Visionary Cinema
by dcioppa | created - 22 May 2012 | updated - 05 Jul 2012 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Un chien andalou (1929)
Not Rated | 16 min | Short, Fantasy, Horror
Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí present 16 minutes of bizarre, surreal imagery.
Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Pierre Batcheff, Simone Mareuil, Luis Buñuel, Pancho Cossío
Votes: 53,821
2. Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)
Not Rated | 14 min | Short, Fantasy, Mystery
A woman returning home falls asleep and has vivid dreams that may or may not be happening in reality. Through repetitive images and complete mismatching of the objective view of time and space, her dark inner desires play out on-screen.
Directors: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid | Stars: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid
Votes: 15,215
3. Cinema16: American Short Films (2006 Video)
209 min | Drama
16 short and student films by an assortment of American film directors.
Directors: Tim Burton, Adam Davidson, Maya Deren, Adam Parrish King, Standish Lawder, George Lucas, Mike Mills, Stefan Nadelman, Joe Nussbaum, Alexander Payne, D.A. Pennebaker, Peter Sollett, Todd Solondz, Rawson Marshall Thurber, Gus Van Sant, Andy Warhol | Stars: George Lucas, Alexander Payne
Votes: 172
4. L'Age d'Or (1930)
Not Rated | 63 min | Comedy, Drama
A surrealist tale of a man and a woman who are passionately in love with each other, but their attempts to consummate that passion are constantly thwarted by their families, the Church, and bourgeois society.
Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Gaston Modot, Lya Lys, Caridad de Laberdesque, Max Ernst
Votes: 14,815 | Gross: $0.03M
5. The Blood of a Poet (1932)
Not Rated | 55 min | Fantasy
Told in four episodes - an unnamed artist is transported through a mirror into another dimension, where he travels through various bizarre scenarios.
Director: Jean Cocteau | Stars: Enrique Rivero, Elizabeth Lee Miller, Pauline Carton, Odette Talazac
Votes: 7,370
6. Orpheus (1950)
Not Rated | 112 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
A poet in love with Death follows his unhappy wife into the underworld.
Director: Jean Cocteau | Stars: Jean Marais, François Périer, María Casares, Marie Déa
Votes: 13,417
7. L'étoile de mer (1928)
21 min | Short, Romance
Two people stand on a road, out of focus. Seen distorted through a glass, they retire upstairs to a bedroom where she undresses. He says, "Adieu." Images: the beautiful girl, a starfish in ... See full summary »
Director: Man Ray | Stars: Kiki of Montparnasse, André de la Rivière, Robert Desnos
Votes: 1,565
8. Citizen Kane (1941)
PG | 119 min | Drama, Mystery
Following the death of publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, reporters scramble to uncover the meaning of his final utterance: 'Rosebud.'
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead
Votes: 466,168 | Gross: $1.59M
9. Reflections on Black (1955)
12 min | Short, Drama
An experimental film by Stan Brakhage documenting a series of male and female relationships.
Director: Stan Brakhage | Stars: Don Redlich, Lee Cole, Helen England, Ken Mecham
Votes: 167
10. Prelude: Dog Star Man (1962)
25 min | Short
The prelude to Dog Star Man (1964), an experimental film wherein a man climbs a mountain along with his dog.
Director: Stan Brakhage | Stars: Stan Brakhage, Jane Wodening
Votes: 1,478
11. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Not Rated | 67 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Hypnotist Dr. Caligari uses a somnambulist, Cesare, to commit murders.
Director: Robert Wiene | Stars: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher, Lil Dagover
Votes: 70,096
12. Fragment of Seeking (1946)
Not Rated | 14 min | Short, Drama, Horror
A man seeks to find himself by exploring his sexuality.
Director: Curtis Harrington | Star: Curtis Harrington
Votes: 343
13. Picnic (1949)
Not Rated | 22 min | Short, Drama
Beginning in the reality of American middle-class life, PICNIC portrays the idealistic dream-quest of the protagonist, from which he is finally cast off.
Director: Curtis Harrington | Stars: Isabel Harrington, Raymond S. Harrington
Votes: 188
14. Swain (1950)
24 min | Short
Features a dreamlike narrative of a young man's ritualized rejection of heterosexuality, as a mysterious woman in white gossamer pursues him through a ruined landscape.
Director: Gregory J. Markopoulos | Stars: Gregory J. Markopoulos, Mary Zelles
Votes: 17
15. Fireworks (1947)
20 min | Short, Drama, Horror
A dissatisfied dreamer awakes, goes out in the night seeking a 'light' and is drawn through the needle's eye. A dream of a dream, he returns to bed less empty than before.
Director: Kenneth Anger | Stars: Kenneth Anger, Gordon Gray, Bill Seltzer
Votes: 2,905
16. The Way to Shadow Garden (2020)
10 min | Short
This way madness - or experimental filmmaking - lies. A solitary man in coat and tie enters an apartment that may be a converted garage. It's midnight. He appears agitated and distraught. ... See full summary »
Director: Stan Brakhage | Star: Walter Newcomb
Votes: 230
17. At Land (1944)
15 min | Short, Drama, Fantasy
Silently, a woman wakes on a beach as the tides go in reverse. Her dreamscape unfolds as she tries to locate a chess piece traveling from the beach to a party to a country road and then back.
Director: Maya Deren | Stars: John Cage, Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid, Hella Heyman
Votes: 3,345
18. A Study in Choreography for Camera (1945)
4 min | Short, Fantasy, Music
A man dances in several locations, edited to have a fluent effect.
Director: Maya Deren | Star: Talley Beatty
Votes: 1,726
19. H2O (1929)
13 min | Documentary, Short
A study on water, the reflections and motions of the liquid that accentuates its ethereality and metallic beauty.
Director: Ralph Steiner
Votes: 773
20. Ballet mécanique (1924)
19 min | Short
A pulsing, kaleidoscope of images set to an energetic soundtrack. A young women swings in a garden; a woman's face smiles. The rest is spinning cylinders, pistons, gears and turbines, ... See full summary »
Directors: Fernand Léger, Dudley Murphy | Stars: Kiki of Montparnasse, Fernand Léger, Dudley Murphy, Katherine Murphy
Votes: 3,294
21. Eaux d'artifice (1953)
Not Rated | 12 min | Short
A woman dressed in an elegant period dress wanders through the water gardens at the Villa d'Este.
Director: Kenneth Anger | Star: Carmilla Salvatorelli
Votes: 1,787
23. Meditation on Violence (1949)
Not Rated | 12 min | Documentary, Short
The setting with the low walls and river views is located in a private area of The Cloisters museum.
Director: Maya Deren | Star: Chao Li Chi
Votes: 1,084
24. Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946)
Not Rated | 15 min | Short, Fantasy
An experiment with editing techniques that distort space and time in order to further contextualize an image.
Director: Maya Deren | Stars: Rita Christiani, Maya Deren, Anaïs Nin, Frank Westbrook
Votes: 1,832
25. The Very Eye of Night (1955)
15 min | Short, Drama
Dancers, shown in photographic negative, perform a series of ballet moves, solos, pas de deux, larger groupings. The dancers glide and rotate untroubled by gravity against a slowly changing... See full summary »
Director: Maya Deren | Stars: Don Freisinger, Richard Sandifer, Patricia Ferrier, Bud Bready
Votes: 1,114
26. Narcissus (1958)
48 min
Directors: Willard Maas, Ben Moore | Stars: Ben Moore, Greta Starr, Gianni Bates, Marie Maas
27. The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)
Not Rated | 72 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Allan visits the sinister Usher family mansion, where his friend Roderick is painting a portrait of his sickly wife Madeline. The portrait seems to be draining the life out of Madeline, slowly leading to her death.
Director: Jean Epstein | Stars: Jean Debucourt, Marguerite Gance, Charles Lamy, Fournez-Goffard
Votes: 4,504
28. Lot in Sodom (1933)
Not Rated | 28 min | Short, Drama
Lot in Sodom is a sensual depiction of the Sodom and Gomorrah story filled with sinewy and semi-clad bodies, delirious bacchanales devoted to physical pleasure, and a searing, cataclysmic ... See full summary »
Directors: James Sibley Watson, Melville Webber | Stars: Friedrich Haak, Hildegarde Watson, Dorthea House, Lewis Whitbeck
Votes: 699
29. Entr'acte (1924)
22 min | Short
An absolute dada movie. Somebody gets killed, his coffin gets out of control and after a chase it stops. The person gets out of it and let everybody who followed the coffin dissapear.
Director: René Clair | Stars: Jean Börlin, Inge Frïss, Francis Picabia, Marcel Duchamp
Votes: 4,198
30. Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Not Rated | 66 min | Drama, History, Thriller
In the midst of the Russian Revolution of 1905, the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutiny against the brutal, tyrannical regime of the vessel's officers. The resulting street demonstration in Odessa brings on a police massacre.
Director: Sergei Eisenstein | Stars: Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barskiy, Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Ivan Bobrov
Votes: 61,473 | Gross: $0.05M
31. Diagonal Symphony (1924)
7 min | Animation, Short, Music
A tilted figure, consisting largely of right angles at the beginning, grows by accretion, with the addition of short straight lines and curves which sprout from the existing design. The ... See full summary »
Director: Viking Eggeling
Votes: 1,479
32. Rhythmus 21 (1921)
3 min | Animation, Short
Black and white rectangular images fade in and out of the screen. Their movement make them sometimes look like they're panning from side to side. Their movement also make the black and ... See full summary »
Director: Hans Richter
Votes: 1,454
33. The Potted Psalm (1946)
24 min | Short
A soundless mix of story fragments and images. Initially, images of death, a man with a guitar, a soirée. Some images are surreal: an older woman eats a leaf; a headless man pours a ... See full summary »
Directors: James Broughton, Sidney Peterson | Stars: Beatrix Perry, Harry Honig, Joyce M. Geary, Donald Nelson
Votes: 207
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