Movies Inspired by Art - 7 Movies Inspired Lives of Artists
7 Movies Inspired by Artists' Lives
Art has been around for as long as man has existed. The ancient art is not preserved and has been lost over time, but we can be sure that it has existed.
Art is a medium of expression, and humans have been creating something or the other to express themselves since eternity.
There are a few artists and a few artworks in the last couple of centuries, so impactful that depictions of them or mentions of them have been made in movies around the world.
We have listed some of the most famous art-based movies
1. Loving Vincent
This 2017 movie is an animated biographical drama based on the life of the painter Vincent van Gogh and the circumstances of his death. First produced as a seven-minute short film in 2008, The Loving Vincent team spent years working over 120 of Vincent’s paintings into the film. It is the first fully painted animated feature film.
This movie is highly acclaimed because every one of the 65,000 frames of the film is an oil-painting hand-painted by 125 professional oil painters.
2. Midnight in Paris
Released in 2011, this movie follows a young man from the present day who travels back in time to Paris in the 1920s, when the time was ripe for artists. Our protagonist runs into artists like Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. He gets writing advice from Hemingway, gets Gertrude Stein to read his manuscript, and falls in love with Picasso’s mistress. He meets Salvador Dalí, T. S. Eliot, Djuna Barnes, Josephine Baker, Luis Buñuel, Man Ray, and others.
3. The Agony and the Ecstasy
This movie is a biographical chronicle of Michelangelo and the opposition he faces from Pope Julius II while painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. A project that Michelangelo takes up begrudgingly becomes one of the best works of his life.
4. Lust for Life
Lust for Life is a 1956 drama movie about the life of the painter Vincent Van Gogh. It follows the hardships that he faced in life. It is based on the letters that were exchanged between the van Gogh brothers, Vincent and Theo.
People close to Van Gogh, like Paul Gauguin, are among the major characters in the movie. The movie explores the origins of some of the most famous Van Gogh paintings like The Potato Eaters and Sunflowers. The movie explores Van Gogh's life and how he began his journey as a painter and how he dies as a painter.
5. Pollock
This 2000 American biographical film tells the life story of the famous Abstract artist Jackson Pollock, a small-time painter and drunkard who stays with his brother in New York. However, his life changes when he meets artist Lee Krasner, who he later marries. Although there was a giant overlap between their two styles, the relationship somewhat overshadowed her contribution for some time.
Jackson Pollock is a prominent figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his "drip technique" of pouring liquid paint onto a horizontal surface and tending to use the force of his whole body to paint.
6. Big eyes
This 2014 film is about the life of American artist Margaret Keane. She was famous for painting and drawing portraits of people with big eyes. The story revolves around a trial between her and her husband Walter Keane, who took credit for her famous art pieces. Margaret reveals a lot later that the pieces were actually hers and hence, begins the trial.
7. Frida
This 2002 American biographical drama film depicts the professional and private aspects of the life of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Frida lived a tumultuous life. A traumatic accident at the age of 18 paved the way for a lifetime full of health problems. Her journey as an artist also began as an aftermath of this accident, when her father encouraged her to paint while she was bedridden.
The movie has various scenes that start as a shot of one of Kahlo's real-life paintings before dissolving into a scene with actors. The film shows her journey as an artist and her dysfunctional marriage with her husband, Diego Rivera. The film ends with a sequence of Kahlo sleeping in her bed as it is consumed by flames as the screen fades into a painting of the fire.
Now that we have given the art lover in you a watch list, check out these masterpieces to learn more about the impeccably interesting lives that these artists have led!
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