Art House Movies typically refer to indie films made for a niche audience that particularly enjoys such stories which run at a slower pace with some of the visually appealing aesthetics and often leave you wondering. While you may not seek them at all times but every once in a while you across such movies that change your perception towards your own life and the way you look at the world. Therefore, we bring you such similar movies that will leave you truly amazed.
8 Best Art House Movies
The Tree of Life
The Tree of Life is the impressionistic story of a Midwestern family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, from the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father (Brad Pitt). Jack (played as an adult by Sean Penn) finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.
Directed by Terrence Malick, the cast of the film includes Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Hunter McCracken, Laramie Eppler, Jessica Chastain, and Tye Sheridan. Watch it on Amazon Prime Video.
Malèna
Directed by the acclaimed director Giuseppe Tornatore and starring Monica Bellucci, Giuseppe Sulfaro, Luciano Federico, Matilde Piana and Pietro Notarianni. It is the story of a boy’s journey into manhood amid the chaos and intolerance of World War II.
In a sleepy Italian village, Malèna, the most beautiful woman in town, becomes the subject of increasingly malicious gossip among the lustful townsmen and their jealous wives. But only her most ardent admirer, young Renato Amoroso, will learn her mysterious untold story. You can watch this coming-of-age comedy-drama on Amazon Prime Video.
Pierrot le Fou
Whether you may have seen this film or not, you may have come across many iconic scenes from the movie when talking about great cinema. Pierrot le fou is one of the high points of the French New Wave where an unhappy Ferdinand abandons his bourgeois existence with his wife and child to take off with Marianne, an old flame. Being pursued by foreign thugs, they embark on a haphazard crime spree, a crazy adventure involving fast cars, mysterious gangsters and a Mediterranean idyll that turns sour.
It is written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard, and stars Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina in the lead. The film is based on the 1962 novel Obsession by Lionel White and you can rent it on Amazon Prime Video.
I’m Thinking of Ending Things
Based on Iain Reid’s acclaimed novel of the same name. In the movie, despite second thoughts about their relationship, a young woman (Jessie Buckley) takes a road trip with her new boyfriend (Jesse Plemons) to his family farm. Trapped at the farm during a snowstorm with Jake’s mother (Toni Collette) and father (David Thewlis), the young woman begins to question the nature of everything she knew or understood about her boyfriend, herself, and the world.
Watch this mind-boggling psychological thriller on Netflix.
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All About My Mother
Director Pedro Almodóvar’s Oscar-winning movie is a moving exploration of the meaning of motherhood. In the movie, Young Esteban wants to become a writer and also to discover the identity of his second mother, a trans woman, carefully concealed by his mother Manuela.
When nurse Manuela (Cecilia Roth) loses the teenage son she raised on her own. Grief-stricken, she sets out to search for the boy’s long-lost father in Barcelona, where she reawakens into a new maternal role, at the head of a surrogate family that includes a pregnant, HIV-positive nun (Penélope Cruz), an illustrious star of the stage (Marisa Paredes), and a transgender sex worker (Antonia San Juan).
Watch this emotional movie on Amazon Prime Video.
A Sun
A Sun is a Taiwanese movie, directed and co-written by Chung Mong-hong. It stars Chen Yi-wen, Samantha Ko, Wu Chien-ho, Greg Hsu, and Liu Kuan-ting. In the movie, a family reckons with the aftermath of their younger son’s incarceration and the greater misfortune that follows.
Its story centres on Chen Jian Ho, a troubled teenager who has been arrested, and Hao, Ho’s accomplished brother who commits suicide due to familial pressure. It explores Ho’s re-entry into society and his father’s efforts to acknowledge his son, something he had never done. You can watch it on Netflix.
Days of Being Wild
When talking about Art house movies, one can not exclude Wong Kar-wai’s movies. Although many of them can be added to the list, Days of Being Wild is the one that deserves more recognition. It stars Leslie Cheung, Andy Lau, Maggie Cheung, Carina Lau, Jacky Cheung and Tony Leung.
The story follows various characters who are in the search of an intimate connection. Ranging from a disaffected playboy (Leslie Cheung) searching for his birth mother, a lovelorn woman (Maggie Cheung) hopelessly enamoured with him, and a policeman (Andy Lau) caught in the middle of their turbulent relationship. Although the movie is not available everywhere, some can catch it on HBO Max.
Melancholia
In this movie, Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Michael (Alexander Skarsgård) celebrate their marriage at a sumptuous party in the home of Justine’s sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and brother-in-law John (Kiefer Sutherland). Despite Claire’s best efforts, the wedding is a fiasco with family tensions mounting and relationships fraying. Meanwhile, a planet called Melancholia is heading directly towards Earth threatening the very existence of humankind.
Directed by Lars Von Trier, it is an apocalyptic drama art movie which is often revelled about when the discussion of showing depression in films comes up. It is deemed the best film that portrays mental illness right, without being exploitative. You can watch it by renting on Amazon Prime Video.
Which of the above-mentioned movies intrigues you the most? Let us know in the comments section below.
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