Le Film Artistique: Difference between revisions

** In the episodes "iQ", Carly falls for a boy, that is presented as highly intelligent and cultured, enjoys these kinds of movies and takes her to one for their date. Carly is horrified to find out that what she thought was the end of the film after several boring hours was only the intermission.

* ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'' has "''A Film by Kirk''", which is hilarious to the title characters.

{{quote|"When instructed by your crew member, please adopt the emergency arthouse position."}}

* In ''[[Being Human (UK)]]'', George, in an attempt to be the worst date possible ([[It Makes Sense in Context]]), takes a girl to an incredibly long artistic German film. ([[Springtime for Hitler|She loves it.]])

* One of the French Exchange Student sketches in ''Sorry, I've Got No Head'' has Philippe insisting on watching "Les Deux Cellos de M. Gravice", which is black and white and [[Captain Obvious|features a man playing two cellos]].

 

 

 

=== Web Animation ===

* ''[[Homestar Runner]]''

** The Brothers Chaps made an animated music video for [[They Might Be Giants]]'s song "Experimental Film", starring the ''Homestar Runner'' cast. It's presented as an in-universe film made by Strong Sad and The Cheat.

** Strong Sad makes another in "[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail203.html independent]", which consists of a black and white still of a dying potted plant accompanied by him crying into the wrong end of a saxophone.

** Don't forget "A Staple-Down Life", from DVD exclusive ''Puppets on the Road''.

 

=== Web Comics ===

* In ''[[Bobwhite]]'', it is Marlene's ambition to create one of these.

 

=== Web Original ===

* [http://www.vimeo.com/10593465 This video], which took over ''[[Dresden Codak]]'''s website on [[April Fools' Day]] 2010, is a parody of this sort of film. (In part, it's also probably a [[Self-Parody]] of [[What Do You Mean It's Not Didactic?|the way Dresden Codak's webcomics are occasionally perceived]]). It's even in [[Gratuitous French|(bad) French]]!

** [http://vimeo.com/39131013 The sequel] from [[April Fools' Day]] 2012, but this time in [[Gratuitous German|(bad) German]]. (And the [[Show Within a Show|Film Within A Film]] seems to fulfill this trope here too!)

{{quote|''"Things. Stuff. Stuff and things."''}}

 

 

=== Films -- Animation ===

* ''[[We Are the Strange]]'': Think [[David Lynch]] meets [[Tim Burton]] meets {{spoiler|''[[Dragonball Z]]''}}.

 

=== Films -- Live-Action ===

* Jean Genet's ''Un Chant d'Amour'': 30 dialogue-free minutes of homosexual erotica.

* ''Sayat Nova'', or ''The Color of Pomegranates'', is a veritable Armenian արվեստի ֆիլմը. It's meant to be a biopic based on the title poet's life, although with or without this information, the film will surely feel like a trippily decadent [[Mind Screw]]. There is no plot, but rather a series of heavily symbolic images inspired by Nova's poems with the related verse included occasionally.

* ''[[My Dinner with Andre]]'' is 110 minutes of Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory sitting in a restaurant and talking. Aside from a brief voice-over at the beginning and end, as Wallace Shawn is travelling to/from the restaurant, that's it. Thanks to director Louis Malle's dynamic camera work, and the sheer intensity of Wallace and Andre's conversation, the movie is quite engaging.

* [[Andy Warhol]]'s ''Empire'' is an exterior shot of the Empire State Building for 24 hours. He made dozens upon dozens of films like these, many of them static shots of one person. Remember the "Oscar-winning" movie ''Ass'' from ''[[Idiocracy]]''? Consider that Warhol did a film called "Taylor Mead's Ass".

* Most films by Guy Maddin fit this trope. His film ''Brand Upon the Brain!'' was silent, shot with grainy, black and white 16 mm film, and narrated and orchestrated live... all that without getting into the plot. Nearly all of his films are in grainy black and white. Some of them condescend to have a plot, say, ''The Saddest Music in the World''. Others... not so much. If you want Guy Maddin in all his mind-screwing grandeur, try ''Arkangel''. It's what David Lynch would have shot if a particularly deranged Dostoievsky handed him a script.

* ''Calamari Union'', the first major movie of Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki. Filmed in black and white, in eighties Helsinki, with very little dialogue. All its [[Loads and Loads of Characters|sixteen]] protagonists are guys with black glasses, all called "Frank", except for one called Pekka ([[Mind Screw|who speaks in English]]). In a very ''Warriors'' fashion, they cross the city at night, trying to reach the Eira neighbourhood, which is a kind of promised land according to one of the Franks. Not all of them make it. No calamari (squids) appear or are even mentioned. Diverging from the Le Film Artistique purest tradition, however, the movie is not serious but humorous in a very quirky, unsettling, playful and deadpan (thus Finnish) manner, and presents intelligent criticism of consumerism and urban life. An European [[Cult Classic]], like pretty much any movie by Kaurismäki, who admitted he was drunk for the most of the shooting. [[What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?|It shows]].

* ''Dogtooth'': a Greek film in which couple keep their children imprisoned in their home to adulthood, teaching them that the outside world is incredibly dangerous. Features lesbian incest, passionless sex scenes, long stretches without dialogue and no real ending.

* ''[[wikipedia:Begotten|Begotten]]'', an American [[Deliberately Monochrome|black and white]] movie with almost no contrast at all (the colours shown are dirty white or dirty black, nothing between), [[Silence Is Golden|no dialogue]], no music, and a story showing [[World of Symbolism|an allegory of the Creation of Life]] through a succession of enigmatic and [[Gorn|very gory]] scenes.

* Minimalist cinema, and Chantal Ackerman in particular. One of Ackerman's films, ''Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles'' is three and a half hours long of a woman doing the same things over and over again. That length is the entire point, but it's still put generations of film students to sleep.

* Most of Peter Greenaway's ''oeuvre'' fits this trope. While some films, such as ''The Draughtsman's Contract'' and ''[[The Pillow Book]]'' are fairly well rooted in reality and understandable (for the most part) to the average audience, works like ''Prospero's Books'' take neo-baroque to an [[Mind Screw|incomprehensible]] new level.

* Dusan Makavejev generally makes movies that fall into this.

* ''[[Tree of Life]]'' fits this trope, possibly being the most abstract film to get such major stars and a $30 million+ budget. Ironically, due to being French, silent, and black and white, a lot of people mistook ''[[The Artist]]'' sight unseen as one of these when it's actually an incredibly simple and accessible comedy to the point a lot of critics thought it was too light to be deserving of Best Picture and campaigned for the actual Le Film Artistique in the running that year.

* ''[[The Green Elephant]]'', a [[Memetic Mutation|memetic]] Russian film, infamous for its gory content. It is filmed on handheld VHS camera, have only 4 characters, and is very depressing, although it has some [[Dark Comedy|comedy]] [[Toilet Humour|value]].

 

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