“Lovers of what are called arthouse movies resent the label for being derisive and philistine,” said film critic Peter Bradshaw. “And those who detest it bristle at the implication that there is no artistry or intelligence in mainstream entertainment.”

For many, the stereotypical arthouse film is Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal. Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin was a classic art film from the 1920s and Luis Buñuel investigated cinema’s potential for surreality like no one before or since. The Italian neorealists applied the severity of art to a representation of society and the French New Wave iconoclastically brought a self-deconstructing critical awareness to film-making. Yasujiro Ozu conveyed a transcendental simplicity in his work. Andrei Tarkovsky and Michelangelo Antonioni achieved a meditative beauty, while David Lynch and John Cassavetes demonstrated an American reflex to the genre.

These are the 25 best arthouse and drama films according to the critics of the Guardian and Observer.

[amazon template=custom_thumbnail&asin=6305257450&search_text=%TITLE%&title=Andrei Rublev Andrei Tarkovsky]

1. [amazon text=Andrei Rublev&template=custom_title&asin=6305257450&search_text=%TITLE%&title=Andrei Rublev Andrei Tarkovsky] (1966)

Director: [amazon text=Andrei Tarkovsky&template=custom_search&search_text=%TITLE%&title=Andrei Tarkovsky] Stars: [amazon text=Anatoliy Solonitsyn&template=custom_search&search_text=%TITLE%&title=Anatoliy Solonitsyn], [amazon text=Ivan Lapikov&template=custom_search&search_text=%TITLE%&title=Ivan Lapikov], [amazon text=Nikolay Grinko&template=custom_search&search_text=%TITLE%&title=Nikolay Grinko]

[amazon text=Amazon&template=custom_text_price&asin=6305257450&multi_cc=1&search_text=%TITLE%&title=Andrei Rublev Andrei Tarkovsky]

2.

Mulholland Dr.

(2001)

Director: David Lynch
Stars: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux

Amazon
$22.51

3.

L’Atalante

(1934)

Director: Jean Vigo
Stars: Dita Parlo, Jean Dasté, Michel Simon

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4.

Tokyo Story

(1953)

Director: Yasujirô Ozu
Stars: Chishû Ryû, Chieko Higashiyama, Sô Yamamura

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5.

Citizen Kane

(1941)

Director: Orson Welles
Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore

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6.

A Clockwork Orange

(1971)

Director: Stanley Kubrick
Stars: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates

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7.

Days of Heaven

(1978)

Director: Terrence Malick
Stars: Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard

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8.

Wild Strawberries

(1957)

Director: Ingmar Bergman
Stars: Victor Sjöström, Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin

Amazon
$21.50

9.

The White Ribbon

(2009)

Director: Michael Haneke
Stars: Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Leonie Benesch

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10.

The Gospel According to St. Matthew

(1964)

Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Stars: Enrique Irazoqui, Margherita Caruso, Susanna Pasolini

Amazon
$16.95

11.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God

(1972)

Director: Werner Herzog
Stars: Klaus Kinski, Ruy Guerra, Helena Rojo

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11.

Pather Panchali

(1955)

Director: Satyajit Ray
Stars: Kanu Bannerjee, Karuna Bannerjee, Subir Banerjee

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[amazon template=custom_thumbnail&asin=B00N5ND6NW&search_text=%TITLE%&title=The Conformist Bernardo Bertolucci]

13. [amazon text=The Conformist&template=custom_title&asin=B00N5ND6NW&search_text=%TITLE%&title=The Conformist Bernardo Bertolucci] (1970)

Director: [amazon text=Bernardo Bertolucci&template=custom_search&search_text=%TITLE%&title=Bernardo Bertolucci] Stars: [amazon text=Jean-Louis Trintignant&template=custom_search&search_text=%TITLE%&title=Jean-Louis Trintignant], [amazon text=Stefania Sandrelli&template=custom_search&search_text=%TITLE%&title=Stefania Sandrelli], [amazon text=Gastone Moschin&template=custom_search&search_text=%TITLE%&title=Gastone Moschin]

[amazon text=Amazon&template=custom_text_price&asin=B00N5ND6NW&multi_cc=1&search_text=%TITLE%&title=The Conformist Bernardo Bertolucci]

14.

Death in Venice

(1971)

Director: Luchino Visconti
Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Romolo Valli, Mark Burns

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15.

The Godfather

(1972) /

The Godfather: Part II

(1974)

The Godfather
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Stars: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan
The Godfather: Part II
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Stars: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall

Amazon
$25.00

16.

The Graduate

(1967)

Director: Mike Nichols
Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross

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17.

There Will Be Blood

(2007)

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Ciarán Hinds

Amazon
$9.94

19.

The Rules of the Game

(1939)

Director: Jean Renoir
Stars: Marcel Dalio, Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost

Amazon
$20.30

19.

Shadows

(1959)

Director: John Cassavetes
Stars: Ben Carruthers, Lelia Goldoni, Hugh Hurd

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21.

Distant Voices, Still Lives

(1988)

Director: Terence Davies
Stars: Pete Postlethwaite, Freda Dowie, Angela Walsh

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23.

La Dolce Vita

(1960)

Director: Federico Fellini
Stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimée

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24.

Breaking the Waves

(1996)

Director: Lars von Trier
Stars: Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgård, Katrin Cartlidge

Amazon
$26.44

25.

The Spirit of the Beehive

(1973)

Director: Victor Erice
Stars: Fernando Fernán Gómez, Teresa Gimpera, Ana Torrent

Amazon
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