Brussels Philharmonic | 6 Must-See Avant-Garde Films

Film Pick: Boulez x Cage

Composers Pierre Boulez and John Cage: giants of the 20th century musical avant-garde. But the avant-garde revolutionized not only music, also other cultural fields like visual arts, literature, and of course... cinema.
Discover some undeniable avant-garde classics with this selection by film journalist Robin Broos.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

director: Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick's sci-fi classic shows a human space mission to Jupiter, until the onboard computer HAL takes over. The masterpiece has defined the look and feel of the genre, but musically too, the director is guided by the avant-gardists. He insists on including György Ligeti's Lux Aeterna in his film, and also gives new meaning to classical pieces like Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra and Johann Strauss II's The Blue Danube.

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Mon Oncle (1958)

director: Jacques Tati

Mon Oncle is a psychedelic journey exploring human frailty and simultaneously critiquing 1950s global consumerism. Director Jacques Tati does this with a great sense of humor, highlighting the decadence, modernity, and greed of post-war France. The various, arguably useful, gadgets in Madame Arpel's household play a significant supporting role, especially when those possessions fail to bring happiness.

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Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)

director: Chantal Akerman

Belgian Chantal Akerman is one of the leading feminist filmmakers of the 1970s. Her film Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles was proclaimed the ‘greatest film of all time’ in 2022 by the British Film Institute's magazine Sight and Sound. Jeanne Dielman, a young widow, lives with her son Sylvain in a highly structured routine: while the boy is at school, she meticulously maintains their apartment: cooking, cleaning, mothering, running errands, and receiving clients as a prostitute. Every action is shown in its stifling routine.

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Pantserkruiser Potjomkin (1925)

director: Sergei Eisenstein

Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein’s ‘Battleship Potemkin’ is considered one of the greatest silent movies of all time. The film is a tribute to the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin, who rebelled in 1905, sparking the Russian Revolution. Yes, the film is clever propaganda, but it also pioneers in film editing, like the staircase scene where Eisenstein alternates close-up images of victims on the Odessa steps with the violent actions of the Tsarist soldiers.

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À Bout De Souffle (1960)

director: Jean Luc-Godard

This nouvelle vague film put director Jean-Luc Godard on the map. It stars Jean-Paul Belmondo as a car thief who kills a police officer, a crime that Godard captures with an improvised style of filming and acting. But also with jump cuts, where he edits sequences together as if they are a collage. The music, composed by French jazz musician Martial Solal, varies on recurring motifs played by brass and piano, sometimes ominous, then subtle and romantic.

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Eraserhead (1977)

director: David Lynch

David Lynch is perhaps the most notorious avant-garde filmmaker, gaining this reputation with the groundbreaking film Eraserhead. It follows Henry Spencer, a man who has been plagued by nightmares since childhood. To escape them, he turns to his imagination. It's a bizarre exploration of the strange ways our inner worries can manifest and infect our subconscious. Yet, each viewer might interpret it entirely differently.

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BOULEZ CAGE Marcel Lennartz Brussels EC1 A9421

Boulez & Cage: Giants of the Avant-Garde · 14.11.2024 · Flagey

Boulez, the man who tried to reduce music to grids and sequences, series and schedules. Who composed with mathematical precision. Cage, the man who let music run wild. Who placed composing in the hands of fate. They seem to be two worlds that are miles apart, but in terms of radicality they are virtually identical. The Brussels Philharmonic combines some intense, compact compositions by Boulez with the unprecedented large form of Cage’s Concerto for Prepared Piano. Music that is now half a century old, but still sounds progressive.

2023 Brussels Philharmonic Ilan Volkov c Wouter Van Vaerenbergh 41

Ilan Volkov on Boulez & Cage

"even though they are polar opposites and their aesthetics are very different, they are connected by their search for beauty, their amazing orchestration and a feeling for sound," read the conductor's note for the concert Boulez & Cage

Boulez Spraypaint

programme notes

Programme notes to the concerts Boulez & Cage: Giants of the Avant-Garde. --- Brussels Philharmonic reconciles some compact compositions by Boulez with works that typify Cage’s philosophy, including his iconic Concerto for prepared piano. Music that is now half a century old, but still sounds progressive.

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