Movies about art
All movies about art, artists (painters in particular) that are out there and that stick with real historical facts.
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- DirectorJames IvoryStarsAnthony HopkinsNatascha McElhoneJulianne MooreThe passionate Merchant Ivory drama tells the story of Françoise Gilot (Natascha McElhone), the only lover of Pablo Picasso (Sir Anthony Hopkins) who was strong enough to withstand his ferocious cruelty, and move on with her life.
- DirectorMick DavisStarsAndy GarciaElsa ZylbersteinOmid DjaliliThe story of Amedeo Modigliani's bitter rivalry with Pablo Picasso, and his tragic romance with Jeanne Hebuterne.
- DirectorAgnès MerletStarsValentina CerviMichel SerraultPredrag 'Miki' ManojlovicArtemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653) was one of the first well-known female painters. The movie tells the story of her youth, when she was guided and protected by her father, the painter Orazio Gentileschi. Her professional curiosity about the male anatomy, forbidden for her eyes, led her to the knowledge of sexual pleasure. But she was also well known because in 1612 she had to appear in a courtroom because her teacher, Agostino Tassi, was suspected of raping her. She tried to protect him, but was put in the thumb screws...
- DirectorRaúl RuizStarsJohn MalkovichVeronica FerresStephen DillaneA portrait of Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, whose lavish, sexual paintings came to symbolize the art nouveau style of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
- DirectorJulian SchnabelStarsJeffrey WrightMichael WincottBenicio Del ToroThe brief life of Jean Michel Basquiat, a world renowned New York street artist struggling with fame, drugs and his identity.
- DirectorTim SafiullinStarsPaul ModerMax OrterAlexander HipwellJohn is at the crisis point of his life. He has a friend, Steve, who wants to help his friend to find stability and balance by showing him the art in the theater, the art which he never seen before.
- DirectorJulian SchnabelStarsJeffrey WrightMichael WincottBenicio Del ToroThe brief life of Jean Michel Basquiat, a world renowned New York street artist struggling with fame, drugs and his identity.
- DirectorJean-Michel VecchietStarsBruno BischofbergerKai EricMichael HolmanFrom Brooklyn to the Bronx, Soho to Greenwich, Union Square to Wall Street... Join us and the friends, collaborators and gallery owners who supported Jean-Michel Basquiat throughout his life. The first ever recognized graffiti artist, who saw international success as a neo-expressionist painter in the 80s, Basquiat is a true contemporary hero who died at the peak of his career.
- DirectorCarl HindmarchStarsSimon SchamaAllan CordunerSimon QuartermanMark Rothko, the Anglicized name of a Russian Jewish family which immigrated while he was a child to escape the abusive Cossacks, shortly before father's dead, initially followed the European painting tradition, but felt it failed to express the most meaningful emotions. After decades he developed an abstract style and got the reputation of the US's foremost painter by the 1950s, enough to be commissioned without contest a gigantic work for the Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram company's New York skyscraper, worth millions, which he ultimately turned down delivering, preferring patrons further from capitalism, which he distanced himself from. Simon highly esteems his work, often sets of abstract paintings each framing an empty space, supposedly the morbid window to a deep meaning. Ruthko's brooding finally lead him to suicide, after a life of chain-smoking already wrecking his health.
- StarsSimon SchamaAllan CordunerPaul PopplewellFocusing on eight iconic works of art, Power of Art reveals the history of visual imagination through the ages.
- DirectorEddie Saint-JeanStarsCleveland D. HerbertOli EastopJoe DobsonFive students are asked by their art teacher to write an imaginary letter to artist Mark Rothko as part of a creative exercise. Their unusual reactions to this request reveals their hidden selves and the fragility of the subconscious.
- DirectorEd HarrisStarsEd HarrisMarcia Gay HardenRobert KnottA film about the life and career of the American painter, Jackson Pollock.
- 1998–200046mNot Rated6.6 (117)TV EpisodeDirectorTeresa GriffithsStarsJackson PollockEd HarrisRuth KligmanA documentary about the life of artist Jackson Pollock.
- DirectorPeter LydonStarsF. Murray AbrahamClaire BloomThe story of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is an extraordinary seventeen year drama played out between some of the greatest names in American art and architectural history. Completed six months after the death of the visionary architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, the Guggenheim Museum is now considered one of the greatest buildings in the world. This film tells the secrets, drama, rivalry, bitterness, and achievement through letters, read by Abraham and Bloom, found in the principals' possession. It also shows the triumphant re-opening of the museum after a 1992 restoration and the addition of a new extension.
- DirectorThomas PiperDavid SamplinerRachel ShumanStarsRichard ArmstrongMatthew BarneyGuo-Qiang CaiTo celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Guggenheim's landmark New York building and to document the origins of its design, the museum and Second Floor Films have sourced rare archival footage and shot new interviews with notable artists, architects, historians and curators. While heavyweights like Frank Gehry and Jenny Holzer weigh in on the strong (and not so strong) points of Frank Lloyd Wright's revolutionary creation, historic and contemporary images of the building itself are what gives this film its heft and magic. After debuting in 2009, the film has screened at Guggenheim institutions around the world and is now shown regularly at the New York museum, giving visitors, at long last, a real sense of its inspired and tumultuous history.
- DirectorMark ChristopherStarsRyan PhillippeSalma HayekNeve CampbellThe famous 1970s New York City nightclub seen and told through the eyes of a young employee.
- DirectorKim EvansLana JokelStarsAndy WarholPaul MorrisseyVivaThe first major profile of the American Pop Art cult leader after his death in 1987 covers the whole of his life and work through interviews, clips from his films, and conversations with his family and superstar friends. Andy Warhol, the son of poor Czech immigrants, grew up in the industrial slums of Pittsburgh while dreaming of Hollywood stars. He went on to become a star himself.
- DirectorAntoni RibasStarsLorenzo QuinnSarah DouglasMichael CatlinBiography of famed artist Salvador Dali, focusing mainly on his relationship with girlfriend Gala and the time they spent in New York City in 1940 and his early days in Spain collaborating with filmmaker Luis Bunuel.
- DirectorHy AverbackStarsPeter SellersJo Van FleetLeigh Taylor-YoungA thirty-something square falls in love with a hippie and decides to "drop out" himself.
- DirectorDalibor MatanicStarsSanja VejnovicPredrag 'Miki' ManojlovicVili MatulaTrue story about the tragic life of a famous late 19th century deaf female Croatian watercolor painter Slava Raskaj.
- DirectorCarol ReedStarsCharlton HestonRex HarrisonDiane CilentoThe biographical story of Michelangelo's troubles while painting the Sistine Chapel at the urging of Pope Julius II.
- DirectorAndrei TarkovskyStarsAnatoliy SolonitsynIvan LapikovNikolay GrinkoThe life, times and afflictions of the fifteenth-century Russian iconographer St. Andrei Rublev.
- DirectorTim BurtonStarsAmy AdamsChristoph WaltzDanny HustonA drama about the awakening of painter Margaret Keane, her phenomenal success in the 1950s, and the subsequent legal difficulties she had with her husband, who claimed credit for her works in the 1960s.
- DirectorBruno NuyttenStarsIsabelle AdjaniGérard DepardieuMadeleine RobinsonCamille Claude impresses already-famous sculptor Auguste Rodin. He hires her as an assistant, but soon Camille begins to sculpt for herself and she also becomes his mistress. But after a while, she would like to get out of his shadow.
- DirectorBruno DumontStarsJuliette BinocheJessica ErreroRobert LeroyWinter, 1915. Confined by her family to an asylum in the South of France - where she will never sculpt again - the chronicle of Camille Claudel's reclusive life, as she waits for a visit from her brother, Paul Claudel.
- DirectorDerek JarmanStarsNoam AlmazDexter FletcherNigel TerryA retelling of the life of the celebrated 17th-century painter through his brilliant, nearly blasphemous paintings and his flirtations with the underworld.
- DirectorChristopher HamptonStarsEmma ThompsonJonathan PryceSteven WaddingtonThe platonic relationship between artist Dora Carrington (Dame Emma Thompson) and writer Lytton Strachey (Jonathan Pryce) in the early twentieth century.
- DirectorIm Kwon-taekStarsChoi Min-sikAhn Sung-kiYoo Ho-jeongIn a time of political and social unrest in nineteenth-century Korea, an uncouth, self-taught painter explores his natural talent amidst the repressive world around him.
- DirectorAlejandro JodorowskyStarsBrontis JodorowskyPamela FloresJeremias HerskovitsIn a little Chilean town, the son of an uprooted couple formed by a rigorous communist father and a loving but weak mother tries to pave his own path in a society that does not understand their Jewish-Ukrainian origins.
- DirectorSean MeredithStarsTony AbatemarcoScott AdsitMatt BesserA darkly comedic travelogue of the underworld - set against an all-too-familiar urban backdrop of used car lots, gated communities, strip malls, and the U.S. Capitol. And populated with a contemporary cast of reprobates, including famous - and infamous - politicians, presidents, popes, pimps. And the Prince of Darkness himself.
- DirectorPeter WatkinsStarsGeir WestbyGro FraasKerstii AllumThis biopic of Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch focuses on the influences that shaped his art, his devastating affair with a married woman that will haunt him for the rest of his life
- DirectorJulie TaymorStarsSalma HayekAlfred MolinaGeoffrey RushA biography of artist Frida Kahlo, who channeled the pain of a crippling injury and her tempestuous marriage into her work.
- DirectorGeorge HickenlooperStarsSienna MillerGuy PearceHayden ChristensenBased on the rise and fall of socialite Edie Sedgwick, concentrating on her relationships with Andy Warhol and a folk singer.
- DirectorVicente Alves do ÓStarsDalila CarmoIvo CanelasAlbano JerónimoShaken by a divorce in the 1920s, Portuguese poetess Florbela Espanca uses her writing to deal with her tumultuous relationship with men, eroticism and love.
- DirectorBob BalabanStarsJoan AllenJeremy IronsEd Begley Jr.Biopic of American artist Georgia O'Keeffe and her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz.
- DirectorPeter WebberStarsScarlett JohanssonColin FirthTom WilkinsonA young peasant maid working in the house of painter Johannes Vermeer becomes his talented assistant and the model for one of his most famous works.
- DirectorPeter GreenawayStarsRamsey NasrF. Murray AbrahamHendrik AertsHendrik Goltzius, a late-16th-century Dutch printer and engraver of erotic prints, seduces the Margrave of Alsace into paying for a printing press to make and publish illustrated books.
- DirectorCarlos SauraStarsFrancisco RabalJose CoronadoDafne FernándezFrancisco Goya (1746-1828), deaf and ill, lives the last years of his life in voluntary exile in Bordeaux, a Liberal protesting the oppressive rule of Ferdinand VII. He's living with his much younger wife Leocadia and their daughter Rosario. He continues to paint at night, and in flashbacks stirred by conversations with his daughter, by awful headaches, and by the befuddlement of age, he relives key times in his life, particularly his relationship with the Duchess of Alba, his discovery of how he wanted to paint (insight provided by Velázquez's work), and his lifelong celebration of the imagination. Throughout, his reveries become tableaux of his paintings.
- DirectorVincente MinnelliGeorge CukorStarsKirk DouglasAnthony QuinnJames DonaldThe life of brilliant but tortured artist Vincent van Gogh.
- DirectorKonrad WolfStarsDonatas BanionisOlivera KatarinaFred DürenAs a painter in the court of King Carlos IV, Goya - played by the great Lithuanian actor Donatas Banionis (The Red Tent, Solaris) - has attained wealth and reputation. He believes in King and Church, yet he is also a Spaniard who dearly loves his people. This contradiction presents him with a dilemma. Based on Lion Feuchtwanger's novel, Goya is one of ten East German films originally shot in 70mm. This release is the director's cut and shows the influence of great filmmakers from Buñuel and Saura, to Eisenstein. Goya was nominated for the Golden Prize at the 1971 Moscow International Film Festival.
- DirectorMilos FormanStarsJavier BardemNatalie PortmanStellan SkarsgårdPainter Francisco Goya faces a scandal involving his muse, who is labeled a heretic by a monk.
- DirectorLuciano SalceStarsMel FerrerRosanna SchiaffinoAdolfo Celi16th-century Spain, the famed Greek painter El Greco journeys to Toledo to paint an altarpiece. Trouble ensues when he falls in love with a beautiful local girl.
- DirectorYannis SmaragdisStarsNick Clark WindoJuan Diego BottoLaia MarullThe story of the uncompromising artist and fighter for freedom, Domenicos Theotokopoulos, known to the world as "El Greco".
- StarsRichard ArmitageJulian GloverWill Keen"Three hour mini-series tells the intimate history of a most illustrious brotherhood of Impressionist artists - Monet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne and Manet. Entirely based on documentary evidence, special effects transport the viewer inside some of the world's best-loved paintings, The Impressionists will recreate the illuminated landscapes, and haunting portraits of late 19th-century France."
- StarsWaldemar JanuszczakArt writer Waldemar Januszczak explores the revolutionary achievements of the Impressionists.
- Profoundly influenced by the Renaissance painters, Hilaire Degas pioneered precision of line and the use of the human form in space within the Impressionist school. This unique study of his life and times includes delightful new footage of the Royal Ballet, Birmingham, England.
- This program tells the story of one of the art world's most colorful characters. A true maverick and a highly controversial figure in his day, Edouard Manet became a father figure to the Impressionist movement because of his stand against the restrictions and conventions of the French salon.
- It was Claude Monet's impression "soleil levant" which gave the impressionist school it's name. Famed for seeing the subtle nuances of color, light and atmosphere in landscape, Monet's great works include "Haystacks" and "Water Lillies". This program features footage from L'Orangerie and from Monet's house and gardens at Giverny plus special film shot at London's Savoy Hotel, from where Monet painted his famous views of London.
- This is the story of the life and work of Camille Pissarro, the West-Indian born leader of the original Impressionists and the only artist from that school to exhibit at all eight of the exhibitions from 1874 to 1886. Pissaro's great works include the famous Boulevard Montmarte which hangs today in the National Gallery, London.
- Pierre August Renoir's brilliant Le Moulin de la Gallette created immense controversy in its day. Famous for his use of hot reds, orange and gold to portray nudes in sunlight, Renoir's later life was blighted by arthritis, which crippled his hands. This fascinating story of a man and his work includes a visit to the artist's home.
- This program is a profile of Georges Pierre Seurat, the inventor of the technique known as Pointillism in which a whole picture is made up of tiny rectangles of pure color, which merge together when viewed from afar.
- 1987– TV-G7.9 (101)TV EpisodeDirectorBruce AlfredOverview of the strange and prolific relationship between Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. Includes interviews with leading art historians and images from the "Studio of the South" in Arles.
- DirectorBobby SheehanStarsMat GleasonJeff Koons
- DirectorAlison ChernickA documentary on the life and work of artist Jeff Koons, told through the perspective of Koons himself, curators, gallerists, and fellow artists (Chuck Close, Julian Schnabel, etc.).
- StarsPhilippe LeroyGiulio BosettiGiorgio PiazzaMiniseries dramatizing the life of the Italian Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519).
- DirectorMichael BousonStarsNick RobertsMichael DunbarPaul SharrattExtraordinary works of art fill museums and art galleries around the world. Art captivates us by allowing us to see the world through someone else's eyes. People spend their lives creating it, collecting it, and critiquing it. Why are we more inspired by one piece of work than another? What is this fascination we have with art? Humans have been creating art since the beginning of time but rarely do we come across an artist with the genius of Leonardo DaVinci. Who was Leonardo DaVinci? Artist? Inventor? Engineer? Architect? Scientist? Mathematician? Musician? Designer? Writer? Raconteur? And how is it that Leonardo DaVinci continues to capture our attention and stump the scholars five centuries after his death? This insightful and entertaining documentary attempts to piece together the many clues the maestro left behind in his diary and masterpieces to create an accurate portrait of this legendary and very private man. Expert interviews with the very people who have been entrusted with preserving Leonardo DaVinci's legacy are intertwined with dramatic reenactments that thoughtfully demonstrate the very human qualities of this often misunderstood genius. Rounding out this tribute to the original "Renaissance Man" are interviews with some of the leading artists, inventors, architects and musicians of our time reflecting on the impact Leonardo DaVinci had on their fields, their careers and their lives.
- StarsFlavio BucciAlessandro HaberEnzo RobuttiLigabue is a 1978 Italian biographical drama film of the life of the artist Antonio Ligabue (1899-1965). It traces his birth in Switzerland, mental break down and emergence as a naive artist in the 1950s.
- DirectorPaul MorrisonStarsRobert PattinsonJavier BeltránMatthew McNultyAbout the young life and loves of artist Salvador Dalí, filmmaker Luis Buñuel and writer Federico García Lorca.
- DirectorJohn MayburyStarsDerek JacobiDaniel CraigTilda SwintonBiography of British painter Francis Bacon focuses on his relationship with his lover, George Dyer, a former small time crook.
- DirectorDavid HintonStarsFrancis BaconMelvyn Bragg
- DirectorJames NortonStarsMelvyn Bragg
- DirectorZach EastmanStarsJefferson ArcaZach EastmanAndy HankinsA veteran radio star struggles with the transition from radio to television in the mid 1950s.
- DirectorJacques BeckerStarsGérard PhilipeLilli PalmerAnouk AiméeAbout the last years of the life of the great artist Modigliani. A poor Italian artist suffering from alcoholism and opium addiction falls in love with Jeanne, a girl from a wealthy family whose parents are categorically against it.
- DirectorLech MajewskiStarsRutger HauerMichael YorkCharlotte RamplingThis movie focuses on a dozen of the five hundred characters depicted in Bruegel's painting. The theme of Christ's suffering is set against religious persecution in Flanders in 1564.
- DirectorKazuo UmezuStarsAinosuke KataokaKimie ShingyôjiMimi MaihaneThis is an autobiographical flick that details incidents that occur even as a publishing company is working on a book on Umezu' s life.Chief editor,Sakura, is aware of the overwhelming influence that ,Ichie, Umezu's mother had on his life.As the publishing company digs further into Umezu's life bizarre events occur creating dread and confusion.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsJosé FerrerZsa Zsa GaborSuzanne FlonFictional account of French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
- DirectorMike LeighStarsTimothy SpallPaul JessonDorothy AtkinsonAn exploration of the last quarter century of the great, if eccentric, British painter J.M.W. Turner's life.
- DirectorJim SheridanStarsDaniel Day-LewisBrenda FrickerAlison WhelanChristy Brown, born with cerebral palsy, learns to paint and write with his only controllable limb - his left foot.
- DirectorHenry KosterStarsAva GardnerAnthony FranciosaAmedeo NazzariLove takes precedence over art and politics as Spanish painter Goya pines for an aloof duchess.
- DirectorPeter GreenawayStarsMartin FreemanEmily HolmesEva BirthistleAn extravagant, exotic and moving look at Rembrandt's romantic and professional life, and the controversy he created by the identification of a murderer in the painting 'The Night Watch'.
- DirectorMario AndreacchioStarsKiefer SutherlandNastassja KinskiAlun ArmstrongA successful 19th century French stockbroker (Sutherland) leaves his profession to become an artist in Paris.
- DirectorBille AugustStarsBirgitte Hjort SørensenSøren Sætter-LassenSverrir GudnasonThe story of the marriage between the painters Marie and P.S. Krøyer.
- DirectorRobert SallinSerge BourguignonStarsAlbert FinneyYvette MimieuxLuis Miguel DominguínA San Francisco couple travels to France in search of Pablo Picasso.
- DirectorZeljko SenecicStarsSenka BulicAna KaricBranko BlaceLife and times of Josip Racic, young and talented Croatian painter from the beginning of 20th Century, who went to Paris to seek fortune and died there in mysterious circumstances.
- DirectorYun-su JeonStarsKim Gyu-riYeong-ho KimKim Nam-gilBorn to a family of established court painters, a woman is forced to carry on her family name and take over her brother's life after he commits suicide.
- DirectorAlexander KordaStarsCharles LaughtonGertrude LawrenceElsa LanchesterThe respected painter takes to drink and faces down scandal after his wife dies.
- DirectorHans SteinhoffStarsEwald BalserHertha FeilerGisela Uhlen
- DirectorGerard RuttenStarsAnny de LangeJan de VrijPaul MeyerThe life of Rembrandt van Rijn, famous Dutch painter.
- StarsRolf HarrisGerald ScarfeWalter LewisRolf Harris looks at the lives of some of his favourite artists.
- Masterworks under the microscope View masterpieces as you've never seen them before This exceptional series documents the Louvre's study days, in which works by five major artists--Rembrandt, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Watteau, and Poussin--were collected together, removed from their frames, and set on easels, replicating the feel of an artist's studio. Curators, historians, restorers, and scientists from around the world came to examine and discuss them in total freedom. Looking through their eyes and listening in on their conversations, we observe the restorations, repairs, and often capricious changes made over the centuries. From up close, we see the faint lines where the artist changed his mind, witness how time has ravaged the canvases, and debate the evidence that a master painted a particular work. Engaging animations explain and simplify complex language and concepts. By revealing what isn't meant to be seen, this fascinating series shows that art is more than meets the eye.
- DirectorChris MullingtonStarsLynne Adams
- StarsTim MarlowA major 25 part television series in which art historian Tim Marlow takes a fresh look at the most important artworks of some of the greatest artists in history. Shot on location in over 50 galleries, museums, churches and palaces throughout Europe and the United States, this series is a comprehensive survey of the history of Western art. Both intelligent and informative, the series aims to provide an uncomplicated and accessible analysis of the works and artists featured including Giotto, Michelangelo and Raphael.
- StarsFiona BrucePhilip MouldBendor GrosvenorFiona Bruce and Philip Mould investigate mysteries behind paintings. A picture up for auction is suspected of having been stolen. Could it really be a Rembrandt?
- StarsFiona BrucePhilip MouldBendor GrosvenorJournalist Fiona Bruce teams up with art expert Philip Mould to investigate mysteries behind paintings.
- DirectorGilles BourdosStarsMichel BouquetChrista ThéretVincent RottiersSet on the French Riviera in the summer of 1915, Jean Renoir -- son of the Impressionist painter, Pierre-Auguste -- returns home to convalesce after being wounded in World War I. At his side is Andrée, a young woman who rejuvenates, enchants, and inspires both father and son.
- DirectorKen RussellStarsDorothy TutinScott AntonyHelen MirrenBiographical movie of the French sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska.
- DirectorMartin ProvostStarsYolande MoreauUlrich TukurAnne BennentIn 1912 German collector Wilhelm Uhde rents a flat in Senlis to write and take a break from Parisian life. He hires a 48-year old cleaning lady, Séraphine. Some time later, he notices a small painting on wood at a local notable home.
- DirectorFernando Nogueira
- DirectorEric KhooStarsTetsuya BesshoMotoko GollentYoshihiro TatsumiA story based on the life and short stories of Yoshihiro Tatsumi, a mangaka known for his gekiga style of alternate Japanese manga.
- DirectorM.F. HussainMade by M. F. Hussain who belongs to the progressive group of painters, this experimental film presents the painter's images of Rajasthan, through cinema.
- DirectorKenji MizoguchiStarsMinosuke BandôKinuyo TanakaKôtarô BandôUtamaro is a great artist who lives to create portraits of beautiful women, using the brothels of Tokyo to provide his models.
- DirectorMaurice PialatStarsJacques DutroncAlexandra LondonBernard Le CoqThe final sixty-seven days of Van Gogh's life are examined.
- DirectorPaul CoxStarsJohn HurtMarika RiveraGabriella TrsekThis documentary, on the life of artist Vincent Van Gogh, is told through his letters to his brother Theo, from 1872 until his tragic death. We gain first hand insight into the man, his motivations, and his humanity.
- DirectorRobert AltmanStarsTim RothPaul RhysAdrian BrineThe familiar tragic story of Vincent van Gogh is broadened by focusing as well on his brother Theodore, who helped support Vincent. The movie also provides a nice view of the locations which Vincent painted.
- DirectorBanksyStarsBanksyMr. BrainwashSpace InvaderFollowing the style of some of the world's most prolific street artists, an amateur filmmaker makes a foray into the art world.