To a lot of people, both professional movie people, and the public, films and movies are synonymous, both meaning the same thing. But to a lover of arthouse films or experimental films, the terms movies and films can have two different meanings. The term film or experimental film or arthouse film can mean when an artist puts forth on a cinematographic platform, an expression of art created by the audio and visual nature of the experimental film or arthouse film, and a movie is to entertain the masses of conventional movie customers. An Art-House Film, or an Art Film, is usually made as a pure piece of cinematographic art rather than to haul in the bucks for the independent filmmaker. Therefore, an Art Film is normally made by an Indie Film producer and not by a studio. Art Films were European Born, the first started back in 1911 and today, in Europe, they are called the “National Cinemas,” a name that takes ownership of this cinematographic art form.

An Art House Movie is usually boring to most film customers who normally want to see their conventional fast-moving to the point, mainly linear movies. Art Films are usually not fast at all and not linear at all and anything about to the point. Movies like Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” had to endings and the lucky, crazy Art Film lover could take his or her pick on which ending best suited them. Quentin Tarantino made history with his “Pulp Fiction” as a modern-day medium-budget studio-sized Art Film success. Most Art house movies are done on a micro-budget, independent in film business nature. However, an independent Art Film Director like Quentin Tarantino can command an exception after his previous note-worthy hits such as “Reservoir Dogs.” There is certainly a different attitude in Independent Producers and film financiers when it comes to Quentin Tarantino, then in film amateur or even up and coming Art House Movie Directors. One of Tarantino’s most appealing traits, loved by the Art Film crowd, is his ability to use multiple levels of dialog symbolism as well as visual symbolism to express feelings, characterizations, attitudes, and values of the characters. An example is a dialog in Pulp Fiction about the McDonald’s Hamburg.

Micro-budget Independent Art Films are normally showcased in a dedicated independently owned repertory theaters catering to the Art Film niche crowd. The same Art Film lovers frequent these repertory theaters exhibiting their Art Film on a monthly cycle.

It is a crowd that knows each other, most sharing social media and the repertory theater is where their physical meeting starts, normally moving to pubs and cafes. Another place of common interest to the Art Film lover is wine and cheese Art Gallery showcasing’s. The Art film crowd is usually a progressive-leaning politically sensitive group and most Art Films tend to be the same. In 2020, new Art-House Festival Films covet the Gay and Lesbian and LTGB sensitive moviegoers. Art-House themes in 2020 are also from the meta-physical such as Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” which is about a hero saving the world from a bad Russian oligarch. These Art House films, unlike Art Films 20 years ago, do not go to the repertory theaters for their release, as they make huge profits from their Box Office releases allowing them to stay in the normal theater release film marketing strategy.

However, this year, the theater releases, rather to the repertory theaters or the standard theater releases are suffering due to the COVID 19 virus. It is planned that the Theater releases to both the repertory theaters as well ad the standard theater releases will pick up in 2021, however, the permanent change in the theater releases is only a guess by the film experts. I personally do not think that after the virus has run its course, the repertory theater releases will return to near normal before the virus.

An Arthouse film, or an experimental film, are movies often of the metaphysical. An experimental film director reaches down and grabs his audience’s feelings, thoughts, deep-seated fears, love, hate and sometimes a moviegoer’s deep-seated deviance such as sexual or violent tendencies. Experimental films can and often are about life after death, heaven or hell, or the space of the unknown. Dreams frequently play a large part in creating an experimental film. Different shades of love and eroticism in the depts of weird often are illustrated in Experimental Films. Gay and Lesbian and Transgenders themes are playing large parts of the new age of Experimental films. Arthouse films are increasing in popularity with the new age of Experimental Films leading the pack at Cannes International Film Festival. Experimental Films at Cannes International Film Festival in 2021 were highly coveted in the selections this year, however, to the disappointment to many of an Experimental Film audience, COVID took its tally on these arthouse films.

Written By billy LAx

Art House Movies – Culture

Europe was the originator and the leader of Cult Arthouse Films. From L’Infurno to today in 2020 they lead the way; however, these Experimental films or Cult Arthouse films are being made in the US and appreciated by more US Cult Arthouse Fans than ever before. To illustrate Europe’s origination of the Cult Arthouse films or Experimental films and to show the pride that Europe’s filmmakers have in them, they generally call the Experimental Film or the Cult Arthouse film in Europe, amateur films.

This term for European Cult Arthouse films or Experimental films, amateur films, is generally used in Germany to show the pride of German Cult Arthouse films. Filmmaking, rather it be traditional filmmaking or Cult Arthouse Film making, some in Europe calling it armature films, started in Europe just about the time of the Industrial revolution and before the Hollywood Movie Business came into existence. Due to America’s might, Hollywood Movie and Film business took the world by storm and the major movie productions and blockbuster studio productions soon overwhelmed Europe.

Art House Movies – Budget

Due to the nature of the Cult Arthouse films or armature films or Experimental Films, which are created on micro-budgets employing non-marquee actors and low-cost real-world amateur film production sets, as well as taking advantage of the cultural differences and language differences of non-English speaking countries, Europe maintained a small commercial business in the production of amateur films or experimental films or European Cult Arthouse films. The reasons besides low-cost amateur film production and culture-sensitive amateur film themes are not the only reasons why amateur films or Experimental Films or Cult Arthouse movies sell well in Europe but not in America. A big thing is that the non-English speaking customers have to either read sub-titles or suffer through voice-overs of the Hollywood Blockbuster movies. This produces a much more sophisticated film and movie fan who can appreciate the armature films or Experimental Films or European Cult films more.

Art House Movies – Covid-19

However, in the new age of International film marketing, the world is seeing an integration of Amateur films or Experimental films or Cult Arthouse films and Hollywood Blockbuster movies as the amateur movies or experimental films or Cult Arthouse films move toward the Hollywood Blockbuster moves toward the Amateur films or Experimental Films or Cult Arthouse films.

Since the COVID 19 pandemic and Governor Newsom shutting down nearly all of LA’s theaters, the arthouse movie crowd is nearly nonexistent, keeping to their home theater systems and digital downloads of experimental movies. But some relief has come to the ever so impatient arthouse movie crowd at the experimental movies have returned, at least impart, with the reopening of an iconic repertory theater in Los Angeles on Sunset Boulevard. This now more than other well-known theater started showcasing Arthouse movies or Experimental movies for the cult arthouse movie fan. The name of this cool little theater is The Arena Cinelounge.