Board 8 > Board 8 Watches and Ranks Art Films: Sign-Ups + Future Planning

(+) Yeah! (+)

Welcome to the next iteration of Board 8 Watches and Ranks films! Throughout the last few lists, there's been a lot of discourse around one particular question: what is an art film? And while this label might mean a lot of different things depending on who you ask, I've thrown together a list of 30 films I personally consider artistic to try and shed some light on that question.

So what makes an art film? Is it a movie that challenges our conceptions of narrative and cinematic structure? Is it one that eschews an easily comprehensible plot to try and create an experience you feel your way through instead of thinking? Is it one that deeply examines society and its cultural assumptions? Or is it one that asks philosophical questions about the meaning of life and humanity's place in the universe? On this list you will find assembled many answers to that question, and hopefully many portals to a moviegoing experience unlike anything you're used to.

Although I feel this aspect could've been taken further, I made an effort to make this our most diverse list yet both in nationality and time period. I believe this is the first list since the anime rankings where the United States of America is not the most-represented country and a minority of films are in English. We have many French films, two with African directors, a Mexican film and a Spanish one, a few Italian films, some Swedish, Danish, and German representation, an Indian film, a Taiwanese film and a few Japanese ones, and of course a few from the USSR and its exiles. We have a silent film, a World War 2 film made during the war itself, a film that took decades to release in its own country, and even a few Best Picture nominees to round things out.

Your 30 films, along with their year of release and directors:

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) - Carl Theodor Dreyer
The Rules of the Game (1939) - Jean Renoir
Citizen Kane (1941) - Orson Welles
Ikiru (1952) - Akira Kurosawa
Tokyo Story (1953) - Yasujir Ozu
Ordet (1955) - Carl Theodor Dreyer
Pather Panchali (1955) - Satyajit Ray
Harakiri (1962) - Masaki Kobayashi
8 1/2 (1963) - Federico Fellini
Black Girl (1966) - Ousmane Sembne
The Battle of Algiers (1966) - Gill Pontecorvo
Persona (1966) - Ingmar Bergman
Playtime (1967) - Jacques Tati
The Conformist (1970) - Bernardo Bertolucci
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) - Werner Herzog
The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) - Victor Erice
The Holy Mountain (1973) - Alejandro Jodorowsky
Mirror (1975) - Andrei Tarkovsky
Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) - Chantal Akerman
Eraserhead (1977) - David Lynch
The Ascent (1977) - Larisa Shepitko
Three Colors: Red (1994) - Krzysztof Kielowski
Vive L'Amour (1994) - Tsai Ming-liang
Beau Travail (1999) - Claire Denis
Amlie (2001) - Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Pan's Labyrinth (2006) - Guillermo del Toro
Synecdoche, New York (2008) - Charlie Kaufman
The Tree of Life (2011) - Terrence Malick
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - Wes Anderson
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) - Cline Sciamma

Send completed lists to me either by email at [email protected] or Discord @peopleranimals2

A word of caution:

This is a list not for the faint of heart, with the majority of the movies being longer than the 90 minute mark and several that are not quite what you'd call excessible. However even among this elite company one film stands out as by far the longest and the slowest. That film is Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080, Bruxelles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih3nBxjkBH8

And while I feel it would been inexcusable to omit the Sight & Sound Greatest Film of All Time from a list of art films, I do think that having a plan to tackle Jeanne Dielman will increase your chances of completing the list. Get it out of the way early or save it until you're almost done and don't have to worry about losing your nerve anymore. Jeanne Dielman is a unique, challenging, and purposeful film, but I promise the whole list isn't like this!

Been meaning to participate in one of these for a while and I think this would be a fun one, plenty of movies I enjoy and plenty I have been meaning to see. Any ideas on the deadline? Think I should be able to participate but probably won't have time to start watching until mid-May.

O yeah I should probably have included a deadline shouldn't I. Given that some of these films are a little longer let's say July 9th with the possibility of extensions

Cool list definitely gonna try and participate in this one

Neat list. I probably won't participate, but in case I do, do you know if any of the movies have a lot of gore?

Don't think I can do this, but tagging for future interest.

rwlh posted...

Neat list. I probably won't participate, but in case I do, do you know if any of the movies have a lot of gore?

Well I haven't seen them all. I think the list is light on that kind of thing but:
- Harakiri has a scene in which someone commits seppuku
- The Battle of Algiers and Aguirre have some violent scenes, idk how extreme they get
- Eraserhead has some body horror elements and Pan's Labyrinth has disturbing creature designs
- The Holy Mountain is really weird
- Joan of Arc gets set on fire in Passion of Joan of Arc

Oh man. I feel like half the battle here is going to be finding half of these.

Suprak_the_Stud posted...

Oh man. I feel like half the battle here is going to be finding half of these.

Funnily enough, I think most of them seem very accessible to me via one service, moreso than the usual lists! Looks like the BFI have the majority of the movies from before the 90s due to their "artsy" nature, and those after are simple for me to find on streaming or pick up on DVD, but unfortunately the BFI is not accessible internationally. Vive L'Amour seems the odd one out which I couldn't find a stream or digital "rent" for. It's not available on any services in the UK, and it looks to be upwards of 30 to get physically (50 for the blu-ray). Thankfully, I can watch the movie on Kanopy using my... university library card? Think it might be available for local library cards as well.

If anyone else is in the UK would like the list of streaming services for working out practicalities, let me know and I'll pop it in here.

Oh boy. I've seen 4.5 of these. Loved one, was "meh" on three, and dropped the other halfway through.

This is not exactly my thing, but I suppose I'll give it a shot.

https://www.justwatch.com/us is a great site for checking where things are streaming. I did a very quick check:

MAX - The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) - Carl Theodor Dreyer
Kanopy (not sure what that is....) - The Rules of the Game (1939) - Jean Renoir
n/a - Citizen Kane (1941) - Orson Welles
MAX - Ikiru (1952) - Akira Kurosawa
MAX - Tokyo Story (1953) - Yasujir Ozu
Criterion Channel - Ordet (1955) - Carl Theodor Dreyer
MAX - Pather Panchali (1955) - Satyajit Ray
Criterion Channel - Harakiri (1962) - Masaki Kobayashi
MAX - 8 1/2 (1963) - Federico Fellini
MAX - Black Girl (1966) - Ousmane Sembne
MAX - The Battle of Algiers (1966) - Gill Pontecorvo
MAX - Persona (1966) - Ingmar Bergman
Criterion Channel - Playtime (1967) - Jacques Tati
Kanopy - The Conformist (1970) - Bernardo Bertolucci
ROKU Channel - Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) - Werner Herzog
Criterion Channel - The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) - Victor Erice
Some non main stream service - The Holy Mountain (1973) - Alejandro Jodorowsky
Criterion Channel - Mirror (1975) - Andrei Tarkovsky
MAX - Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) - Chantal Akerman
MAX - Eraserhead (1977) - David Lynch
Criterion Channel - The Ascent (1977) - Larisa Shepitko
MAX - Three Colors: Red (1994) - Krzysztof Kielowski
Criterion Channel - Vive L'Amour (1994) - Tsai Ming-liang
MAX - Beau Travail (1999) - Claire Denis
n/a - Amlie (2001) - Jean-Pierre Jeunet
n/a - Pan's Labyrinth (2006) - Guillermo del Toro
n/a - Synecdoche, New York (2008) - Charlie Kaufman
Hulu - The Tree of Life (2011) - Terrence Malick
Hulu - The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - Wes Anderson
Hulu - Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) - Cline Sciamma

A lot of those are streaming on multiple locations or you could pay a few bucks to rent too. But looks like MAX, Criterion Channel and Hulu gets you a very big chunk.

Not something I plan on participating in but I do enjoy tracking the topics.

@rockus

Absolutely participating

Also I checked and some of those that seem difficult to find (through whatever methods) are easier than you might think largely due to the Criterion Channel making them accessible for streaming

In additon, planning for the future:

Right now the only lists we have set are:

1. Art Films hosted by Evil
2. Crime 2 hosted by me

Beyond that, we do have BetrayedTangy's Movies About Movies list, but Tangy wasn't in the last ranking or the last planning topic, so not sure what the plan is there

There was a lot of talk about a biopic (or music biopic) list, but nobody officially signed on to host.

We also of course have Karo's Animation 5, as well as lists from Stifled and KBM if they decide to host again, though I'm not sure that either still plans to participate

Did anyone else want to get in on hosting after Crime 2? The door is open to anyone who'd like to host, the only thing we ask is that you participate in two rankings beforehand (which means if you'd like to participate in the next two queued up, feel free to plan something out!)

Don't feel like crafting a list or want to go with something easily accessible? There's always the option of taking on a smaller pre-existing list (ex. DCEU) or even a single series if you just want to test the warers of hosting.

Looking for ideas? Check out out the spreadsheet of all the movies we've covered, as well as a handful of incomplete or dropped lists here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BU5FjXnnNQgnHN9VSCAvGTNlA4ZTvkQDAhLoLwW95pQ/edit#gid=764588801

also, AI might be terrifying but man is it useful sometimes

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/5fde6993.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/aaacbeb7.png

Oooh, what a great choice of theme. I've been meaning to get back into participating in these topics, and the timing/subject matter of this list is perfect for me (though I'm sad I missed the '80s Horror list). in particular, Fellini, Tarkovsky, Bertolucci, and Jodorowsky are all directors I've never seen a movie from, but have always meant to, so clearly it's time to change that.

I would also be happy to throw my hat back in the ring to host my long-delayed 20th century live-action Disney movies project - though I'll have to go back through it and pare it down to 30 selections (shouldn't be too hard). Looking forward to getting back into participating in these lists!

VengefulKaelee posted...

I would also be happy to throw my hat back in the ring to host my long-delayed 20th century live-action Disney movies project - though I'll have to go back through it and pare it down to 30 selections (shouldn't be too hard). Looking forward to getting back into participating in these lists!

That's awesome! Happy to add it back to the list

I'd also like to get on the board, because we've gotta get back on track after how 80s horror ended, and then art films right after :P

My first thought was finally doing a Star ranking (every Star Trek and every Star Wars film ranking), but also, doing a "so bad it's good" movie list could be pretty fun as well.

Blaziken posted...

I'd also like to get on the board, because we've gotta get back on track after how 80s horror ended, and then art films right after :P

My first thought was finally doing a Star ranking (every Star Trek and every Star Wars film ranking), but also, doing a "so bad it's good" movie list could be pretty fun as well.

I'd probably be as into Star Trek/Wars as you are with Art films so I'd definitely vote the latter lmao

This looks like it will be interesting

I might as well get in on this one since I've already enjoyed at least half of these

Would anyone be interested in doing a Nicolas Cage ranking in the future? I'm on a mission to watch all his movies (eventually) so I might as well curate a list of his finest work

You can put me down for a CYOA Guilty Pleasure list where we all submit a handful of movies anonymously that are important to us for whatever reason we so choose.

I can be at the bottom though since I haven't done a ton of these lists and I'm not necessarily in a rush.

Seginustemple posted...

I might as well get in on this one since I've already enjoyed at least half of these

Would anyone be interested in doing a Nicolas Cage ranking in the future? I'm on a mission to watch all his movies (eventually) so I might as well curate a list of his finest work

Single actor/actress/director lists would be fun so I'm down!

We've never done an actor focused list, it's definitely an interesting idea

Suprak_the_Stud posted...

You can put me down for a CYOA Guilty Pleasure list where we all submit a handful of movies anonymously that are important to us for whatever reason we so choose.

This also sounds really interesting; I think the only worry I'd have is people submitting their guilty pleasures to be ranked but then not doing the ranking

wallmasterz posted...

@rockus

Awesome.

I'll probably have to participate in this since I've been meaning to watch Mirror, Beau Travail, and The Holy Mountain (have this one on DVD already).

I've seen the rest but they're pretty much all classics. Two of which are likely among my favorite 5 or 10 films ever. Another I think is the greatest debut from a director ever and not the one you might think either and even all the 21st century ones are all great.

I might have went with Blue over Red though since it's the first of the 3 Colors films and Red is the third, and though they aren't really sequels there's still a little bit at the end of Red might work better if you see all three in order (which everyone should do anyway because they're all great).

I also might have went with Tsai's first film Rebels of the Neon God or Goodbye, Dragon Inn (a personal favorite and it might really test this board) instead but then again Vive L'Amour is probably the one most in need of a rewatch for me and Goodbye, Dragon Inn hits even better if you've seen King Hu's Dragon Inn first (which is one of the best martial arts films ever). Would love to see a King Hu film on this list, but maybe we can have another art film or classic film ranking sometime down the road. I woudn't mind picking a few choice films.

Evillordexdeath posted...

Well I haven't seen them all. I think the list is light on that kind of thing but:
- Harakiri has a scene in which someone commits seppuku
- The Battle of Algiers and Aguirre have some violent scenes, idk how extreme they get
- Eraserhead has some body horror elements and Pan's Labyrinth has disturbing creature designs
- The Holy Mountain is really weird
- Joan of Arc gets set on fire in Passion of Joan of Arc

Yeah, I was going to say that Harakiri and Battle of Algiers are probably two of the more violent movies on this list but not that horrific.

Some of them are more so bleak than anything, like The Ascent.

Suprak_the_Stud posted...

Oh man. I feel like half the battle here is going to be finding half of these.

A lot of them have been licensed and released by Janus and the Criterion Collection so they're probably either on their streaming service (The Criterion Channel) or Max.

justwatch.com is a good source to look up what's streaming on the different streaming services.

So just counted, looks like this will be the 34th list overall (including mini lists)

If you exclude minilists (Bourne, Planet of the Apes, ABCs of Death) then it's the 31st, making 80s horror the big #30

Have you all picked new movies every time? Or has there been some overlap?

rwlh posted...

Have you all picked new movies every time? Or has there been some overlap?

We've largely avoided overlap up to this point. Though I think if we do some more specific list (directors/actors/etc.) we might have to repeat a couple.

I might be able to host a time travel/time loop gauntlet next year, if there's interest in that.

Looking at the list, Sci-Fi has some overlaps with some of the big movies like Terminator and Back to the Future, but there's still a bunch we can do.

Would really like to participate if I can find the time. I've already seen 13 of these films and mostly enjoyed them.

Bitto posted...

I might be able to host a time travel/time loop gauntlet next year, if there's interest in that.

Looking at the list, Sci-Fi has some overlaps with some of the big movies like Terminator and Back to the Future, but there's still a bunch we can do.

I'd be down for that

I will note that I think there's a couple time travel/loop ones on the magical realism list I have planned out there (probably my next after crime 2), most notably About Time and Groundhog Day. I can always find replacements as needed though

Time travel/Time loop is one I might actually try to participate in. It should totally include About Time and Groundhog Day.

#1 Citizen Kane

all done

Johnbobb posted...

If you exclude minilists (Bourne, Planet of the Apes, ABCs of Death) then it's the 31st, making 80s horror the big #30

ABCs of death (+ 2010s horror) was one of the most fun things I've done on this board, so ridiculous and great

Are we doing 70s horror at some point? I sure would like to help curate that list

We definitely are doing 70s horror eventually. I actually started making a pre-list during 80s but it's nowhere near finalized. But I'd love to hear your input or if you'd straight up like to host it go for it!

No idea if I'll manage this but tag jic

Man Ive seen half those lol

three colours red is one of my favs

should have included Paris, Texas

best movie ever

Oh also should have gone with Fitzcarraldo as your Herzog

:)

I would have gone with The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure

wallmasterz posted...

I would have gone with The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure

But this is about art film. That's one of his documentaries

Johnbobb posted...

So just counted, looks like this will be the 34th list overall (including mini lists)

If you exclude minilists (Bourne, Planet of the Apes, ABCs of Death) then it's the 31st, making 80s horror the big #30

Just realized I forgot the Cowboy Bebop episode ranking

If you count that, that makes this 35

wallmasterz posted...

I would have gone with The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure

*stuffs wallmasterz in a locker*

Wow I've seen exactly one of these

Johnbobb posted...

Did anyone else want to get in on hosting after Crime 2? The door is open to anyone who'd like to host, the only thing we ask is that you participate in two rankings beforehand (which means if you'd like to participate in the next two queued up, feel free to plan something out!)

I'm in! Been developing an animated short/short subject list with a loose theme of 'weird' to tie it all together. Expect entries of all sorts, as short as 60 second TV spots and as long as the ~40 minute Magnetic Rose from Katsuhiro Otomo's Memories.

This would have to be after Sonic 111 is well underway.

Not sure if I can do this but Ill try. Sheep, Im in Ireland but would probably still benefit from a UK list as streaming-wise theyre 99% the same, that would be a huge help thank you!

Also sure, put me down to host a DCEU ranking in the near-ish future. Should be a nice shorter one. Unless someone else wanted it!

Place posted...

I'm in! Been developing an animated short/short subject list with a loose theme of 'weird' to tie it all together. Expect entries of all sorts, as short as 60 second TV spots and as long as the ~40 minute Magnetic Rose from Katsuhiro Otomo's Memories.

Sounds good! Just a heads up that Memories was already done as part of the lady anime list I believe (the general consensus was that Magnetic Rose was drastically better than the other two segments)

LightningStrikes posted...

Not sure if I can do this but Ill try. Sheep, Im in Ireland but would probably still benefit from a UK list as streaming-wise theyre 99% the same, that would be a huge help thank you!

Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) - BFI
The Rules of the Game (1937) - BFI
Citizen Kane (1941) - BBC iPlayer/BFI/Prime
Ikiru (1952) - BFI
Tokyo Story (1953) - BFI
Ordet (1955) - BFI
Pather Panchali (1955) - Plex
Harakiri (1962) - Amazon
8 1/2 (1963) - BFI
Black Girl (1966) - Plex
The Battle of Algiers (1966) - BFI
Persona (1966) - BFI
Playtime (1967) - Criterion
The Conformist (1970) - Youtube
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) - BFI
The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) - Criterion
The Holy Mountain (1973) - Prime
Mirror (1975) - Plex
Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) - BFI
Eraserhead (1977) - Criterion/Amazon
The Ascent (1977) - Amazon
Three Colors: Red (1994) - Amazon
Vive L'Amour (1994) - Not available in UK - although I can access it with my university library card via Kanopy?? Your local library card might do it.
Beau Travail (1999) - Criterion
Amlie (2001) - Amazon
Pan's Labyrinth (2006) - Amazon/Youtube
Synecdoche, New York (2008) - Apple/Amazon/Youtube
The Tree of Life (2011) - Apple/Amazon
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - Disney
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) - Netflix

This is what I've got, it might be quite a bit different for you since I don't know if you can access the BFI and that's where I'll be getting a lot of these. If there's only one service shown for a movie that is probably on more, it's because that's the only one that comes with a subscription rather than a "rent". Amazon means you "rent" it, and the few instances I've listed Prime means it's with the subscription. A hell of a lot of this stuff doesn't come with streaming packages unfortunately.

I wonder how many of these you can just straight up watch on Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Passion_of_Joan_of_Arc

I know several of the older ones are available on archive.org

That one recently passed into the public domain, at least in the U.S.

I highly recommend watching a version with the Voices of Light soundtrack - https://youtu.be/NS_s6jrHnFE