I Am Curious Yuk!

The art house and art film are defined by Wikipedia as:


An art film (also known as art movie, specialty film, art house film, or in the collective sense as art cinema) is typically a serious, independently made film aimed at a niche audience rather than a mass audience. Film critics and film studies scholars typically define an "art film" using a "...canon of films and those formal qualities that mark them as different from mainstream Hollywood films",which includes, among other elements: a social realism style; an emphasis on the authorial expressivity of the director; and a focus on the thoughts and dreams of characters, rather than presenting a clear, goal-driven story. Film scholar David Bordwell claims that "art cinema itself is a [film] genre, with its own distinct conventions.

Art film producers usually present their films at specialty theatres (repertory cinemas, or in the U.S. "art house cinemas") and film festivals. The term art film is much more widely used in the United States than in Europe, where the term is more associated with "auteur" films and "national cinema" (e.g., German national cinema). Art films are aimed at small niche market audiences, which means they can rarely get the financial backing which will permit large production budgets, expensive special effects, costly celebrity actors, or huge advertising campaigns, as are used in widely-released mainstream blockbuster films. Art film directors make up for these constraints by creating a different type of film, which typically uses lesser-known film actors (or even amateur actors) and modest sets to make films which focus much more on developing ideas or exploring new narrative techniques or filmmaking conventions.

Late in the 50’s, art houses were appearing in my native Baltimore, and at one time there were four or five of them in existence. They were small, usually urban, and had coffee available in the lobby rather than a candy counter. There would often be intermissions between reels or films to get your coffee. I can’t remember if the coffee was free or one paid for it, but it was quite a nice place to go. They had art shows in the lobby, rededicated as galleries. I remember kind of dressing up to go to see the newest of films and saw many Ingmar Bergman classics in the art theater.

The memorable evening I recall, my friend Mark and I had gone to see something (funny, the film escapes me not the evening) on a weeknight I believe, and we were in a somewhat questionable urban neighborhood. After the movie ended, I remember walking back to his car, and when we arrived and went to get in, as he opened his door he made a sound, not describable, and had the most horrific look I had ever seen on a human being. He screamed! And was looking at his hand!

He asked me for matches so he could see (obviously unhurt but shook up) and what he saw startled us both.

Someone had wrapped a pork chop around his door handle! While this is hysterical now, at the time the feeling of raw meat when you were reaching for the metal door handle was not explainable.

I will admit we laughed about it on the way home, but it was an incredible shock.