Narrative conventions abandoned — visual composition and directorial vision take priority over plot. Godard, Tarkovsky, Antonioni's early work define it.
Those who make art films are not interested in plot resolution — they are interested in image composition, timing, the quality of light on a wall over five minutes. On set, you immediately notice the difference: the art film director has no screenplay pages with actions, but sketches, color palettes, perhaps a single sentence about a scene. The classic genre expectations (protagonist solves problem, conflict escalates, resolution) are not gone — they are irrelevant.
The visual language is absolutely central. This means specifically: the editing does not follow dramatic pacing, but an aesthetic logic. A transition between two shots does not happen because the story demands it, but because the color, movement, or rhythm justifies it. Tarkovsky, for example, lets a camera move over an empty landscape for minutes — not because something happens, but because this deceleration examines the medium itself. This is fundamentally anti-narrative, though not necessarily anti-dramatic. There is tension, but it arises from formal tension, not from story tension.
Practically, this means for production: longer lighting setup times, fewer takes in the classic sense, but more variation in camera movement and composition. The DP works here like a visual artist — each shot is a painting that stands on its own. Godard implemented this most consistently: he juxtaposes images that speak through their formal similarity or difference, not through narrative logic. This is shocking at first, but it retrains the viewer's eye.
The boundary between art film and other forms is not sharp. A masterful genre film can have individual art film qualities; conversely, art film can (slightly pejoratively) also mean: formally interesting, thematically empty. But this is a misunderstanding. Early Antonioni shows how deep psychological states can be conveyed through pure image composition and editing rhythm — without dramatic scenes, without exposition. This is not arbitrariness, but precision on another level. Those who want to understand art film must learn to read images instead of hearing stories.