# Modernist film

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." 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

* Funeral Parade of Roses (1969; also called a postmodernist film)
* A Story of Floating Weeds (1934)
* Day for Night (1973; also called a postmodernist film)
* Hiroshima mon amour (1959; also been called a postmodernist film)
* A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
* The Girl Can't Help It (1956)
* Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968; also called a postmodernist film))
* Lonesome Lenny (1946)
* Black Panthers (1968)
* The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971)
* Singin' in the Rain (1952)
* Persona (1966; also called a postmodernist film)
* Allures (1961)
* In the Year of the Pig (1969)
* Thugs with Dirty Mugs (1939)
* Gay Purr-ee (1962)
* The Jaywalker (1956)
* Tale of Tales (1979)
* The Tale of Tsar Durondai (1934)
* La Notte (1961)
* Zabriskie Point (1970)
* Daffy Duck and Egghead (1938)
* The Heckling Hare (1941)
* Now Hear This (1962)
* Breakaway (1966)
* Bubble Bath (1979)
* The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon (1963)
* Medium Cool (1968)
* Gimme Shelter (1970)
* Monterey Pop (1968)
* Punishment Park (1971)
* The Holy Mountain (1973; also been called a postmodernist film)
* W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (1971)
* Sunset Boulevard (1950)
* Rashomon (1950)
* Son of Paleface (1952)
* L'Avventura (1960; also been called a postmodernist film)
* Un Chien Andalou (1929)
* Battleship Potemkin (1925)
* The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)
* Magical Maestro (1952)
* L'Age d'Or (1930)
* Detour (1945)
* Shock Corridor (1963)
* Experiment in Terror (1962)
* High Noon (1952)
* Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
* Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
* The Lodger (1927)
* Out of the Past (1947)
* Artists and Models (1955)
* Accident (1967)
* Gilda (1946)
* The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
* Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928)
* Sunrise (1927)
* The Cameraman (1928)
* Sherlock Jr. (1924)
* Pierrot le Fou (1965, also been called a postmodernist film)
* The Killers (1946)
* The Great Dictator (1940)
* The Hand (1965)
* Ballet Mécanique (1923)
* Duck Amuck (1953; also been called a postmodernist film)
* The Color of Pomegranates (1969; also been called a postmodernist film)
* Report (1967)
* Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
* The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
* Cat People (1942)
* Last Year at Marienbad (1961; also been called a postmodernist film)
* Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)
* Rome, Open City (1945)
* The Crowd (1928)
* The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959)
* Metropolis (1927)
* Vertigo (1958)
* Citizen Kane (1941)
* The Last Laugh (1924)
* Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis (1927)
* Breathless (1960)
* Andrei Rublev (1966)
* Blowup (1966; also been called a postmodernist film)
* La Strada (1954)
* All That Heaven Allows (1955; also been called a postmodernist film)
* The Bicycle Thieves (1949)
* Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950)
* The Boy with Green Hair (1948)
* Mr. Klein (1976)
* The Servant (1963)
* Wild Strawberries (1957)
* The Seventh Seal (1956)
* Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
* The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
* The Naked City (1948)
* Double Indemnity (1944)
* Two Happy Hearts (1932)
* Manhatta (1921)
* The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
* A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
* Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939)
* Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
* 8½ (1963; also been called a postmodernist film)
* The Mirror (1975)
* Au hasard Balthazar (1966)
* Apple in the River (1974)
* Dead Mountaineer's Hotel (1979)
* Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
* La dolce vita (1960)
* Magnificent Obsession (1954)
* Two Weeks in Another Town (1962)
* The 400 Blows (1959)
* The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1961)
* Playtime (1967; also been called a postmodernist film)
* Stagecoach (1939)
* The Third Man (1949)
* Rebecca (1940)
* Marnie (1964)
* Olympia (1938)
* Intolerance (1916)
* Cabiria (1914)
* 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968; also been called a postmodernist film)
* Dracula (1931)
* Frankenstein (1931)
* Time Piece (1965)
* The Pop Show (1966)
* Surogat (1961)
* N.Y., N.Y. (1957)
* Here Is Your Life (1966)
* My Name Is Oona (1969)
* Mass for the Dakota Sioux (1964)
* God Respects Us When We Work, But Loves Us When We Dance (1968)
* Arabesque (1975)
* The Diary (1974)
* Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957)
* Screwball Squirrel (1944)
* Who Killed Who (1943)
* Voyage to Italy (1954)
* The Maltese Falcon (1941)

### List of notable modernist filmmakers

* Chantal Ackerman
* Agnès Varda (also been called a postmodernist filmmaker)
* Roberto Rossellini
* Shirley Clarke
* Ida Lupino
* Yasujirō Ozu
* Satyajit Ray
* Maya Deren
* William Greaves (also been called a postmodernist filmmaker)
* Sam Fuller
* Alain Resnais (also been called a postmodernist filmmaker)
* Robert Aldrich
* Nicholas Ray
* Douglas Sirk (also been called a postmodernist filmmaker)
* Luis Buñuel
* Orson Welles (also been called a postmodernist filmmaker)
* Alfred Hitchcock (also been called a postmodernist filmmaker)
* Andrei Tarkovsky
* Akira Kurosawa
* Robert Bresson
* Federico Fellini (also been called a postmodernist filmmaker)
* Ingmar Bergman (also been called a postmodernist filmmaker)
* Jules Dassin
* Jean-Luc Godard (also been called a postmodernist filmmaker)
* Stan Brakhage
* Fritz Lang
* Buster Keaton
* Norman McLaren
* Carl Theodore Dreyer
* Len Lye
* Oscar Micheaux
* Jacques Tourneur
* François Truffaut (also been called a postmodernist filmmaker)
* Tony Richardson
* John Ford
* Tex Avery (also been called a postmodernist filmmaker)
* John and Faith Hubley
* Joseph Losey
* Jacques Tati (also been called a postmodernist filmmaker)
* John Cassavetes (also been called a postmodernist filmmaker)
* Blake Edwards
* Rainer Werner Fassbinder
* Michelangelo Antonioni (also been called a postmodernist filmmaker)
* Vincente Minnelli
* Dziga Vertov
* Bruce Conner (also been called a postmodernist filmmaker)
* Stanley Kubrick (also been called a postmodernist filmmaker)
* Emile de Antonio
* Jordan Belson
* Chris Marker (also been called a postmodernist filmmaker)
* John Whitney
* William Klein
* Frank Tashlin
* Chuck Jones (also been called a postmodernist filmmaker)
* Jiri Trnka
* Edward D. Wood Jr.
* D.W. Griffith
Sources: