Avant-Garde and Commercial Cinema

The Life and Death of 9413: a Hollywood Extra (1937) full movie on YouTube

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Avant-Garde and Commercial Cinema

            Traditionally, the avant-garde and commercial cinemas have been defined as separate and oppositional.  Recently, the boundaries between the avant-garde and commercial cinemas have been blurred.  This blurring occurs across the production, distribution, and discourses of avant-garde and commercial cinemas.  It seems that both cinemas borrow and exchange ideas and techniques.  Arguably, the avant-garde and commercial cinema are reliant upon each other.  The avant-garde needs the commercial cinema’s ability to attract and keep audiences.  The commercial needs the avant-garde cinema’s ability to discover new cinematic techniques.  Three films typify this exchange between the avant-garde and commercial.  They are: The Life and Death of 9413-A Hollywood Extra (1928), Spellbound (1945), and La Jetee (The Pier, 1962).  These films blend avant-garde and commercial elements to create a cinema that defies hasty classification.