Art film

From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change

Art films are a type of film (movie) that is very different from the popular blockbuster movies made in Hollywood (a town in the western United States where many movies are made), such as action movies or comedies. Art films have many other names. Some people call art films "art movies", "independent films," "indie films,"arthouse films, "auteur" films ("auteur" is a French word which means "author") or experimental films.

Art films and independent films are usually made by smaller film companies that do not have much money. Independent films or art films usually have different plots (stories) than blockbuster movies. Independent films or art films usually tell more creative or unusual (strange) stories than blockbuster movies.

Independent films or art films often show controversial (makes some people angry) or sad stories, and the movies may have sad endings. Independent films or art films are sometimes hard to understand, because the movie may be about people's feelings, thoughts, or dreams.

For these reasons, art films are not shown in many cinemas or theaters. This means that art films do not make a lot of money. Independent films and art films are generally promoted through word-of-mouth; that is, by people who see the movie and then tell their friends to go see it.

[change] A comparison of an art movie and a blockbuster movie

The opposite of an art movie is a popular (a lot of people like it) blockbuster movie. Blockbuster movies have famous film stars and large budgets. They are made so that millions of people will like the movie.

To understand why film directors (people who make movies) make art films, one has to know about blockbuster movies. This is because art films are made in reaction to (because of) blockbuster movies. Film directors making art movies try to make art films very different from blockbuster movies.

Blockbuster movies often have very large budgets which are used to pay large salaries for the film stars, pay for expensive special effects, and pay for a lot of promotion (advertisements). In contrast, art movies have small budgets, so they usually have unknown or little-known actors, or amateur actors. Some art movies even use regular people with no experience as actors to work as the actors.

Blockbusters often use simple plots (stories) and characters (people in the stories) that have been used before in other movies. Art films usually use strange or unusual plots or characters that the audience may not have seen before.

In blockbuster movies, there is usually a happy ending, in which all of the problems in the plot (story) are figured out or fixed. In art movies, there is often a sad ending, or an uncertain (not known clearly) or ambiguous (it could mean several things) ending. Art movies often have uncertain or ambiguous endings so that the audience will have to think about what might have happened in the plot (story).

Blockbuster movies are very popular, and so more movies are made using the same story and characters. For example, the James Bond films all tell stories about the British spy called James Bond; the Star Wars science fiction films all tell stories about spaceships and outer space wars. Art movies are very rarely made into franchises with sequels, because directors of art films are often trying to create a new movie with new ideas for each film they make.

Blockbuster movies have a lot of promotion through television advertising, billboards and internet sites. Art movies often have little or no promotion (advertising).

[change] Why are art films different from regualar films?

David Bordwell is a professor from the United States who studies films at a university. He thought of a way of explaining what an "art film" is in 1979. He wrote an article that says that art films are different from regular Hollywood films. Regular Hollywood films have a clear story and plot. Art films often have much stranger stories. In an art film, the stories may be hard to understand. As well, in an art film, the audience may have a hard time understanding what is going on. Art films are often about people's feelings and thoughts. Art films are often about big questions that a person has to answer about who they are or what they should do in a situation.