvisational performance art that combines various artistic elements and encourages audience participation.

Osher Film

An exercise that combines basic elements of cinema, emphasizing how composition, perspective, and boundaries shape what we see on screen.

Tzara's Rejection of Traditional Aesthetics

Tzara's assertion that 'Dada ne signifie rien' signifies a revolt against traditional aesthetic values that require art to be beautiful or meaningful.

Psychic Automatism

The performance of the subconscious flow of thought, visually represented in cinema through editing and montage.

Image (as defined by Pierre Reverdy)

A pure creation of the mind, born from juxtaposition of distant realities, generating new meaning through unexpected connections.

Un Chien Andalou

A film by Buñuel and Dalí, shocking for its opening scene showing an eyeball being cut open, symbolizing a rupture of perception.

Close-ups of Eyes

Used in films like Battleship Potemkin and Meshes of the Afternoon to explore vision, vulnerability, and the connection between seeing and inner reality.

Avant-Garde Cinema (as defined by Dulac)

A film that breaks from tradition to create new emotional experiences through purely visual and auditory means.

Visual Symphony

A term used by Dulac to describe the rhythmic images that create an integral film beyond mass entertainment.

Surrealist Film

Exposes the fundamental illusion of the film image, revealing it as a constructed illusion rather than a transparent window onto reality.

Interior Life in Cinema

Dulac shows a character's inner thoughts and desires through visual techniques like soft focus and symbolic imagery.

Seashell and the Clergyman Quotation

Reflects the Surrealist ideal that cinema can guide the mind into hidden territories of desire and fear.

Dreamlike Sequences

Used to express psychological states of boredom and entrapment in characters, blurring the line between reality and imagination.

Symbolic Imagery

Visual elements that convey deeper meanings and emotional responses in film.

Soft Focus

A visual technique used to create a dreamlike quality in film, often to convey a character's inner thoughts.

Superimposition

A technique in film that layers images to create complex visual narratives and express psychological states.

Slow Motion

A visual technique that can enhance emotional impact and highlight significant moments in film.

Juxtaposition

The act of placing two or more elements close together to highlight their differences or create new meanings.

Emotional Power of Images

The strength of an image is enhanced by the distance and justness of the relationship between the juxtaposed realities.

Rupture of Perception

A concept illustrated in Un Chien Andalou, symbolizing a break from logical understanding.

Hidden Truths

Concepts that are exposed through visual metaphors in cinema, particularly through the act of seeing.

Imaginary Signifier

The visual and auditory elements of cinema that evoke a powerful, yet ultimately deceptive, sense of reality for the spectator.

Conventional fiction film

Imaginary Signifiers exist but are subordinated to the story; they serve narrative coherence and character psychology.

Mirror Stage

Occurs in early childhood when a child recognizes their reflection in a mirror, in a way that is pleasurable and illusory (idealized and unified rather than fragmented reality of bodily experience).

Slaughterhouse scene in Strike

The scene shows animals being slaughtered in a realistic, visceral way, provoking shock, disgust, or even humor, depending on the viewer.

Eisenstein's concept of montage

Uses the dialectic of conflicting shots to generate new, emergent meaning, rather than simply relying on sequential association to elicit emotional responses.

Montage of attractions

Theory by Sergei Eisenstein that uses deliberately juxtaposed, often aggressive or shocking images to create a strong emotional and intellectual impact on the viewer.

Graphic conflict

Juxtaposition of shots with contrasting visual elements—lines, shapes, textures, or movement—to create tension and highlight differences.

Full scene

Type of performance in which the actor is given the opportunity to depict a specific spiritual experience, regardless of how many metres of film it takes, and involves a complete rejection of the usual hurried tempo of film play.

Deren's cut on action

One can film different people at different times and even in different places performing approximately the same gesture or movement, and, by a judicious joining of the shots in such a manner as to preserve the continuity of the movement, the action itself becomes the dominant dynamic which unifies all separateness.

Example of Deren's technique

In At Land (1944), Deren's character transitions from crawling on a beach to moving across a long table in a banquet hall, all within a single continuous motion.

1940s-50s U.S. experimental film

Shared with 1920s Surrealist cinema a fascination with dream imagery, the unconscious mind, and irrational logic, rejecting Hollywood's narrative conventions.

Psychoanalytic ideas

Influences on experimental techniques in film, such as montage, superimposition, and distortion.

Central paradox of the motion-picture camera

The camera is independently active, capturing images without constant intervention, yet it is infinitely passive, merely responding to what exists.

Authority of reality

The sense that whatever is shown in the film has an independent, objective, or indexical existence, connecting the image to actual time, place, texture, or events.

Controlled accident

The careful balancing of spontaneous, natural phenomena and deliberate artistic intervention in film.

Spontaneous natural phenomena

Elements in a scene that occur naturally and are not fabricated by the artist, such as wind blowing hair or irregular natural light.

Deliberate artistic intervention

The introduction of composed or staged elements by the filmmaker, such as framing and camera position.

Jonathan Halper

The composer who replaced the original classical soundtrack of Puce Moment with a contemporary psychedelic rock score.

Marie Menken's Notebook

A film that should not be interpreted as a straightforward diary but as an exploration of form, rhythm, and perception.

Dynamic camera movement

A technique used by Menken to transform ordinary moments into visual experiments.

Kinetic approach

Menken's method of filmmaking that rejects polished aesthetics in favor of spontaneity and intuition.

Bolex camera

A handheld camera used by Menken and Mekas, known for its durability, portability, and ability to shoot shot by shot.

Avant-garde film approach

Mekas's perspective on how spectators should engage with avant-garde cinema.

Editing in Notebook

Menken's use of editing to emphasize light and texture rather than self-expression.

Observation into abstraction

The transformation of observation in Menken's work, focusing on aesthetic possibilities rather than documentation.

Hollywood aesthetic

The polished and static style that Menken rejected in favor of a more animated and engaging approach.

Texture of sand

An example of spontaneous natural phenomena captured in film.

Irregular natural light

Another example of spontaneous phenomena that contributes to the authenticity of film.

Framing in film

A deliberate artistic intervention that structures what is being filmed.

Choreographed gestures

Planned movements introduced by the filmmaker to enhance the narrative or visual experience.

Wistful homage

The original mood of Puce Moment before the soundtrack change.

Dreamlike reverie

The transformed mood of Puce Moment after the introduction of psychedelic rock music.

Altered consciousness

A theme associated with the 1960s-70s avant-garde, contrasting with silent-era restraint.

Jonas Mekas's creation myth

God initially creates cinema and filmmakers, who are then tempted by money from the Devil. God returns 25 years later to create independent, avant-garde filmmakers, instructing them to ignore money and use the camera to celebrate creation and have fun.

Qualities of Happenings

Both emphasize spontaneity, impermanence, and audience participation, rejecting commercial and narrative conventions in favor of sensory, interdisciplinary, and improvisational experiences that blur the line between art and life.

Mekas's strategy for Un Chant d'amour

Mekas presented the film in private, underground screenings framed as artistic and poetic, but authorities often intervened due to its explicit homoerotic content, highlighting the tension between avant-garde expression and censorship.

Nuclear war anxieties in 1960s art

Many artists used abstract, fragmented, or disturbing imagery to evoke the existential threat of Cold War-era nuclear annihilation, reflecting societal fears about destruction, decay, and the fragility of human life.

Sound and image in Pull My Daisy

The film pairs improvised voice-over narration with loosely structured visual sequences, creating counterpoint between sound and image that emphasizes rhythm, mood, and poetic resonance.

Mekas's homage to Warhol

Mekas adopts long takes, static framing, attention to mundane gestures, repetition, and observational focus, emphasizing presence, duration, and personality over narrative in a way that mirrors Warhol's aesthetic strategies.