A Beginner's Guide to Art House Cinema

arthouse cinema can be vastly different

from mainstream film and knowing where

and how to begin might be daunting but

hopefully this video will make it easier

this is oversimplifying things massively

but art films are intended for more

intellectual or artistic purposes as

compared to many Hollywood movies which

are often more entertainment oriented

before getting into art house cinema

there's a few guidelines that could be

helpful first of all it's best to be as

open-minded as possible and put aside

your preconceived notions of what a film

should be these films can be weird

experimental slow or offensive but they

can also be incredibly entertaining fun

or light-hearted also it's absolutely

essential you get over any bias you may

have against watching subtitled films as

many if not most arthouse films are not

produced in the English language they

can come from all over the world and are

usually meant for international

audiences and film festivals an easy way

to wrap your head around the world of

art film is to break it down by director

partly because these are often more

author driven works than Hollywood

movies a very accessible art house film

maker for someone starting out is Akira

Kurosawa the Japanese director made 30

movies over almost 60 years with many of

them considered among the all-time

greats compared to some other directors

I'll get to he isn't that experimental

and has easily digestible narratives and

even some great action scenes I'd

recommend starting out with Rashomon

from 1950 it's only 88 minutes long and

its conceit of showing the same event

from multiple contradicting perspectives

makes for an easy hook as well as making

it clear just how innovative it was the

other common starting point for

Kurosawa's Seven Samurai which is

equally as acclaimed as Rashomon but

runs almost three and a half hours both

start to shoroma foon a and his presence

alone makes them highly entertaining

from there a logical next step might be

to watch hidden fortress or Yojimbo or

if you want to try something from his

later color films I'd say to check out

Ron and then Kagemusha Kurosawa directly

influenced the Star Wars movies so

that's a neat bonus for more casual film

fans another director who was very

significant and not too difficult to get

into is jean-luc Godard part of the

French New Wave movement his first

feature breathless came out in 1960 it's

regarded as one of his most important

works

and it's a good introduction to Godard

breathless is relatively straightforward

and it should be apparent to someone

with even a minor knowledge of film

history how influential the jump cut

editing was the editing style also makes

it visually stimulating and perhaps

easier to digest for a beginner than the

long takes that many other art house

directors utilize after that Band of

Outsiders is also pretty accessible or

if you're up for something more bizarre

weekend is so weird that it should be at

the very least interesting to watch even

if you don't care for it also part of

the French New Wave and perhaps just as

important is Francois Truffaut there's a

very clear choice as to which of his

films to watch first and that's the 400

blows which earned Truffaut the best

director award at can in 1959 and Akira

Kurosawa called it one of the most

beautiful films he's ever seen a

filmmaker who's just as important but

not quite as newbie friendly is Ingmar

Bergman his work can be very overtly

philosophical and existential Bergman

definitely lacks the action of some of

Kurosawa's work or the humor of Godard

so prepare yourself for some relatively

serious and at times depressing films

the best place to start with him is

probably what many call his magnum opus

the 1957 film the Seventh Seal where a

knight faces off in a chess match

against death next I'd like to bring up

a Titan of the art house world who is in

my opinion much harder to get into and

that's Andrei Tarkovsky the previously

mentioned directors are sometimes a

little slower than modern mainstream

movies they don't have anything on

Tarkovsky he used very long takes it

would go for up to nine minutes without

a cut stalker or Solaris or good entry

points for his work

the Italian director Federico Fellini is

just as influential but not a personal

favorite his best work is considered by

many to be 8 and a half but it's very

autobiographical so I don't think this

is a good introduction as it's more

impactful if you have a sense of who he

is as a director his earlier film La

Strada isn't too far out there and is

also highly acclaimed la dolce vita

would be another good one before moving

on to eight and a half French filmmaker

Jacques Tati might not be quite as big

of a name as the others have mentioned

so far but I think he's an excellent

choice for beginners too art films his

movies from the 1950s like months

hello's holiday and mon oncle are full

of visual comedy and never somber like

so much of art cinema then I'd suggest

playtime which is a visually striking

quirky film and to me among the greatest

ever made David Lynch is another huge

name in art house cinema and some of his

films are decently accessible especially

blue velvet

his second film Elephant Man was a

big-budget production but is a good way

to ease yourself into the lynching

madness Sergei Eisenstein is incredibly

important to film history but his most

notable works were from the 1920s so

they may not be super easy to watch for

someone used to modern movies definitely

watch his 1925 film battleship potemkin

as it's Odessa steps sequence is one of

the most significant in all of cinema

and changed editing forever Verner

Herzog was part of the German New Wave

and has influenced many filmmakers I

suggest his 1972 film a gear the wrath

of God which features a magnetic

performance from Klaus Kinski and a

soundtrack from electronic group Popol

Vuh Louie Boone well-made surrealist

films from the 1920s to the 1970s since

it's only as short his 1929 work une

Shen and aloo is where I think you

should start especially since it was

made with famous painter Salvador Dali

and as one of the most iconic shots in

cinema history Japanese director

yasujiro ozu is not as well known as

Kurosawa but no less crucial to film

history his movies are subtle quiet and

contemplative and a bit harder to get

into than Kurosawa's azouz

cinematography isn't as showy with

minimal camera movement but his use of

composition is masterful Tokyo story

which I'd say to watch first is often

called his masterpiece and was picked by

BFI as the third best film ever in 2012

Lars von Trier is more recent than most

of the others I've touched on so far and

very well known among cinephiles he

stayed true to his arthouse roots and

still gotten to work with some very

famous actors and actresses like Nicole

Kidman and Kirsten Dunst his 2003 film

Dogville is a good one to start with

it is almost three hours long but the

bold choice of having a set that

consists of chalk outlines representing

houses and roads makes for an undeniably

unique experience it's disturbing but

not as much so as some of his other

films like Antichrist this is just

scratching the surface and it would take

forever to name every notable filmmaker

others I'll just briefly mention include

Michelangelo Antonioni's blow up Robert

Bryce owns pickpocket Jean Renoir is the

rules of the game Wong kar-wai Chungking

Express Peter Greenaway is the cook the

thief his wife and her lover

Satyajit Ray's a poo trilogy and should

stop slovsky's three colors trilogy if

it's a director you think I overlooked

I may have excluded them for a couple of

reasons I decided to exclude what I

consider to be more strictly

experimental filmmakers like Maya Deren

or stay in brackish partly for time and

partly because I have a separate series

on experimental films the distinction is

somewhat arbitrary and mainly done out

of convenience I also didn't bring up

directors like Stanley Kubrick who I

think straddle the line between art

house and mainstream filmmaking that'll

be it for this video thanks for watching

and please don't forget to subscribe