There are purely artistic films dating all the way back to the days of Salvador Dali, with his bizarre masterpiece with Luis Bunel entitled “Un Chien Andalou,” and Andy Warhol, who turned in much stranger and less arresting art films such as “Sleep” and “Empire.You can find a quick rundown here” These films were often shown in museums instead of theaters. With the arrival of archival institutions such as the American Museum of the Moving Image art cinema achieved gallery status and popular status at the same time.

Since then art cinema has become more and more popularly accepted. Modern filmmakers such as Malick, Von Trier, and Van Sant have all adapted the lessons of art films to their popular films. Art cinema has become a big business.

The Blair Witch Project

This 1999 imitation documentary terrified audiences with its tale of an invisible tormenter in the woods.

Sideways

Wine-lovers were not the only ones who enjoyed this 2004 Alexander Payne film. The indie hit won many awards for telling the story of what happens when a woman discovers her beau is engaged.

Fargo

Darkly funny and endlessly thrilling, Fargo combines a noble spirit, humor and horror. Frances McDormand stars as a pregnant policewoman chasing lowlife criminals.

Brokeback Mountain

Ang Lee’s direction, Heath Ledger’s performance and compelling storytelling made this 2005 film an all-time favorite of the indie movie crowd. Heart-wrenching and thought-provoking, the film also won over mainstream audiences.

Reservoir Dogs

Quentin Tarantino’s debut film took him from obscurity to fame in 1992, and the film is a macho thriller that shakes audiences for just under two hours straight.

Lawrence of Arabia

One of the greatest film epics of our time was made what it is with its grand cinematography of the desert sands of the country of Jordan. The shot of the rising sun coming over the country of Jordan exemplifies that. Scenes and settings like these are what make a movie great.

2001: A Space Odyssey

In 1968, Stanley Kubrick presented to the world one of the finest science fiction films ever made, and paved the way for blockbuster science fiction films made by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. The new cinematography and camera effects introduced by Kubrick in this film to make the opening scenes of space make it one of the grander epics of our time.

1) Lost Highway, directed by David Lynch. Released in 1997, this neo-noir psychological thriller tells the tale of a maniacal saxophonist who murders his wife and her lover.

2) Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, also directed by David Lynch. Released in 1992 as a follow-up to the successful cult television series Twin Peaks.

3) Prospero’s Books, directed by Peter Greenaway. Released in 1991, this surrealist fantasy flick is a vivid surrealist retelling of the works of Shakespeare.

4) Drawing Restraint 9. Directed by Matthew Barney and released in 2006, this story unfolds aboard a Japanese whaling vessel and exploits the director’s love of shock art.

5) The Tulse Luper Suitcases: Part 1 – The Moab Story. Directed by Peter Greenaway and released in 2003, the film is the first in a series following title character Tulse Henry Purcel Luper through a string of absurd, unrelated events.

The French New Wave, a movement that began with a group of directors in the 1950s and 1960s, produced a lot of the films we revere as the classic French art films.

Last Tango in Paris, starring Marlon Brando, is one of the most memorable to American audiences. There is overt sexual activity in this film, and it resonated with American audiences. People were ready to start letting go of their sexual inhibitions.

Belle du Jour was a surrealist film with many vivid sexual fantasies.

Going Places, another film from the 1970s, is about two friends that go on a wild romp through the French countryside and have many engrossing sexual experiences.

Lily Says, a more contemporary art film, has some acts of sexual activity in public, but it is all under the clothes.

Exterminating Angels is another film from France about exhibitionism.

8 1/2, Age Tendre et Sexes Droits, Anges et Demons, C’es la Vie!, and Crash Toujours are five others that top the list.

John Huston was probably the first director of the genre, with the first such movie being “The Maltese Falcon” 1941). Huston studied abroad in Paris and worked as a painter there in his early years, and he applied the visual techniques he had learned to his directing: He would sketch his scenes on paper and then carefully frame the characters during shooting time. He also created films as they were shot, rather than use post-production editing.

Otto Preminger both produced and (after he was allowed to fire the director) directed “Laura” in 1944, a movie based on Vera Caspary’s novel. He felt that the story needed revising, so he offered to rewrite it with the author. And he refused to cast the actor who had played Jack the Ripper for the villain, feeling that the audience would suspect the latter character too early.

Jules Dassin directed “Brute Force,” notorious for its level of violence, and “Thieves’ Highway,” which accurately showed the vibrant fruit and produce market of San Francisco.