In this article, the author talks about art-house cinema, avant-garde film, and dramatic modernism. He believes that the most important modes of film practice are art-house cinema and the avant-garde, both of which contrast with the classical Hollywood mode of film practice. While the latter is characterized by its commercial imperative, corporate hierarchies, and a high degree of specialization as well as a division of labor, the avant-garde is an "artisanal" or "personal" mode. Avant-garde films tend to be made by individuals or very small groups of collaborators, financed either by the filmmakers alone or in combination with private patronage and grants from arts institutions. Such films are usually distributed through film cooperatives and exhibited by film societies, museums, and universities. Although the art-film director has more freedom to explore stylistic options, a story with recognizable characters must still be told, generally within a screening time of between 80 and 180 minutes, since in the end these are commercial films that must be exhibited on the art-house circuit. For these reasons, art-film narration has been characterized as a "domesticated modernism" and can be contrasted with the more radical departures from classical form found within the artisanal avant-garde. Modernist or avant-garde drama took modern drama a step farther by demonstrating that a plays' movement could be governed by something completely outside the triad that links motive to act, act to logical sequence of events, and logical outcome to divine or regal judgment. (Contains 10 notes.)