Modernist film

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.

Wikipedia

List of notable modernist films