“If I cannot be perfect in my life, I will be perfect in my profession.’
Everyone loves a good crowd-pleasing blockbuster, but arthouse cinema is absolutely crucial as well, in lots of different ways. It’s a kind of smaller-scale cinema, often independent of the major studio system, driven by a director’s personal artistic vision. It’s able to much more freely delve into stories, themes, and characters that mainstream film doesn’t often approach, as well as pushing the boundaries of the medium.
Over the course of the history of the Seventh Art, there have been a wide variety of outstanding auteurs that have defined the realm of arthouse cinema. From foreign directors of legendary classics, such as the Swedish master Ingmar Bergman; to more modern voices that are still contributing to the field today, such as the mad genius David Cronenberg, these are artists who have in many ways defined and re-defined the course of this beautiful art form.
10 David Cronenberg
Standout Movie: ‘Videodrome’ (1983)
The master of body horror and the twisted mind behind some of the best Canadian movies of all time, David Cronenberg is a filmmaker that most cinephiles are abundantly familiar with. From highly intellectual pieces of experimental horror, such as Videodrome; to more grounded yet equally brilliant dramas, like A History of Violence, Cronenberg is a director who can always be trusted to deliver something special.
Cronenberg is always unafraid to get experimental, a little bit crazy, and very graphic. Horror fans who like movies that perfectly blend fear and gore with highly intelligent concepts and writing are guaranteed to love Cronenberg, whose style has evolved beautifully over the years. Nowadays, he may not be as prolific as he was in the past; but he’s still consistently delivering subversive arthouse work that shakes viewers to their core.
Videodrome
- Release Date
- February 4, 1983
- Director
- David Cronenberg
- Cast
- James Woods , Sonja Smits , Deborah Harry , Peter Dvorsky , Leslie Carlson , Jack Creley
- Runtime
- 87
9 Yasujirô Ozu
Standout Movie: ‘Tokyo Story’ (1953)
Typically lauded as one of the greatest Japanese filmmakers of all time, Yasujirô Ozu had a visual and narrative style unlike that of any other filmmaker who has ever graced the silver screen with their work. Unwaveringly naturalistic and austere, Ozu’s distinct camerawork and deliberately paced storytelling allowed him to craft some of the most profound films of his time.
The artist’s filmography is filled with masterpieces that deserve a lot more attention from general audiences, such as Tokyo Story and Late Spring, with which Ozu created a cinematic language all of his own. Arthouse is the perfect place to break rules, and by constantly doing things his own way, that’s precisely what this highly influential auteur did from his silent era to the end of his career in the ’60s.
Tokyo Story (1953)
- Release Date
- March 13, 1972
- Director
- Yasujirô Ozu
- Cast
- Chishû Ryû , Chieko Higashiyama , Sô Yamamura , Setsuko Hara
- Runtime
- 136 minutes
8 Alejandro Jodorowsky
Standout Movie: ‘The Holy Mountain’ (1973)
By creating some of the most head-scratchingly bizarre movies ever made, Chilean-French artist Alejandro Jodorowsky has become one of the most important representatives of cinematic surrealism, defining and revolutionizing the style with every new film he’s made. Whether he’s taking a spiritual journey with a film like The Holy Mountain or twisting the Western genre on its head with a film like El Topo, Jodo is always doing something cool.
“Diving into his filmography is an adventure that all movie fans should try at least once.”
While the director’s anapologetically weird style can certainly be an acquired taste for some, diving into his filmography is an adventure that all movie fans should try at least once. Taking advantage of the arthouse space being ideal for exploring controversial topics in fresh ways, Jodorowsky often populates his work with themes of religion, spirituality, sex, and the absurdity of reality.
7 Jean-Luc Godard
Standout Movie: ‘Pierrot Le Fou’ (1965)
One of the pioneers and poster boys of the French New Wave, one of the most groundbreaking film movements in the medium’s history, Jean-Luc Godard is as divisive as directors come. Even those who don’t love his style and call it self-indulgent and pretentious have to give him one thing: Arthouse cinema would probably not be what it is today without him.
The term “structure” has never been in Godard’s vocabulary. Visually inventive and playfully edited, films like the brilliant Pierrot Le Fou and the iconic Breathless (pretty much a manifesto for the principles of the French New Wave) define his distinct style. Even having had a few missteps over the course of his career, Godard has been crucial to film’s development as an art form. What’s a great director without a few haters?
Pierrot le Fou
- Release Date
- January 8, 1969
- Director
- Jean-Luc Godard
- Cast
- Jean-Paul Belmondo , Anna Karina , Graziella Galvani , Aicha Abadir , Henri Attal
- Runtime
- 110 Minutes
6 David Lynch
Standout Movie: ‘Eraserhead’ (1977)
Arguably more so than any other filmmaker of his generation, David Lynch has defined cinematic surrealism. Even if not, it’s undeniable that he’s the director who has popularized it the most, bringing it closer to the mainstream than ever before. Despite the popularity of his work, though, those interested in getting into his daunting filmography should make no mistake: His ouevre is as mind-bending as it gets.
From atmospheric horror films like Eraserhead to surrealist character studies like Mulholland Dr., Lynch’s films are always something truly memorable. As unnerving as his work may often be, it’s also always full of profound symbolism that lends itself to infinite interpretations and analysis. Visually stunning and uniquely dreamlike, the filmmaker’s style is unlike anything else audiences will be able to find.
Eraserhead
- Release Date
- February 3, 1978
- Director
- David Lynch
- Cast
- Jack Nance , Laurel Near , Charlotte Stewart , Allen Joseph
- Runtime
- 89 minutes
5 Federico Fellini
Standout Movie: ‘8½’ (1963)
One of the most popular and revolutionary Italian filmmakers of all time, Federico Fellini is responsible for masterworks of the caliber of 8½ and La Dolce Vita. Accessible yet delightfully surrealistic, his work is nothing if not unique. The vast majority of his films are outstanding works of pure art, with a unique sense of humor and humanist spirit, yet also irresistibly poignant.
Melancholy and exuberant, Fellini’s films feel like a portal into a different dimension, in ways that most movies can only ever dream of doing. His incredible work with actors like Marcello Mastroianni and his capacity to write some of the most nuanced screenplays arthouse cinema has ever seen helped make him the seminal filmmaker that he’s remembered as today.
8½
- Release Date
- January 2, 1963
- Director
- Federico Fellini
- Cast
- Claudia Cardinale
- Runtime
- 138
4 Ingmar Bergman
Standout Movie: ‘Persona’ (1966)
It’s pretty much universally agreed that Ingmar Bergman is the greatest Scandinavian filmmaker who has ever lived, and it really isn’t hard to see why. After all, he’s the man responsible for masterpieces like the psychological drama Persona and the philosophically rich fantasy film The Seventh Seal, two of the most iconic and best arthouse movies of all time.
A master of poetic cinema, Bergman left a body of work that never fails to have an incredibly punchy emotional effect on viewers. His narratives, populated by some fascinating characters, are always gripping explorations of some of the deepest parts of the human condition. What makes those narratives really pop, though, is Bergman’s distinct visual style. His compositions are always imbued with profound meaning, and his measured use of surrealism in many of his films is masterful.
Persona
- Release Date
- March 16, 1967
- Director
- Ingmar Bergman
- Cast
- Bibi Andersson , Liv Ullmann , Margaretha Krook , Gunnar Björnstrand , Jörgen Lindström
- Runtime
- 83 Minutes
3 Luis Buñuel
Standout Movie: ‘The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie’ (1972)
Spanish-Mexican filmmaker Luis Buñuel (who also worked extensively in France) was, in many ways, the grandfather of arthouse cinema as audiences know it today. The colossal importance of his contributions to cinema as an art form cannot be expressed solely in words. Then again, Buñuel was never one for conveying meaning in traditional ways. A pioneer in cinematic surrealism, he believed that the unique power of cinema lay in its ability to plaster the director’s subconscious on self-contained images.
“He believed that the unique power of cinema lay in its ability to plaster the director’s subconscious on self-contained images.”
While Buñuel is certainly best-remembered for the weirdness of his movies, he was also a revolutionary storyteller who defined much of the arthouse cinematic language. From The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie to his seminal surrealist short film Un Chien Andalou, he showed that motion pictures could be oh so much more than just simple entertainment.
2 Akira Kurosawa
Standout Movie: ‘Seven Samurai’ (1954)
Praised by most cinephiles as the single best Japanese filmmaker of all time, Akira Kurosawa should need no introduction, being the man behind several of the best foreign arthouse movies ever made. He defined the samurai movie genre with masterworks like Seven Samurai, and became one of the most influential directors ever in many others, such as character dramas like Ikiru and historical epics like Ran.
Scholars and cinephiles have studied Kurosawa endlessly for decades — and even today, it’s hard to put his creative skill and brilliance into words. As the first Japanese director to earn worldwide recognition, Kurosawa had a level of attention to detail far greater than all his contemporaries, a visual style unlike anything else the medium has seen since, and a passion for some of the most riveting stories Japanese cinema has ever been home to. Without him, it’s anyone’s guess whether international arthouse film would be as popular in the West as it is today.
Seven Samurai
- Release Date
- April 26, 1954
- Director
- Akira Kurosawa
- Cast
- Toshiro Mifune , Takashi Shimura
- Runtime
- 207 minutes
1 Andrei Tarkovsky
Standout Movie: ‘Stalker’ (1979)
The Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky was the closest thing to a poet with a camera that the Seventh Art has ever been graced with. Short-lived though it was, Tarkovsky’s illustrious career gave movie fans ten incredible feature films for them to analyze and delight in until the end of time. From sci-fi icons like Stalker to historical epics like Andrei Rublev, Tarkovsky’s movies are all arthouse gems.
Not all of Tarkovsky’s films are equally approachable, but they are all equally brilliant. Though the abundantly slow pace of his work will definitely be challenging for arthouse initiates, those willing to give his oeuvre their full patience and attention will be treated to endlessly profound symbolism, fascinatingly complex characters, and beautifully-conveyed themes of art, life, death, and faith.
Stalker
- Release Date
- May 25, 1979
- Director
- Andrei Tarkovsky
- Cast
- Alexander Kaidanovsky
- Runtime
- 162 minutes
This article was originally published on collider.com