Favorite Art Films

baraka.

OK, first of all I have to say that seriousart pretty much nailed my top picks for art films. So heres some others I can think of that are really good:

Blue Velvet
Days of Heaven
Leaving Las Vegas
Night of the Hunter
Night and Fog

And some I wouldn’t quite call art films, but they’re close enough

Richard III (the recent one)
Glengarry Glen Ross
Whats Eating Gilbert Grape
Bob Roberts
Raising Arizona
Barton Fink
Blood Simple
The Dot and the Line
Gun Crazy (the old one)
Do the Right Thing
Roger & Me

i saw pulp fiction in a flim class. i also liked the pillow book and last night.

Mmm, Brazil!
Okay, I know I’ve seen some good ones…
Can I come back to this? (I just had to chime in with my Brazil love.)

I just thought of a couple of Mikes that I like:

Mike Figgis, director of Leaving Las Vegas (liked it, but all I remember is Elisabeth Shue’s boobs keeping me from capping myself by the end. Damn depressing), The Loss of Sexual Innocence (odd, to say the least), and a flick I loved, Time Code (one story, four views).

Also, Mike Leigh’s Secrets and Lies and the great Topsy-Turvy.

Documentaries are always arthouse: Anything by Errol Morris!

“Naked”

by the same guy (Mike Leigh) when he has a much smaller budget. Totally and completely different than “Topsy-Turvey”, except he uses the same method: writing the script through weeks and months of improv with the actors. Why didn’t I put him on the greatest living directors thread?Also “Secrets and Lies”

On behalf of my SO, “Breaking the Waves” by Lars Von Treirs(also “The Kingdom”, which, unbelivably, was first shown on Danish television. It’s on video if you can find it. The box says it’s "ER on acid but actually it’s much weirder. And very funny. SO thinks I don’t like it but actually I think it’s brilliant.)

Also all the stuff I mentioned in Great Documentaries, particularly Errol Morris.

My top three films which might be art because I can see them being studied in film classes.

  1. Eyes Wide Shut
  2. Taxi Driver
  3. Bringing out the Dead (I saw this last night and it ROCKS!!!)

In no particular order:
Glengarry, Glen Ross
Trust
The Spanish Prisoner
The Zero Effect
Twin Falls, Idaho
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
The Miracle Mile

Film geekette checking in.

I saw two great movies over the weekend, by Emir Kustarica :

When Father was Away on Business
Time of the Gypsies

I thoroughly enjoyed them and now I’m on the hunt for his other movies.

My list is too long to type, but I’ve enjoyed many of the movies listed in this thread.

I was going to mention the Richard Loncrane Richard III, but I don’t know if it’s artsy enough. However, it is well worth the rental fee for the last shot. Brilliance. We kept making my film professor rewind it and show the last sequence over and over again.

Does Dr. Strangelove count? Cause that goes on my list, too. And Kurosawa, any Kurosawa. Friggen genius.

does Cold Lazarus count? I loved that film, and it was artsy plenty to me, and lately i’m liking more and more Ghost Dog.

Those aren’t “Art” Movies. Those are “arty” movies.

Some Art Movies are…

Rene Clair’s Entr’Acte
Jean Cocteau’s Blood of a Poet
Maya Deren’s Meshes of an Afternoon
Luis Bunuel’s Simon of the Desert
Bruce Connor’s A Movie
Kenneth Anger’s Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome
Stan Brakhage’s Dog Star Man

Simple definition…if you are enjoying it, it is not an Art Movie.

-pout-

I second many of the above. But I am appalled that no one has mentioned Mike Van Diem’s Karakter. I can never get enough of this movie.

MR

Wow. Thanks guys. These lots of good stuff here I had forgotten about (Leaving Las Vegas, Brazil, Morris’ The Thin Blue Line), stuff I have been meaning to see (Koyaanisqatsi, Breaking the Waves, Morris’ other stuff) and stuff I have forgot existed.

You took the words right out of my mouth. I guess I know who to call next time I want to watch movies…

Does The Piano count? I saw that in an art theater with my Mom and we were both blown away by it.

In case that isn’t culture-queen enough for you - “Why yes, I found The Seashell and the Clergyman to be both visually compelling and viscerally evocative.” :wink:

Wim Wender’s Wings of Desire is amazing (City of Angels was an Americanization of it). It’s even partially shot in black & white (that’s got to score points toward being an “arty” movie). I also loved The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover.