While the biography of artists has inspired numerous fictions and documentaries, the universe of art itself has also been the driving force behind countless films and approaches such as The Russian Ark (2002), directed by Aleksandr Sokurov, a nearly two-hour tour of the beauty and majesty of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, in -incredibly- a single shot.
Scene from "The Russian Ark".
Also, Museum Hours, by Jem Cohen, focuses on one of the room attendants of the Vienna Museum of Art History, who spends the whole day next to the creations of Pieter Brueghel the Elder when he meets Anne, a woman with whom he strikes up a sort of friendship.
And let's not forget that the art of Argentine playwright Lola Arias also appears on screen: the fiction The Square is a satire of the art world, directed by Ruben Östlund and starring actress Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid's Tale), who plays a journalist who interviews the director of a museum in Stockholm, where an exhibition by Arias is about to be inaugurated -it's pure fiction-.
1. Frida Kahlo
In Argentina, Frida, viva la vida, a six-episode documentary directed by Italian Giovanni Troilo (in its original language La Due Frida, 2019), a journey to the heart of Mexico with exclusive interviews, period documents such as her letters or diaries and famous self-portraits, was scheduled for release in March. Through the voice of Asia Argento this docufiction delves into "the woman who turned herself into a work of art", and who was transformed into a pop icon, a symbol of feminism and artistic revolution but also who fought against her own fragility and suffering, born on July 6, 1907 in Coyoacan, exactly 113 years ago.
But beyond this docudrama that postponed its release, there is the 2002 film Frida, starring Salma Hayek in the role of the Mexican painter. The film was nominated for six Oscars, of which it won two.
Actress Salma Hayek in the role of the artist Frida Kahlo.
2. Salvador Dalí
At the end of February of this year, Salvador Dali: In Search of Immortality, a documentary by Spanish director David Pujol, was released in Argentina. The film traces the life and work of the famous surrealist painter through the main scenes of his life (Portlligat, Figueres, Púbol) and in which the director dared to predict that "Salvador Dali would be today an influencer of the 21st century".
The Catalan painter Salvador Dali.
3. Vincent Van Gogh
One of the most beautiful animated films in the art universe, Loving Vincent (2018) by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman, was made entirely with animated paintings, a work that demanded several years and artists, and that recreates the days after the death of the great painter through all his paintings. It is the first film in the history of cinema made in oil, through 65,000 animated stills, hand-painted by artists from all over the world, in which the fictitious young Armand must deliver to Theo the last letter written by his brother Vincent before his death, which happened 130 years ago, on July 29, 1890.
A scene of “Loving Vincent”.
Also in 2018, another film dedicated to the biography of the Dutch artist author of The Starry Night and Pitcher with Twelve Sunflowers was released: the French At Eternity's Gate (Van Gogh, at the gates of eternity) directed by Julian Schnabel and starring Willem Dafoe, focused on the time the artist spent in France in 1886, where he met Paul Gauguin and painted the most outstanding masterpieces of his career.
4. J.M.W. Turner
The film Mr. Turner (2014) recreates in dramatic fiction the life of the romantic English painter, dedicated to evoke landscapes with an exquisite use of light and color, who despite his fame, is the victim of public ridicule and sarcasm of society. Directed by Mike Leigh and starring Timothy Spall. The painter had his retrospective exhibition two years ago at the Museum of Fine Arts.
A scene of "Mr. Turner".
5. Gustav Klimt
American actor John Malkovich played Gustav Klimt in the fictional film Klimt (2006) directed by Raoul Ruiz that shows the author in his native Vienna, where Austria's most prominent symbolist painter is accused of being a provocateur, in his quest to separate himself from academic art and in the midst of his numerous love affairs.
Actor John Malkovich played Klimt.
6. Auguste Renoir
"Pain fades but beauty remains", is perhaps one of the key phrases of the French film Renoir (2012), based on the life of French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, which narrates the moment when he loses his wife, his son falls wounded in battle and when a young woman appears who inspires him to continue painting.
A scene of "Renoir".
7. Jackson Pollock
Starring Ed Harris, Pollock is a 2000 fiction film that chronicles the complex personality and addictions of the American painter and the time in his life when he became one of the most prominent painters of the twentieth century, between his entry into the art world in the 1940s until his death in 1956.
The actor Ed Harris, played Pollock.
8. Diane Arbus
Starring Nicole Kidman, the drama Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006) offers a loose adaptation of the life and work of American photographer Diane Arbus, who falls in love with Lionel Sweeney, an enigmatic mentor who introduces Arbus to the outcasts who will become part of her well-known portraits.
Nicole Kidman played Diane Arbus.
9. Leonardo Da Vinci
Expectation must also have been put on hold in the face of the Leonardo da Vinci biopic, a film that will star Leonardo di Caprio, scripted by John Logan and based on the biography by Walter Isaacson, who delved into the thousands of manuscripts left by the Renaissance genius to get closer to his intimacy. All that is known so far is that Paramount won a bidding war in 2018 against Universal Pictures for the rights to adapt the biography in which Isaacson presents Leonardo as a voraciously curious, imaginative, enthusiastic, a bit of a misfit, vegetarian, left-handed and prone to distraction. In any case, until this film arrives, the Italian genius has dozens of documentaries and films about his life, such as Renato Castellani's film The Life of Leonardo Da Vinci (1971).
"La Gioconda", Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece.
10. David Alfaro Siqueiros
The Mural (2010), by Argentine director Hector Olivera, deals with the incredible work that painter David Alfaro Siqueiros created in 1933 in a basement of a country house in Don Torcuato, with the help of Lino Enea Spilimbergo, Antonio Berni, Castagnino and Enrique Lazaro.
Actor Bruno Bachir as David Siqueiros in a scene from " The Mural" by Argentine director Hector Olivera.
Taken from www.clarin.com