When Film Meets Art.

Since art inspires cinema and cinema inspires art I, as a lover of both art and cinema, wanted to research how much art has influenced the past and current film-industry, the importance of art, and how it is implemented in films. 

The Importance of Art

Most of us consider art to include literary art, performing art, and visual arts. So, what a lot of artists do is tell stories. They try to help us make sense of our world, broaden our experience and understanding. The arts help us to imagine the unimaginable and to connect us to the past, the present, and the future.

Great literature, films, and music can send us through different cultures and it even allows us to see ourselves and our own culture from a different perspective. Journalist Walter Isaacson says that science will give us empirical facts, but it is the artists who turn the facts into stories with moral, emotional, and spiritual meanings. Which to me, does not feel that he is wrong. Art gives meaning to the data science gives us.

How Artwork gets into movies

The fundamental task of decorating a set requires working with real artists and navigating your way through copyright laws. For any project finding good fitting artwork can be a real challenge. This is the reason why many movie-directors hang commissioned work from a more local based painter or artist, than an original. Ellen Brill, an eight-time Emmy nominated set decorator, says the following: “Art is one of the hardest parts of what we do for film, it really is.”

Artwork generally enters the public domain 70 years after the artist’s death – under the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998. Until that time, the artist or their estate remain the main operator of the usage of their artwork.

Filmmaking and Art

Whether you consider movies to be an art form or a simple money grabber, the undeniable presence film has in the art universe is big. So, filmmaking and art seem to go hand in hand. Paintings and photos have been the inspirations for directors to create certain scenes, writers use it as a foundation for their screenplays, and cinematographers use the art for their camera composition.

Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining

A big example of where filmmaking meets art is from the movie The Shining. Do you know the scene where the twins in the hallway are holding hands? That scene was influenced by an art piece from Diane Arbus, 1967. The Shining is a movie, based on the Stephen King novel, that’s considered to be one of the scariest and sinister movie of all time, it is one of the defining horror films. Stanley Kubrick, the director, thought about many ways to make his take on the horror genre an experience no one would ever forget. The twins Danny sees in the hallway are a very important ingredient of the film’s eerie nature. The Diane Arbus photography from 1967 serves as an inspiration to the twins no one ever really forgets after watching the film.

Online questionnaire: what movie made you realize how valuable art is for you, and how did art help you shape your worldview?

After taking a second to brainstorm Michael and Sara answered the following: Being there, Lust for life, and Color Purple. Even though these movies were very different, each movie did depict a certain extraordinary outcast who perseveres. Which is a very promising premise and story you want to tell, and maybe influence some people with. Which is what art is all about, after all. Sara also noted that: “art really changed her mind about art.” These movies helped her, just by being art by itself.

Salman was very quick to say that the movies Moonlight and Waves – both from the same studio – were good artistic pieces on their own. He describes that the compositions, colors, and storylines are just exactly what it needs to be.

Michelle thinks that the Netflix show Reign – considering the usage of both paintings and historical facts – has changed her outlook on art and its influences on movies and shows. She describes that it really depicts how fast and sudden times can change.