A Field In England: the appeal of arthouse film

A Field In England: the appeal of arthouse film

1. One of the suggested audience pleasures about arthouse film is that rather than being commercially-driven, it has an artistic appeal attached to it as suggested by the name of the genre. With this things like a deeper narrative and more unconventional approach to the story come about. Another appeal would be to be recognised as more of a 'highbrow' individual within society. Since the arthouse genre is usually considered as having something of a more sophisticated nature, just being known for watching films within it can usually lead to someone being recognised as in a sense, more upper-class/superior.
2. Some audiences can tend to struggle with arthouse film particularly due to the fact that they differ so much from Hollywood films, mainly in the sense that Hollywood ones have a more conventional sense of direction. This is in the sense that Hollywood films usually end with a resolution of all of the events that took place, something we see detailed in Todorov's theory of equilibrium. Arthouse films though, tend to end without this resolution being achieved, and this can be something quite difficult to get the grips with for a typical audience.
3. Arthouse can be said to appeal only to the middle classes and older audiences to quite a reasonable extent, predominantly because of this concept of 'culture capital.' With this being, as said in the article, 'a familiarity with ‘high’ cultural forms' which is predominantly with other arthouse films, it's less likely for audiences from say a lower-class background to have an intertextual understanding of what they're watching which means they're not getting the full gist of the film.
4. A Field In England is likely to appeal a more older generation of people. With the film being centred around the English Civil War, it's likely to peak the interest of people interested in aspects like history and maybe even elements of their heritage - things an older generation may find themselves wanting to know about. More importantly though, the film is likely to appeal to admirers of the arthouse genre as a whole, more middle to upper class audiences.