History Main / LeFilmArtistique

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

In the best cases, use of this trope is an AffectionateParody or a sharp TakeThat to a particular work, director or movement; unfortunately, many "arty films" deployed for laughs in popular media hardly, even by parodic standards, bear more than a squinting resemblance to the "real thing" -- and what similarity there is may only be to [[SmallReferencePools a handful of motifs from one or two films that were particularly notorious in the early 20th century]]. In [[YourMileageMayVary a few]] examples below it's embarrassingly obvious that the writers didn't know what they were referencing, unintentionally doing a parody of a parody of a parody (ad nauseam) of a single (scene from a) film they'd never heard of, when all they meant to do was use [[BeamMeUpScotty what's become]] a [[DeadHorseTrope universal signifier]] [[DeadUnicornTrope of "artyness"]].

* Brought up in ''[[ViewAskewniverse Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back]]''. (Although it also refers to Damon's role in the film version of TheTalentedMrRipley)
-->'''Ben Affleck:''' (to Matt Damon) I'm sorry I dragged you away from what ever gay-serial-killers-who-ride-horses-and-like-to-play-golf-touchy-feely picture you were gonna do this week

* Woody Allen's character in "Hollywood Ending" apparently ends up making one of these accidentally: he was blind while directing it. The American critics hate it, but the French love it...

** TheFastShow also manages to successfully shoehorn a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4EjX_bywCU catchphrase]] into this trope.

* The Brothers Chaps made an animated music video for TheyMightBeGiants' song "Experimental Film", starring the ''HomestarRunner'' cast. It's presented as an in-universe film made by Strong Sad and The Cheat.

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

* {{Sinfest}} has [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=1283 a parody]] of this type of 'art house movie'. Notable for the pig in a ballerina outfit at the end.
* In {{Bobwhite}}, it is Marlene's ambition to create one of these.

** One episode featured a film called 'Gesundheit', which was basically 2 hours of closeups of people sneezing followed by the reply 'Gesundheit.'

* Sort of in FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends; Bloo writes a trope overdosed hilariously over-the-top movie for a student film festival called [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot T-Rexatron Alienwolf 3: A Prequel in Time, the Unrelenting]], with weird scenes and purposely {{Narm}}-y lines.

* ''[[CelineAndJulieGoBoating Céline et Julie Vont En Bateau]]'' (''Celine and Julie Go Boating'') is a perfectly straight example of this trope. It's French, three hours long, includes completely unnecessary scenes, has a plot (when you get to it) whose closest comparison would be ''Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'', and the ending... [[WallBanger borrows heavily from Theater of the Absurd,]] that's all we'll say. It's actually un film très charmant, if you're patient with it.
* ''Inland Empire'' needs to be mentioned in this category.
** Just that one? Heck, most of DavidLynch's films are pretty much this.
** ''EraserHead''. That is all.
* [[AndyWarhol 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 the "oscar-winning" movie ''Ass'' from ''{{Idiocracy}}''? Consider that Warhol did a film called "Taylor Mead's Ass".
* Yoko Ono has also made a film about [[http://people.wcsu.edu/mccarneyh/fva/O/bottoms.html asses.]] Most of her other films go in this category as well.
** What does that tell us? That Yoko Ono is a true artist? No. She simply has a fetish for that sort of thing and wanted to share it with us all! [[SarcasmMode Rejoice!]]
*** For the curious reader, you can watch a clip here [[http://www.ubu.com/film/ono_four.html .]]
* ''Last Year at Marienbad''.
* Alexandro Jodorowsky's first movie, ''FandoAndLis'', fulfils all criteria other than "absurd length or brevity" and putting a BlackComedy spin on the angstiness.
** The Holy Mountain, though, [[UpToEleven boosts the imagery to such freakish heights of psychadelia]] that even the sternest viewer ''will not get all of it''.

* BobDylan's ''Renaldo and Clara'': it's four hours long, and alternates between being a concert film[=/=]{{rockumentary}}, cinema verite documentary, improvised drama (with a cast full of non-actors), and surreal home movie. Even among Dylan fans it's a LoveItOrHateIt work, with a lot more Love Its than you might expect.

* ''BigO'' did this with Memories in general, but specifically there was a short film with relative importance to the plot done in the French style, complete with [[DeliberatelyMonochrome Deliberate Monochrome]], subtitles (because the dialogue was silent), and a big curlicue "Fin" at the end.
** That was more of a FilmNoir with art house symbolism than a true art house film.
* Jim Jarmusch's ''{{Dead Man}}'' seems to be about something, but it's hard to figure out what.
* ''Warum läuft Herr R Amok?'', a film where absolutely nothing happens, despite the fact that the main character kills his family and then himself.
* ''MyDinnerWithAndre'' 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.
* 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.
* ''WeAreTheStrange'': Think DavidLynch meets TimBurton meets [[spoiler:DragonballZ]]
* Ingmar Bergman's ''Persona''. Film focuses on two women, one of which made a conscious decision not to ever talk, and the second is her nurse. The first part of film is pretty easy and straightforward, but later it descends into seemingly absurd talks between two women and long, incomprehensible silent scenes of, for example, [[spoiler: nurse cutting her wrist, forcing the other woman to lick her blood and then slapping her face a few dozen times.]]
** In fact, it's so common that thanks to PopCulturalOsmosis everyone doing this trope pretty much makes fun of it.

* ''[[VaseDeNoces Vase de Noces]]''. A lone farmer who may be the last man on earth slots the heads of dolls onto the heads of doves, collects vegetable matter in jars, sodomizes his pig - which gives birth to what are presumably human/pig hybrids, tries to raise said hybrids as humans by feeding them at the dinner table, hangs them when he is unable to - prompting the pig to commit suicide, buries himself alongside the pig with his clothes on and reemerges - clothes now mysteriously absent, tosses all the vegetable matter from the jars into a pond, fills them with his feces and urine instead, makes tea out of said feces and urine and consumes it, hangs himself. Belgian, [[DeliberatelyMonochrome Black and white]], [[SilenceIsGolden no dialogue]], the church choir chanting of medieval composers Perotinus and Monteverdi supplies the soundtrack alongside electrically-generated bleeps and bloops. According to the director, it's about an alchemical quest for immortality. We wish we were making this up.

* ''[[VaseDeNoces Vase de Noces]]''. A lone farmer who may be the last man on earth slots the heads of dolls onto the heads of doves, collects vegetable matter in jars, sodomizes his pig - which gives birth to what are presumably human/pig hybrids, tries to raise said hybrids as humans by feeding them at the dinner table, hangs them when he is unable to - prompting the pig to commit suicide, buries himself alongside the pig with his clothes on and reemerges - clothes now mysteriously absent, tosses all the vegetable matter from the jars into a pond, fills them with his feces and urine instead, makes tea out of said feces and urine and consumes it, hangs himself. [[DeliberatelyMonochrome Black and white]], [[SilenceIsGolden no dialogue]], the church choir chanting of medieval composers Perotinus and Monteverdi supplies the soundtrack alongside electrically-generated bleeps and bloops. According to the director, it's about an alchemical quest for immortality. We wish we were making this up.

** This troper remembers one from ''PinkyAndTheBrain'' making fun specially of Fellini on their fake reunion/clip show.

* Jim Jarmusch's ''{{Dead Man}}'' seems to be about something, but this troper hasn't figured it out yet.

** 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. ThisTroper still doesn't know if he enjoyed the film.
** Wait a minute, did you said that Maddin made a [[OhCrap SILENT MOVIE]]?!?!

See also {{Euroshlock}}.

** The Holy Mountain, though, [[UpToEleven boosts the imagery to such freakish heights of psychadelia]] that even the sternest viewer will not get all of it.

[[AC:Literature]]

* One of the running jokes in ''ArrestedDevelopment'' is a film called ''Les Cousins Dangereuses'', which would appear to fit the trope fairly well.

* Brought up in ''[[ViewAskewniverse Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back]]''.

* Amed's film in ''{{Community}}''.

** He made dozens upon dozens of films like these, many of them static shots of one person. Remember the the "oscar-winning" movie ''Ass'' from ''{{Idiocracy}}''? Consider that Warhol did a film called "Taylor Mead's Ass". God this troper loves Andy Warhol.
** That sounds more like neo-realism than absurdism, technically.
** No, it really doesn't.

* Ingmar Bergman's ''Persona''. Film focuses on two women, one of which made a conscious decision not to ever talk, and the second is her nurse. The first part of film is pretty easy and straightforward, but later it descends into seemingly absurd talks between two women and long, incomprehensible silent scenes of, for example, [[spoiler: nurse cutting her wrist, forcing the other woman to lick her blood and then slapping her face a few dozen times.]]

* Ingmar Bergman's ''Persona''. Film focuses on two women, one of which made a conscious decision not to ever talk, and the second is her nurse. The first part of film is pretty easy and straightforward, but later it descends into seemingly absurd talks between two women and long, incomprehensible silent scenes of, for example, [[spoiler: nurse cutting her wrist, forcing the other woman to lick her blood and then slapping her face few dozen times.]]

* ''Céline et Julie Vont En Bateau'' (''Celine and Julie Go Boating'') is a perfectly straight example of this trope. It's French, five hours long, includes completely unnecessary scenes, has a plot (when you get to it) whose closest comparison would be ''Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'', and the ending... [[WallBanger borrows heavily from Theater of the Absurd,]] that's all we'll say. It's actually un film très charmant, if you're patient with it.