Avant-Garde Movements and Cinematic Narrative Techniques
Avant-Garde Movements of the Early 20th Century
Futurism: Mixed feelings on war as art. It conceives aesthetic manifestos, decoupling of syntactic connectives. Key figures include F.T. Marinetti. Celebrates science and technology, violence, triumphalism, speed, and *maquinolatria* (machine worship). Related to Fascism.
Dada: Absolute negation, transgression, and betrayal of social norms. Embraces nihilism, ready-mades, and happenings. Key figures include T. Tzara, F. Picabia, M. Duchamp, V. Kandinsky, and F.W. Murnau. Characterized by silly games, derision, humor, and destruction. Related to anarchism.
Expressionism: Expresses emotion and the interiority of the human being (apocalyptic and hopeless). Features deformation of the human figure, image, syntax, and versification. Key figures include G. Trakl, A. Döblin, and F. Kafka. Themes include social disintegration, despair, crisis, irrationalism, and nihilism.
Cubism: Intellectual analysis of ideas. Features exhaustion of fantasy, collages, calligrams, decomposition of planes, and installation of one another. Key figures include P. Picasso, G. Braque, G. Apollinaire, and V. Kandinsky. Emphasizes the spirit of geometry, rejecting art as imitation. Related to idealism and Marxism.
Surrealism: Transfer of reality, social revolution, art and life together (explores the world of dreams). Explores dreams and the unconscious. Features automatic writing and *cadavres exquis* (exquisite corpses). Key figures include A. Breton, O. Paz, J. Cortázar, L. Buñuel, A. Artaud, and A. Jodorowsky. Themes include the ideal woman, love, chance, the game, the unconscious, and black humor. Related to Marxist idealism.
Creationism: Autonomous work of nature, poetry as cosmogonic creation. The adjective itself is the creator; features antithetical, created images lacking referentiality. Key figures include V. Huidobro, P. Reverdy, and G. Diego. Focuses on language, poetry, and self-sufficient poems; poetic idealism.
Cinematic Narrative Techniques
| Narrative Type | Description | Film Example | Literary Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linear | Chronological order, mimicking real-time. | *High Noon* (Fred Zinnemann) | *Aunt Daniela* (Ángeles Mastretta) |
| Reversed | Breaks continuity, using flashbacks and flashforwards; subjective. | *Back to the Future* (Robert Zemeckis), *Terminator* (James Cameron) | *The Shrouded Woman* (Bombal), works by Juan Rulfo and Carlos Fuentes |
| Shock | Violent succession of plans, raising an emotional and intellectual reaction. | *An Andalusian Dog* (Luis Buñuel), *October* (Eisenstein) | *Poetic Art* (Vicente Huidobro) |
| Alternate | Simultaneous actions resolved in a common space, causing an aesthetic reaction. | *The Year We Live in Danger* (Peter Weir) | Works by Juan Rulfo |
| Parallel | Actions occurring in disparate times and spaces, establishing a symbolic link. | *Assault and Robbery of a Train*, *The Night Porter* | *The Continuous Story* (Julio Cortázar) |
| American | Sequences condensing days or months, referring to the rapid passage of time. | *Citizen Kane* (Orson Welles) | *The Tree* (Bombal) |