High and low-brow in Werckmeister Harmonies

I won't go into detail about the film in the title (more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werckmeister_Harmonies) but rather make an observation about it.

It is a film that is pretty much a gold standard for European Art cinema: the director is a recognized auteur, it is shot in b/w, most of the actors are not professional, it has very long takes and develops at a slow pace, is fairly cryptic in its meaning and themes and wasn't made to be part of an established film distribution chain ending up in multiplexes. So, it is a high-brow film in all aspects, save for one.

The main plot element is the arrival in a small village of a circus that features only a stuffed whale and a mysterious firebrand orator called The Prince. The result of their presence is that the village goes into temporary destructive madness. Sounds original? Yes it does, because there's nothing quite like it in high-brow literature or film (save the book it was based on of course). But if we look to lower-brow literature, to a book called The King in Yellow, we will see exactly the same overall plot -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_in_Yellow.

The sheer brilliance of this film, combining elements from both high and low-brow art, is undeniable and I think it's exactly because of these mixture that it works so well. Is that then the solution to an art cinema that is sometimes too hermetic even for those who appreciate it?