History Main / LeFilmArtistique

* ''Calamari Union'', the first major movie of Finnish director Creator/AkiKaurismaki. Filmed in black and white, in eighties Helsinki, with very little dialogue. All its sixteen protagonists are guys with black glasses, all called "Frank", except for one called Pekka ([[MindScrew 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 (though the title might be a play on the historical Kalmar Union). Diverging from the LeFilmArtistique 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. A European CultClassic, like pretty much any movie by Kaurismäki, who admitted he was drunk for the most of the shooting. [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs It shows]].

** Barney Gumble's film, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aat2X-8-JdI Pukeahontas: "Don't cry for me; I'm already dead!"]] This has had multiple fan-made live-action adaptations put up on Website/YouTube.
** Also the "Itchy and Scratchy" replacement, [[https://youtu.be/z2_dhUv_CrI "Worker and Parasite"]] is a faux-Eastern European variant of this trope and a parody of the ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' episodes that were produced in Czechoslovakia around the sixties.
--> '''ENDUT! HOCH HECH!'''
** And the foreign films that Lisa loves, including one entitled Kosovo Autumn, which is about two soldiers and a goat complaining in Albanian morosely about the ongoing war ("I am older than time itself").
** Also in "The Italian Bob", Homer is seen watching a [[Creator/FedericoFellini Fellini]] movie which features a person with dwarfism feeding a fat lady spaghetti.
--->'''Homer:''' Oh I get it. The midget represents dwarfs.
** Homer's second commercial in [[https://youtu.be/iTY5EKN6bzM "Mr. Plow"]] was turned into one. The guy who made the commercial in question claims to have ''invented'' this trope. [[spoiler:Homer punches him in the face, which the guy apparently gets all the time.]]

* The ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Chef's Salty Chocolate Balls" has a film festival where Stan gets to watch an arthouse-style film called [[http://southpark.cc.com/clips/150604/witness-to-denial "Witness To Denial."]] It's incomprehensible, confirming Cartman's claim that all independent movies tend to be about "A Bunch of Gay Cowboys Eating Pudding". Which was made HilariousInHindsight [[Film/BrokebackMountain a few years later]].

* One ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' episode has Peggy treating the family to an incomprehensible French movie. Bobby enjoys it, but Hank is not impressed: "That guy just sprouted wings!"

* ''Series/TheFastShow'' also manages to successfully shoehorn a [[https://youtu.be/o4EjX_bywCU catchphrase]] into this trope. [[note]]The scene is a direct parody of Godard's ''Film/{{Contempt}}''.[[/note]]

* ''Series/TheFastShow'' also manages to successfully shoehorn a [[https://youtu.be/o4EjX_bywCU catchphrase]] into this trope.

* Parodied in ''Webcomic/ExistentialComics''. When brainstorming for advertisement ideas, Soren Kirkegaard decides the one thing people are missing in their lives is the awareness of their existential angst, and that they need to make an ad appealing to it. [[http://existentialcomics.com/comic/204 The result is a black and white short film about the intrinsic despair of human life and the regret inevitable whenever one makes a choice.]] [[spoiler:It's a commercial for Taco Bell.]]

* Israeli sitcom ''[=HaPijamot=]'' features a brief bit from a DeliberatelyMonochrome student film [[TheChick Yamit]] took part in that definitely qualifies:

* [[TrueArtIsAngsty Depressing as hell]] subject matter, often witha gritty social realism style, presented in an unbearably maudlin style.

* DeliberatelyMonochrome.
* [[TrueArtIsAngsty Depressing as hell]] subject matter, often with social realism, presented in an unbearably maudlin style.

* [[NoBudget Produced on a shoestring budget]] with intentional lo-fi production.

* [[TrueArtIsAngsty Depressing as hell]] subject matter presented in an unbearably maudlin style.

* Being in a foreign language, usually [[EverythingSoundsSexierInFrench French]]. As part of this, most in-fiction examples end with a "''Fin''" text overlay.
* Absurd length (expect [[LeaveTheCameraRunning extremely long static takes]]) or brevity.

* [[NoBudget Produced on a shoestring budget]].

* Soundtracked with atonal or otherwise experimental modern art music. Alternatively there is [[RealityHasNoSoundtrack no soundtrack]] [[SilentCredits at all]] or music is only played [[SourceMusic diegetically]].

It's often the goal of the PrimaDonnaDirector.

* ''Anime/AngelsEgg.'' [[LeaveTheCameraRunning Slow moving]] to the point of ponderousness, [[KillEmAll soul-crushingly bleak]], largely free of [[SilenceIsGolden dialogue]] (or [[JustForFun/TheTropelessTale plot]]), and filled to the brim with [[WorldOfSymbolism pseudo-religious iconography.]] [[DeathOfTheAuthor Even the director]] admits to having no idea what the film's ultimate meaning might be (though he may be lying...... just watch it and decide for yourself).

* Almodóvar's ''Film/TalkToHer'' features an artistic black and white silent FilmWithinAFilm sequence called "[[https://vimeo.com/108025529 Amante Menguante]]". Silent film hero Alfredo takes a potion and becomes so small that he ends up wandering around on the body of the sleeping Amparo. He goes for a walk on her breasts and even climbs inside her vagina.
* Anais Nin attends several in ''Henry & June''. Early in the story, she goes to find Henry Miller in a small theater, watching a beautiful art film sex scene with Lots of Symbolism (a necklace breaks and scatters pearls all over the place, people are [[SmokingHotSex blowing cigarette smoke]]). The actress strongly resembles his wife June and when Anais touches him he is weeping. This is not an actual film. It was made for the movie and the actress who resembles June is played by Uma Thurman, who plays June. Later, Anais and her husband with Henry and June watch ''Film/MadchenInUniform''[[note]]June whispers "You're like the school teacher. I'm like the young girl." June actually did say this to Anais.[[/note]]. Anais returns to the theater with her husband, Henry and her cousin Edouardo. She learns to say "[[PrecisionFStrike Fuck you, Jack!]]" to a viewer who disapproves of ''Film/UnChienAndalou''.

* Italian comedians Leonardo Manera and Claudia Penoni mock this (Creator/IngmarBergman and Creator/AkiKaurismaki movies in particular) with their sketches involving [[https://youtu.be/gyLDpf9qiRQ Petrektek and Cripztak]]

** In the movie version, the film has more to it, including being more about the HIV certain members are dying from and being dedicated to Angel, [[spoiler: who passes away from AIDS]], but the end result is still mainly a montage.

* Parodied in ''Webcomic/ExistentialComics''. When brainstorming for advertisement ideas, Soren Kirkegaard decides the one thing people are missing in their lives is the awareness of their existential angst, and that they need to make an ad appealing to it. [[http://existentialcomics.com/comic/204 The result is a black and white short film about the intrinsic despair of human life and the regret inevitable whenever one makes a choice.]] [[spoiler: It's a commercial for Taco Bell.]]

* Judging from [[https://youtu.be/XJDJO2hc24A the trailer]], the original student film from which the title of ''WebVideo/MarbleHornets'' comes was one of these. It was also [[StylisticSuck hilariously terrible]].
* Gloriously done with Creator/TomSka's ''[[https://youtu.be/NE_TOYrymuM Le Pretentious Filme]]''.
* Creator/SarahSilverman did one of these for JASH and Website/YouTube called ''[[https://youtu.be/NlQA17vK7AY Fête des Pets]]'' (literally, "Fart Party"), as well as a [[Creator/CriterionCollection Criterion]]-style "[[https://youtu.be/aIa2oH0N8sA Behind the Scenes]]" feature.
* [[https://youtu.be/OUtn3pvWmpg Henri, le Chat Noir]].

* Played for laughs with the fictional production of WebVideo/JonTron's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs2WRpu5syw Flex Tape 2: The Flexening]]," where Jon tries to one-up the previous video by hiring an avant garde French director (without actually knowing what kind of movies he makes,) and an Italian cinematographer who insists on working while surrounded by literal garbage. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNHYmPwMwtQ The result]]...well, they were lucky to be able to FixItInPost.

* In ''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh'', Joan of Arc made "[[https://youtu.be/10zbtbJh07E The Truth Side Burns]]" for the student film festival. Said film is comprised of stereotypical symbolism and also weird noises, such as "Whisper Whisper", and, oddly enough, "Music/CelineDion... Celine Dion..." The funniest part of that was in the end, only Freud got it.
* Jay's college film in ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'', "[[https://youtu.be/bcReu_d9h4o L'Artiste est Morte]]".

** The college art film "[[https://youtu.be/pF3PqDL5ckk Lint]]" that featured Diane, the female newscaster. Filmed [[DeliberatelyMonochrome entirely in black and white]] in AnachronicOrder and ended with her slumped at a table while a clown flipped a pancake on a stove in slow-motion.

* The Chameleon Brothers from ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' made one of these, "[[https://youtu.be/YaNsE0UuZ00 La Vie moderne de Pinto]]", out of Rocko's ''home movies'', adding shots of flowers blooming, [[FauxlosophicNarration pretentious narration]], and title cards saying "Regret" and "Pineapples", among other things. Of course, the only thing Rocko was concerned about was that the film featured his (pre-censored) [[NakedPeopleAreFunny nudity]]. More HilarityEnsues when he discovers that the chameleons sent it to an Australian Film Festival, which it ''wins!'' Even more HilarityEnsues when Rocko gets a letter from his parents, who saw the film at the festival. Rocko is mortified, but to his amazement his parents absolutely loved it.

** Barney Gumble's film, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aat2X-8-JdI Pukeahontas: "Don't cry for me; I'm already dead!]]". This has had multiple fan-made live-action adaptations put up on Website/YouTube.
** Also the "Itchy and Scratchy" replacement, "[[https://youtu.be/z2_dhUv_CrI Worker and Parasite]]" is a faux-Eastern European variant of this trope and a parody of the ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' episodes that were produced in Czechoslovakia around the sixties.

** Homer's second commercial in "[[https://youtu.be/iTY5EKN6bzM Mr. Plow]]" was turned into one. The guy who made the commercial in question claims to have ''invented'' this trope. [[spoiler:Homer punches him in the face, which the guy apparently gets all the time.]]

* The ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Chef's Salty Chocolate Balls" has a film festival where Stan gets to watch an arthouse-style film called "[[http://southpark.cc.com/clips/150604/witness-to-denial Witness To Denial]]". It's incomprehensible, confirming Cartman's claim that all independent movies tend to be about "A Bunch of Gay Cowboys Eating Pudding". Which was made HilariousInHindsight [[Film/BrokebackMountain a few years later]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' has Plucky trying to win a student film festival. His incredibly elaborate film gets ruined due to losing all but the last few seconds of footage at the last moment, so he has no option but to enter just that. Cue {{Cloudcuckoolander}} Shirley the Loon's unbelievably tedious arthouse-style film, which is so ridiculously long it leaves the festival with just a few seconds left. Plucky's five seconds of footage follow... and the judges are so relieved by Plucky's brevity they immediately declare him the winner.\\\
Gogo Dodo's film sort of subverts the trope when it surprises everyone by not being as wacky as they expected (it's actually footage from an old black-and-white Warner Bros. comedy short). He says it was "realism".

* Creator/IngmarBergman's ''Film/{{Persona 1966}}'' (thanks to PopCulturalOsmosis pretty much everyone doing this trope makes fun of it). The film focuses on two women, one of whom has made a conscious decision not to ever talk, and the second is her nurse. The first part of the film is pretty straightforward, but later it descends into seemingly absurd conversations between the two women and long, incomprehensible silent scenes of, for example, [[spoiler: the nurse cutting her wrist, forcing the other woman to lick her blood and then slapping her face a few dozen times.]]

* ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0284020/ The Cure for Insomnia]]''. It has a running time of ''87 hours''. One could argue that it's ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, and thus, not intended to be artistic at all.

* Most experimental filmmakers (Creator/NormanMclaren and so on) are quite accessible [[http://www.ubu.com/film/]] for those who like a good challenge. For others with NoSenseOfHumor, it's this.

* Film school student films can be intensely creative and oblique in their style. For instance, Creator/GeorgeLucas blew his teachers away with what he was able to create with his assignments. For instances, ''Look at Life'' was originally supposed to be simply a 1-minute film to test the camera in various shots. This is what Lucas [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGyopseEKRE created with that assignment instead]].

* The French segment of the ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' [[http://roosterteeth.com/archive/?id=262&v=more&page=3 Going Global]] video is a classic skewering of this trope (the other segments parody other national stereotypes in a very silly, but very "artsy" way).

* ''[[http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceval_le_Gallois_(film) Perceval le Gallois]]'' from Creator/EricRohmer is very much this. In an attempt to stay faithful to Chrétien de Troyes's text (and to be as literary and unrealistic as possible), it's very distanced: all the effects are intentionally obvious, all the sets are made of monochrome painted cardboard and aren't to scale (to emulate medieval illustrations), the background is plain blue, etc. To be more up to the trope, Rohmer modernized the text of Chrétien de Troyes in a way that it is technically modern French, but with the original syntax and metric (octosyllabic versification) and often with an archaic (but correct) vocabulary.

* Creator/AlejandroJodorowsky made many such movies. His first, ''Fando and Lis'', fulfills all criteria other than "absurd length or brevity" and putting a BlackComedy spin on the angstiness. ''Film/TheHolyMountain'' [[UpToEleven boosts the imagery to such freakish heights of psychedelia]] that even the sternest viewer ''will not get all of it''.

* ''Calamari Union'', the first major movie of Finnish director Creator/AkiKaurismaki. Filmed in black and white, in eighties Helsinki, with very little dialogue. All its [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters sixteen]] protagonists are guys with black glasses, all called "Frank", except for one called Pekka ([[MindScrew 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 (though the title might be a play on the historical Kalmar Union). Diverging from the LeFilmArtistique 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. A European CultClassic, like pretty much any movie by Kaurismäki, who admitted he was drunk for the most of the shooting. [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs It shows]].

* Any of Sander Cohen's movies from ''VideoGame/BioShock'' qualify. Black and white, incomprehensible symbolism, random noises and discordant music - they're sometimes scarier than the game itself. [[spoiler:Especially when you finish watching one in ''BioShockInfinite/BurialAtSea'' when a voice asks "Why do you stand there? When someone is right... BEHIND YOU." and Elizabeth turns around to be face-to-face with one of Sander's mannequins.]]

* Medea's films in [[Film/OttoOrUpWithDeadPeople]] are like this. One consists only of people dancing weirdly with their faces painted, another is about revolutionary communist gay zombies, and a third is about a zombie that roams the city with a FauxlosophicNarration, and they are all in black and white.

* ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'' has [[http://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2003-07-30 a parody]] of this type of "art house movie". Notable for the pig in a ballerina outfit at the end.

** Also in "The Italian Bob", Homer is seen watching a [[Creator/FedericoFellini Fellini]] movie which features a midget feeding a fat lady spaghetti.

* Rapid cuts between different subjects, often playing into all the above points.
* LeaveTheCameraRunning.

** In one episode, Peter makes Carter announce from the Eiffel Tower: "People of France, a good-looking depressed guy smoking a cigarette is not a movie!", to which the French took some offence.

[[folder:Film]]

-->'''Ben Affleck:''' ''(to Matt Damon)'' I'm sorry I dragged you away from whatever gay-serial-killers-who-ride-horses-and-like-to-play-golf-touchy-feely picture you were gonna do this week.

* Parodied as far back as the '70s in the German sketch show by Creator/{{Loriot}}. Two critics talk about a 5 second clip from Creator/BusterKeaton's short film ''Film/{{Cops}}'' that shows Keaton standing up in a trash can with the lid on his head and falling over when trying to move, similar to [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons "Man being hit by a football"]]. It turns into a heated debate about whether the movie is a masterpiece of cinematography or a political allegory for the exploitation of the working class by the establishment.

-->'''Bourdain''': Everything I know about Sweden I’ve learned from the films of Creator/IngmarBergman.
-->''The camera pans slowly over a gloomy, snow-covered forest. CreepyMonotone voiceovers in subtitled Swedish''
-->'''Male voiceover''': When does the bus come?
-->'''Female voiceover''': The bus never comes.
-->'''Male voiceover''': Then I want to die.
-->'''Female voiceover''': Everyone wants to die. ''(beat)'' I heard Music/{{ABBA}} is considering a reunion tour.
-->'''Male voiceover''': Really?

** Homer's second commercial in "[[https://youtu.be/iTY5EKN6bzM Mr. Plow]]" was turned into one.
--->'''Lisa''': Was that your commercial Dad?
--->'''Homer''': (befuddled) I don't know.
*** The guy who made the commercial in question claims to have ''invented'' this trope. Homer punches him in the face, which the guy apparently gets all the time.
* The ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Chef's Salty Chocolate Balls" has a film festival where Stan gets to watch an arthouse-style film called "[[http://southpark.cc.com/clips/150604/witness-to-denial Witness To Denial]]". It's incomprehensible, confirming Cartman's claim that all independent movies tend to be about "A Bunch of Gay Cowboys Eating Pudding".
** Which was made HilariousInHindsight [[Film/BrokebackMountain a few years later]].