Art and Film Research

Here are some notes I've made while thinking and researching about how art and film are connected. I believe it is useful for me to understand as my film is about the sublime.

The Big Combo, 1955, Director - Joseph H. Lewis; Cinematographer - John Alton

Film Noir is not so much a genre as a film style with many of its roots in Art.

The Denial of St Peter, 1610, Caravaggio

While looking at the connection between art and film I have found out that  a lot of directors have taken inspiration from artist. A couple of examples that I found are below.

 

Nosferatu, F. W. Murnau, 1922 > Kirchner, Potsdamer Platz, 1914

Edward Hopper – House on a hill 1920 > Still from 'Psycho' – Alfred Hitchcock

24 hour psycho (1993) - Douglas Gordon > Psycho (1960) - Alfred Hitchcock

“It takes about five minutes to even get an idea of what scene you are watching, yet even at that point it isn’t clear what’s actually going on. When viewers first walk in, they look at the screen, then at the viewers, then move toward the viewers and then join them, looking around to see if they understand what is happening. There’s a definite moment when you can tell if a viewer can understand what they’re looking at — it’s in their faces. There’s an instantaneous moment of recognition, which can be interpreted as the point of the video.” – Sara Palmer

Other artists and video-artists I have looked at:

Measures of Distance (1988) - Mona Hatoum

Reading aloud from letters sent by her mother in Beirut, Hatoum creates a visual montage reflecting her feelings of separation and isolation from her Palestinian family. The personal and political are inextricably bound in a narrative that explores personal and family identity against a backdrop of traumatic social rupture, exile and displacement. The film is of her mother taking a shower.

Soliloquy (1998) Sam Taylor-Wood > The Rokeby Venus (1647 - 51) - Valezquez

Tony Oursler

Doing this research has helped me link the two subjects. I will know try and find more films has have links to other paintings and art works as well as trying my hands at my own video art.