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178 III. COMPOSITION
Paradigmatic character oi the avant-garde
After a temporary lull, experimental film has made a comeback since World War II. In this country, there is presently a marked concern for it on the part of young artists— think of the films of the Whitney brothers, Maya Deren, Sidney Peterson, Curtis Harrington, etc. And it is not the artists alone who cultivate the genre. Perhaps even more symptomatic of its revival, if revival it is, is an increasing consumer demand, as evidenced by the steady growth of film societies.4 Now the salient point here is that, all in all, the current output sticks to the patterns developed in the 'twenties; that, except for minor adjustments to the contemporary scene and the incorporation of films on art, not much has changed in terms of motivations, preferences, and objectives. As of old, some experimenters specialize in the animation of abstract forms; and the others strictly follow the surrealist tradition in projecting their poetic visions, yearnings, frustrations.
Hence the possibility of studying experimental film at its source. This is all the more fortunate, since the artists of the 'twenties rarely missed an opportunity to spell out their ideas and aspirations. It should be noted, though, that only such avant-garde intentions and film trends will be considered as seem to be characteristic of the whole of experimental film.
AVANT-GARDE INTENTIONS
The controversial story "pure cinema"
The avant-garde artists broke away from the commercialized cinema not only because of the inferior quality of the many adaptations from plays and novels that swamped the screen but, more important, out of the conviction that the story as the main element of feature films is something alien to the medium, an imposition from without. It was a revolt against the story film as such, a concerted effort to shake off the fetters of the intrigue in favor of a purified cinema. The literature of the time abounds with protestations to this effect. In 1921, Jean Epstein called the story a "lie" and declared categorically: "There are no stories. There have never been stories. There are only situations without tail or head; without beginning, center, and end."5 A 1927 statement by Germaine Dulac, one of the leading avant-garde artists, is particularly noteworthy for tracing pure cinema to Lumiere and elaborating upon the sad fact that the lessons of his "unnarratable" Arrival of a Train had not been heeded. In