Films about Artists & Art (Documentaries & Fiction)
Works about artists and/or art. Includes documentaries (feature-length and mini-series), biopics, tv shows and fictional films, whether about an artist or involving the subject of art. Ranges from the fine arts to music, architecture, design, film, performance art and art history.
The critical quality and historical accuracy of this list is pretty wide ranging, as fictional works about real artists, historical periods and events tend to take creative liberties and may not (depending on the research, intentions and bias of the filmmaker/producers) be reliable when it comes to facts in the narrative and accuracy in design choices. But they can most certainly inspire people to look further into the topic at hand, and be entertaining works in their own right.
Similar to my list on Letterboxd, which includes more films.
Enjoy!
The critical quality and historical accuracy of this list is pretty wide ranging, as fictional works about real artists, historical periods and events tend to take creative liberties and may not (depending on the research, intentions and bias of the filmmaker/producers) be reliable when it comes to facts in the narrative and accuracy in design choices. But they can most certainly inspire people to look further into the topic at hand, and be entertaining works in their own right.
Similar to my list on Letterboxd, which includes more films.
Enjoy!
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- DirectorMilos FormanStarsF. Murray AbrahamTom HulceElizabeth BerridgeThe life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by Antonio Salieri, the contemporaneous composer who was deeply jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him.
- DirectorThomas RiedelsheimerStarsAndy GoldsworthyAnna GoldsworthyHolly GoldsworthyPortrait of Andy Goldsworthy, an artist whose specialty is ephemeral sculptures made from elements of nature.
- DirectorAleksandr SokurovStarsSergey DreydenMariya KuznetsovaLeonid MozgovoyA 19th century French aristocrat, notorious for his scathing memoirs about life in Russia, travels through the Russian State Hermitage Museum and encounters historical figures from the last 200+ years.
- DirectorJames MarshStarsPhilippe PetitJean François HeckelJean-Louis BlondeauA look at tightrope walker Philippe Petit's daring, but illegal, high-wire routine performed between New York City's World Trade Center's twin towers in 1974, what some consider, "the artistic crime of the century".
- 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.
- 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.
- DirectorJem CohenStarsMary Margaret O'HaraBobby SommerEla PiplitsWhen a Vienna museum guard befriends an enigmatic visitor, the grand Kunsthistorisches Art Museum becomes a mysterious crossroads that sparks explorations of their lives, the city, and the ways in which works of art reflect and shape the world.
- 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
- StarsMark CousinsJuan Diego BottoAleksandr SokurovA comprehensive history of the medium and art of motion pictures.
- DirectorJohn MaloofCharlie SiskelStarsVivian MaierJohn MaloofDaniel ArnaudA documentary on the late Vivian Maier, a nanny whose previously unknown cache of 100,000 photographs earned her a posthumous reputation as one of the most accomplished street photographers.
- DirectorRichard BergeBonni CohenNicole NewnhamStarsJoan AllenE. Randol SchoenbergMaria AltmannThe story of Nazi Germany's plundering of Europe's great works of art during World War II and Allied efforts to minimize the damage.
- 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.
- DirectorMegumi SasakiStarsPaula AntebiWill BarnetRobert BarryHerb and Dorothy Vogel redefine what it means to be an art collector.
- DirectorJohn W. WalterStarsJoseph IalacciRichard FeigenFrances BeattyInterviews with Christo, Chuck Close, Roy Lichtenstein, Judith Malina, James Rosenquist and others help illuminate the life and work of Warhol contemporary Ray Johnson.
- DirectorTonino GuerraAndrei TarkovskyStarsTonino GuerraLora JabloskinaAndrei TarkovskyAcclaimed Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky and his screenwriter Tonino Guerra travel all over Italy to scout locations for the film Nostalghia.
- DirectorFreida Lee MockStarsMaya LinA film about the work of the artist most famous for her monuments such as the Vietnam Memorial Wall and the Civil Rights Fountain Memorial.
- DirectorAleksandr SokurovStarsLouis-Do de LencquesaingBenjamin UtzerathVincent NemethA history of the Louvre during the Nazi occupation and a meditation on the meaning and timelessness of art.
- DirectorAleksandr SokurovStarsAleksandr SokurovFrom a misty night into the dark exposition rooms of a museum to ponder philosophically at paintings by 'Pieter Jansz Saenredam', 'Hercules Pieterszoon Seghers', Hendrikus van de Sande Bakhuyzen, Andreas Schelfhout, Vincent van Gogh, Pieter Bruegel, Charles Henri Joseph Leickert.
- DirectorVincente MinnelliGeorge CukorStarsKirk DouglasAnthony QuinnJames DonaldThe life of brilliant but tortured artist Vincent van Gogh.
- DirectorMatthew AkersJeff DupreStarsMarina AbramovicUlayKlaus BiesenbachA documentary that follows the Serbian performance artist as she prepares for a retrospective of her work at The Museum of Modern Art in New York.
- CreatorPerry Miller AdatoStarsMichael WoodGermano CelantRosalind KraussProvides a panorama of 2000 years of architecture, painting and sculpture, and studies the art masterpieces as reflections of the Western culture that produced them.
- DirectorEd HarrisStarsEd HarrisMarcia Gay HardenRobert KnottA film about the life and career of the American painter, Jackson Pollock.
- 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.
- DirectorGiuseppe TornatoreStarsPhilippe NoiretEnzo CannavaleAntonella AttiliA filmmaker recalls his childhood when falling in love with the pictures at the cinema of his home village and forms a deep friendship with the cinema's projectionist.
- 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.