Avant - Garde

Avant-garde This term when used in enlgish is a adjective or noun to refer to works or people that could be known as being experimental or innovative,especially with respect to art, culture,and politics. Avant-garde is another way some people (artists) try to push the boundaries of what is accepted (the norm),primarily in the cultural realm. The existence of the avant-garde is considered by some to be a hallmark of modernism,as distinct from postmodernism. I suppose most artists and film makers who do their jobs for love of the art, rather than purely for commercial reasons, want to be seen as avant-garde in some way, but is this really possible when so many turns and innovations have already been made. This is why many ideas get re-hashed in a modern context as everyone wants to be doing something new, or groundbreaking. Looking at the lectures on French new wave cinema, the film Pointe Courte was truly avant-garde, in its mixing of high and low cultures, low budget and use of everyday people and scenes.