what is meant by "experimental" film

Summarise  what is meant by " experimental" film , including examples of the experimental techniques  in film form and narrative  that have been used  by previous filmmakers 

Experimental films started around the 1920s, this means it was heavily influenced my many different art movements happening at the time such as Dadaism, Surrealism, Expressionism, etc. A lot of these art movements revolve around the deliberate irrationality and negation of traditional values, which is what these art movements and experimental films have in common, they seek to break the rules that have been created and set by previous artists and filmmakers.

Some of the ways in which experimental films manage to achieve this is by manipulating editing in a very noticeable and sometimes jarring way, or camera angles and how it is possible for them to disorientate the viewer. Experimental filmmakers takes liberties to communicate messages and feelings to the audience in newer and innovative ways, such as the way lighting and sound can be used to create a more aesthetically pleasing experience for the viewer such as in Midsommar and the way its extremely bright for the most part of the movie, which is something that I believe has never been seen before in the way Midsommar does it,  by taking the realism out of the scene and painting this picture of a more vibrant and eccentric place. Or doing the complete opposite and creating an extremely uncomfortable and putting the viewer on the spot light, by taking away any sort of dialogue and replacing it with noise such as in the film Grandmother by David Lynch. 

One of the latest experimental movies that I've watched was "Goodnight mommy" a German film directed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, a horror suspense movie which uses many of the previous mentioned techniques. The movie uses rapid and unexpected cuts in very unnecessary moments which an audience wouldn't expect, such as a shot of the house at night to a quick shot of it during the blinding day, or a shot of the two kids jumping on the trampoline during a bright day, to the same trampoline being soaked by a very harsh storm. As well as the unnerving lack of emotion in any of the character's faces throughout the whole of the movie, there's barely any emotion shown by anyone up until the very end, this puts the audience in a very confusing spot, as it makes it harder to read the room in the moment, which therefore makes what's about to happen less predictable. 

Film form mainly consists of the absence of a linear narrative, which is depicted in multiple short films we've studied such as 'Marcel Duchamp' and 'Un Chien Andalou' which are both movies that would be considered very experimental as they both lack any kind of linear narrative as well as very artistic interpretations of editing and camera work. with probably ver deep and meaningful imagery that's hard to comprehend on the first watch. As much as these movies have no sort of linear logical narrative they still have themes that can be observed throughout the movie such as the passage of time, death, the exploration of sex, desire, dreams, and the morbid mystery of the human psyche. This has a deliberate purpose in the era that they were created, 'Un Chien Andalou' depicts women as sexual objects and reduces them to them only being there for the satisfaction of a man, but ironically these films assisted the female surrealists to reclaim their sexuality and establish their rightful place in the movement. 

As surrealistic as some experimental films can be, most of them take inspiration of real life movements and events, which end up inlfuencing other upcoming artistic and political movements in real life.