Subgenre Sampler

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Resistance (2020): Dir. Jonathan Jakubowicz
Feat. Jesse Eisenberg, Clemence Poesy, Géza Röhrig…; Handsomely mounted biopic based on the life of Marcel Marceau. Jesse Eisenberg impresses as the mime artist who fought for the French Jewish…
Burnt Orange Heresy, The (2019): Dir. Giuseppe Capotondi
Feat. Claes Bang, Elizabeth Debicki, Mick Jagger…; Sophisticated crime thriller set in the privileged world of fine art, where an art critic (Claes Bang, who played the unfortunate gallery curator in…
Mapplethorpe (2019): Dir. Ondi Timoner
Feat. Matt Smith, Marianne Rendon, John Benjamin Hickey; Biopic of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, with Matt Smith portraying the brilliantly provocative photographer and gay icon.
Marriage Story (2019): Dir. Noah Baumbach
Feat. Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Laura Dern…; A brutal, funny and at times almost unbearably insightful depiction of the divorce of an upper class stage director and actress (played brilliantly…
Mrs Lowry & Son (2019): Dir. Adrian Noble
Feat. Vanessa Redgrave, Timothy Spall; The life of the renowned British artist L. S. Lowry is the subject of this entertaining biopic, with Timothy Spall and Vanessa Redgrave superb as the…
Souvenir, The (2019): Dir. Joanna Hogg
Feat. Honor Swinton Byrne, Tom Burke, Tilda Swinton; Brilliantly observed and fiercely unconventional drama from writer–director Joanna Hogg (EXHIBITION) introspectively exploring the life of a…
Tolkien (2019): Dir. Dome Karukoski
Feat. Nicholas Hoult, Lily Collins, Colm Meaney…; An accomplished dramatisation of the formative years of the orphaned author J.R.R. Tolkien (LORD OF THE RINGS) as he finds friendship, love and…
At Eternity's Gate (2018): Dir. Julian Schnabel
Feat. Willem Dafoe, Rupert Friend, Mads Mikkelsen…; Immersive, naturalistic portrait of Van Gogh during the time he lived in Arles and Auvers–sur–Oise, France. Directed by Julian Schnabel…
Final Portrait (2017): Dir. Stanley Tucci
Feat. Geoffrey Rush, Armie Hammer, Clemence Poesy…; The chaos and beauty of the artistic process is examined in this biopic about world–renowned artist Alberto Giacometti (Geoffrey Rush),…
Gauguin: Voyage de Tahiti (2017): Dir. Edouard Deluc
Feat. Vincent Cassel; Vincent Cassel delivers a committed, absorbing performance as French painter Paul Gauguin. Set in 1891, when Gauguin exiled himself to Tahiti to…
Interlude in Prague (2017): Dir. John Stephenson
Feat. Aneurin Barnard, James Purefoy, Samantha Barks; Period drama for those who loved AMADEUS, set in Prague in 1787, where Mozart has relocated to create his masterpiece Don Giovanni. But his presence…
Loving Vincent (2017): Dir. Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman; Lovingly crafted portrait of Vincent Van Gogh uniquely rendered in oil painted animation. The film follows the endeavours of a young man whose…
Family Fang, The (2016): Dir. Jason Bateman
Feat. Nicole Kidman, Jason Bateman, Kathryn Hahn…; The Fang siblings, raised by performance artist parents, return home as adults with their own artistic careers in this art–world family…
Manifesto (2016): Dir. Julian Rosefeldt
Feat. Cate Blanchett; Brilliantly conceived and executed homage to the tradition of artist manifestos, which poses intelligent questions about the role of the artist in…
Maudie (2016): Dir. Aisling Walsh
Feat. Ethan Hawke, Sally Hawkins, Kari Matchett…; An arthritic Nova Scotia woman works as a housekeeper while she hones her skills as an artist and eventually becomes a beloved figure in the…
Call My Agent (TV Series) (Dix pour cent) (2015): Feat. Camille Cottin, Liliane Rovere, Thibault de Montalembert; French TV drama set in a talent agency and following the lives of the agents as they combine art with business and juggle their private and…
Francofonia (2015): Dir. Alexandr Sokurov
Feat. Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Benjamin Utzerath; A richly evocative and insightful historical cine–essay from celebrated dir. Alexander Sokurov (RUSSIAN ARK) that charts the relationship…
Woman in Gold (2015): Dir. Simon Curtis
Feat. Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds, Daniel Brühl…; Helen Mirren elevates this polished if prosaic dramatisation of an elderly Jewish woman who teams with a rookie lawyer (Reynolds) to seek restorative…
Big Eyes (2014): Dir. Tim Burton
Feat. Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Danny Huston…; Director Tim Burton refreshingly breaks with fantasy for this resplendent biopic of painter Margaret Keane, whose prolific and popular work was…
Effie Gray (2014): Dir. Richard Laxton
Feat. Dakota Fanning, Greg Wise, Tom Sturridge…; Written by Emma Thompson, this highly respectable period drama looks at the scandalous love triangle between Victorian art critic John Ruskin, his…
Mr. Turner (2014): Dir. Mike Leigh
Feat. Timothy Spall, Paul Jesson, Dorothy Atkinson…; Mike Leigh directs Timothy Spall in this acclaimed exploration of the last quarter century of the great, if eccentric, British painter J.M.W.…
Best Offer, The (2013): Dir. Giuseppe Tornatore
Feat. Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess, Donald Sutherland…; An obsessive antiques dealer becomes entangled with an heiress who asks him appraise a series of family art works in this baroque mystery from CINEMA…
Camille Claudel, 1915 (2013): Dir. Bruno Dumont
Feat. Juliette Binoche, Jean-Luc Vincent; Another acting masterclass from the formidable Juliette Binoche intensifies this clear–sighted portrait of misunderstood sculptress Camille…
Da Vinci's Demons (TV Series) (2013): Feat. Tom Riley; A lavishly produced historical fantasy which imagines Leonardo da Vinci's life as an artist, inventor and genius. Season One: eight episodes…
Exhibition (2013): Dir. Joanna Hogg
Feat. Viv Albertine, Liam Gillick, Tom Hiddleston; A brilliant and refreshingly unconventional portrait of a marriage from singular British director Joanna Hogg (ARCHIPELAGO), starring Viv Albertine…
Reaching for the Moon (2013): Dir. Bruno Barreto
Feat. Gloria Pires, Miranda Otto, Tracy Middendorf…; A chronicle of the tragic love affair between American poet Elizabeth Bishop and Brazilian architect Lota de Macedo Soares.
Summer in February (2013): Feat. Dominic Cooper, Dan Stevens, Emily Browning; The famous Cornish Artists Colony is the setting for this beautiful looking but ultimately uninspiring Edwardian tragiromance.
Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012): Dir. Philip Kaufman
Feat. Nicole Kidman, Clive Owen, David Strathairn…; Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman spar in this highly mannered HBO biopic of famed war correspondent Martha Gellhorn's rocky romance with literary giant…
Renoir (2012): Dir. Gilles Bourdos
Feat. Michel Bouquet, Christa Theret, Vincent Rottiers…; Sumptuous, sun–kissed art biopic based on the last years of impressionist painter Auguste Renoir (Bouquet) during World War I, and the…
Words, The (2012): Dir. Brian Klugman, Lee Sternthal
Feat. Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana, Dennis Quaid…; Bradley Cooper plays a struggling writer whose conscience gets the better of him when a found manuscript he passes off as his own achieves great…
Mill and the Cross, The (2011): Dir. Lech Majewski
Feat. Rutger Hauer, Michael York, Charlotte Rampling; Polish experimental auteur Lech Majewski offers a breathtaking, elegantly construed anatomy of Pieter Bruegel's epic 1564 painting ''The Procession…
Howl (2010): Dir. Robert Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
Feat. James Franco, David Strathairn, Jon Hamm…; A fitting celebration and account of the making and hostile reception of Allen Ginsberg's famously controversial poem, with James Franco superb as…
Russian Snark (2010): Dir. Stephen Sinclair
Feat. Stephen Papps, Elena Stejko, Stephanie Tauevihi…; A pair of Russian refugees settle in Auckland to make art and a new home in this eccentric yet accessible 'art comedy' from screenwriter and…
Boogie Woogie (2009): Dir. Duncan Ward
Feat. Danny Huston, Gillian Anderson, Alan Cumming…; Broad satire of the modern art scene with Danny Huston as a supercilious art dealer scheming to get his hands on a rare Mondrian. Hugely…
Desperate Romantics (TV Mini-series) (2009): Feat. Rafe Spall, Samuel Barnett, Aidan Turner…; Ribald treatment of the controversial art movement pays only cursory attention to their work and instead largely on their adventures in the bodice…
Georgia O'Keeffe (2009): Dir. Bob Balaban
Feat. Joan Allen, Jeremy Irons, Ed Jr. Begley; This made–for–television biopic of American artist Georgia O'Keeffe and her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz, is distinguished as…
Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle, The (2009): Dir. David Russo
Feat. Marshall Allman, Vince Vieluf, Natasha Lyonne; Pleasingly off–kilter indie comedy bares witness to the spiritual crisis of an office clerk who joins a posse of bohemian night janitors who…
Mao's Last Dancer (2009): Dir. Bruce Beresford
Feat. Chi Cao, Bruce Greenwood, Kyle MacLachlan…; Enthralling true–life story traces the life of acclaimed ballet dancer Li Cunxin from his impoverished upbringing in communist China to the…
Eternity Man, The (2008): Dir. Julien Temple
Feat. Lara Mulcahy, Grant Doyle, Christa Hughes; Film adaptation of the opera of the same name by Jonathan Mills and Dorothy Porter. Explores the life of Arthur Stace, an Australian icon who earned…
Everlasting Moments (2008): Dir. Jan Troell
Feat. Maria Heiskanen, Mikael Persbrandt, Jesper Christensen; A touching, delicately shot memoir told from the perspective of a Finnish immigrant in Sweden who finds relief from her abusive husband in the art of…
Little Ashes (2008): Dir. Paul Morrison
Feat. Robert Pattinson, Matthew McNulty, Javier Beltran…; Meandering and soapy look at three of Spain's artistic enfant terribles; Luis Bunuel, Federico Garcia Lorca and Salvador Dali. Focussing on the…
Miss Austen Regrets (2008): Dir. Jeremy Lovering
Feat. Samuel Roukin, Olivia Williams, Greta Scacchi; Dramatized account of Jane Austen's later years, focused around the author as she approaches her 40th birthday and is forced to confront the missed…
Seraphine (2008): Dir. Martin Provost
Feat. Yolande Moreau, Ulrich Tukur, Anne Bennent; Intimate, Cesar–winning portrait of troubled French artist Seraphine de Senlis, a little–known painter who worked as an impoverished…
Synecdoche, New York (2008): Dir. Charlie Kaufman
Feat. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Catherine Keener…; Screenwriting extraordinaire Charlie Kaufman turns his hand to directing for the first time with another amusing existential conundrum, here enjoying…
Angel (2007): Dir. Francois Ozon
Feat. Charlotte Rampling, Sam Neill, Lucy Russell…; Pretty costume drama follows the fortunes of an aspiring lady writer in Edwardian England. Based on the novel by Elizabeth Taylor (MRS PALFREY AT…
Becoming Jane (2007): Dir. Julian Jarrold
Feat. Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy, Julie Walters…; The early chapters of Jane Austen’s literary life are dramatised in this rose–tinted biopic of her formative romantic…
Caravaggio (2007): Dir. Angelo Longoni
Feat. Alessio Boni, Elena Sofia Ricci, Jordi Molla…; The tumultuous and adventurous life of Michelangelo Merisi, controversial artist, called by Fate to become the immortal Caravaggio. A violent genius…
Starting Out in the Evening (2007): Dir. Andrew Wagner
Feat. Frank Langella, Lauren Ambrose, Lili Taylor…; An aging, all–but–forgotten author (Langella) finds himself the object of an eager grad student’s attention when she decides to make…
Strange Culture (2007): Dir. Lynn Hershman-Leeson
Feat. Thomas Jay Ryan, Tilda Swinton, Peter Coyote; Topical and important docu–drama focusing on the charges of bio–terrorism brought against acclaimed artist Steve Kurtz after his wife's…
Art School Confidential (2006): Dir. Terry Zwigoff
Feat. Max Minghella, Sophia Myles, John Malkovich…; CRUMB dir. Terry Zwigoff and comic book icon Daniel Clowes (GHOST WORLD) re–team for this darkly set, though often hilarious stakeout of the…
Factory Girl (2006): Dir. George Hickenlooper
Feat. Sienna Miller, Hayden Christensen, Guy Pearce…; Sienna Miller plays the ill–fated Warhol 'superstar' Edie Sedgwick in this flashy, precocious portrait of her rise and fall out of the New York…
Fur (2006): Dir. Steven Shainberg
Feat. Nicole Kidman, Robert Downey Jnr.; Taking fictional liberties with the real–life character of revered New York photographer Diane Arbus, the dir. of SECRETARY fashions another…
Goya's Ghosts (2006): Dir. Milos Forman
Feat. Javier Bardem, Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgard…; A lavish, if ill–designed costume epic based around Spanish artist Francisco Goya (Skarsgard), his closest acquaintances, and the eventful late…
Impressionists, The (TV Mini-series) (2006): Dir. Tim Dunn
Feat. Richard Armitage, Andrew Havill, Julian Glover…; A mini–series presentation of the intimate history of a most illustrious brotherhood of Impressionist artists – Monet, Degas, Renoir,…
Miss Potter (2006): Dir. Chris Noonan
Feat. Renee Zellweger, Ewan McGregor, Emily Watson; Charming biopic tells the tale of Beatrix Potter – specifically the story of the woman behind the drawings – and her fixation from a…
Tenants, The (2006): Dir. Danny Green
Feat. Dylan McDermott, Snoop Dogg, Rose Byrne…; Gripping drama about two ambitious writers – one black, one white – who spar in an abandoned New York tenement block. McDermott plays…
Junebug (2005): Dir. Phil Morrison
Feat. Embeth Davidtz, Alessandro Nivola, Amy Adams…; An enchanting indie gem about an art–dealer whose pursuit of an 'outsider artist' in backwoods North Carolina prompts various life crises,…
Klimt (2005): Dir. Raul Ruiz
Feat. John Malkovich, Veronica Ferres, Stephen Dillane…; Chilean director Raul Ruiz' typically idiosyncratic biopic about the life of the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) told in a series of…
Brother to Brother (2004): Dir. Rodney Evans
Feat. Anthony Mackie, Larry Gilliard, Jr, Duane Boutte…; Heartfelt drama delves deep into the quagmire of identity politics in its depiction of the challenges faced by gay black artists in America set both…
Modigliani (2004): Dir. Mick Davis
Feat. Andy Garcia, Elsa Zylberstein; The debauched final years of painter Amedeo Modigliani (Garcia) – he of the famous paintings of almond–eyed women – are conveyed…
Brush With Fate (2003): Dir. Brent Shields
Feat. Glenn Close, Ellen Burstyn, Thomas Gibson…; A cloistered prep school teacher (Close) reveals to a colleague (Gibson) that she is in possession of a lost painting – 'Girl in Hyancinth…
Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003): Dir. Peter Webber
Feat. Scarlett Johansson, Colin Firth, Tom Wilkinson…; A superior dramatic conceit that speculates on the background to Johannes Vermeer's enigmatic 17th century portrait of the title. Johannson plays…
Leonardo (TV Mini-series) (+ The Divine Michelangelo) (2003): Feat. Mark Rylance; Three–part BBC docu–drama exploring the life of Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci, from early childhood to his death in 1519. Dramatic…
Sylvia (2003): Dir. Christine Jeffs
Feat. Gwyneth Paltrow, Daniel Craig, Blythe Danner…; A simply formed, yet resonant portrait of the brilliant, doomed poet Sylvia Plath (Paltrow), recounting her years of marriage to (also poet) Ted…
Chihwaseon (Painted Fire) (2002): Dir. Kwon-taek Im
Feat. Min-sik Choi, Sung-kee Ahn; A mainstay of Korean cinema, Im Kwon–taek helms this impassioned portrait of one of the country's most celebrated painters, Jang…
Frida (2002): Dir. Julie Taymor
Feat. Salma Hayek, Alfred Molina, Ashley Judd…; Long awaited biopic of the celebrated 20th–century Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, whose troubled marriage to Diego Riviera and crippling injuries…
Hours, The (2002): Dir. Stephen Daldry
Feat. Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore…; Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer–prize winning novel is brought to the screen with excellent performances, and though simplified and not for all…
Max (2002): Dir. Menno Meyjes
Feat. John Cusack, Noah Taylor, Leelee Sobieski; Recommendable though flawed drama, concerns a fictional friendship in 1918 Munich between budding–artist Adolf Hitler and a Jewish…
Possession (2002): Dir. Neil LaBute
Feat. Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhart, Jeremy Northam…; Faithful, though simplified adaptation of A.S. Byatt’s Booker–winning novel where two academics slowly explore a 19th century literary…
Guinevere (2001): Dir. Audrey Wells
Feat. Sarah Polley, Stephen Rea; Sarah Polley (GO) headlines in this Sundance–winning indie, as a directionless Harvard graduate who falls under the spell of…
Iris (2001): Dir. Richard Eyre
Feat. Kate Winslet, Judi Dench, Jim Broadbent; Moving biopic of British novelist Iris Murdoch and her journey from literary genius to the mental wilderness of Alzheimers, that unquestionably rests…
Life With Judy Garland: Me And My Shadows (2001): Dir. Robert Allan Ackerman
Feat. Judy Davis, Victor Garber, Hugh Laurie…; The amazing, slightly tragic life of Hollywood star Judy Garland is retold with Judy Davis (eventually) in the title role, in a compelling telemovie…
Pandaemonium (2001): Dir. Julien Temple
Feat. Samantha Morton, Linus Roache, John Hannah…; The intense friendship between romantic poets Wordsworth (John Hannah) and Coleridge (Linus Roache) is the subject of this 18th century psychedelic…
Pinero (2001): Dir. Leon Ichaso
Feat. Benjamin Bratt, Rita Moreno, Giancarlo Esposito…; Biopic of the controversial Puerto Rican poet Miguel Pinero, whose play 'Short Eyes' and NYC junkie lifestyle propelled him to brief fame, before he…
Caveman's Valentine, The (2000): Dir. Kasi Lemmons
Feat. Samuel L. Jackson, Ann Magnuson; Dir. Lemmons follows up EVE’s BAYOU with an ambitious portrayal of classical–composer–turned–paranoid–schizophrenic Samuel…
Dirty Pictures (2000): Dir. Frank Pierson
Feat. James Woods, Craig T. Nelson; Based on the true–story of how the Chicago Arts Centre was prosecuted in 1990 for obscenity over an exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe's…
Farewell - Brecht's Last Summer, The (2000): Dir. Jan Schutte
Feat. Josef Bierbichler, Monika Bliebtreu, Elfriede Irrall; Prior knowledge of the life of playwright Bertolt Brecht (played by Josef Bierbichler) will enhance this accomplished chamber–drama, set at an…
Pollock (2000): Dir. Ed Harris
Feat. Ed Harris, Marcia Gay Harden, Amy Madigan…; The life of ‘Abstract Expressionist’ painter Jackson Pollock, is rendered with bold, heartfelt strokes by dir. Harris in his debut effort (also…
Wonder Boys (2000): Dir. Curtis Hanson
Feat. Michael Douglas, Robert Downey Jnr., Tobey Maguire…; A rumpled Michael Douglas plays an academic professor and successful author who's terminally unfinished second novel is symptomatic of midlife…
Nora (1999): Dir. Pat Murphy
Feat. Ewan McGregor, Susan Lynch; Cliche–avoiding though at times awkward biopic of Nora Barnacle's marriage to writer James Joyce in the early 20th century. Based on the book…
Henry Fool (1998): Dir. Hal Hartley
Feat. Thomas Jay Ryan, Parker Posey, James Urbaniak…; Hal Hartley gathers several unlikely narrative threads concerning a bottled–up trashman composing an epic poem while under the spell of…
Illuminata (1998): Dir. John Turturro
Feat. Beverly D'Angelo, Susan Sarandon, Rufus Sewell…; A backstage drama set in New York in the early 1900s, with Turturro as a playwright struggling to get his latest effort on stage. With a dozen…
Marquise (1998): Dir. Vera Belmont
Feat. Sophie Marceau; Bawdy, naturalistically–styled period romp about the artistic clashes between playwrights Moliere and Racine at the court of Louis XIV. Sophie…
Artemisia (1997): Dir. Agnes Merlet
Feat. Valentina Cervi, Miki Manojlovic, Michel Serrault; Study of the first significant female painter, Artemisia Gentileschi, the daughter of Caravaggio's one–time assistant in 17th Century…
Limited Edition (1997): Dir. Bernard Rapp
Feat. Terence Stamp, Maria de Medeiros; Smalltime publisher Terence Stamp delves into a literary mystery which relates to dark events in his own background. Maria de Medeiros (PULP…
Surviving Picasso (1997): Dir. James Ivory
Feat. Anthony Hopkins, Natascha McElhone, Julianne Moore…; Anthony Hopkins acts his beret off in this portrait of the insatiable, cantankerous Spanish genius and the trail of emotional devastation he left…
Basquiat (1996): Dir. Julian Schnabel
Feat. Jeffrey Wright, David Bowie, Gary Oldman…; The director sends a post–mortem loveletter to his friend and contemporary, Jean–Michel Basquiat, a celebrated but fragile New York black…
I Shot Andy Warhol (1996): Dir. Mary Harron
Feat. Lili Taylor, Jared Harris, Martha Plimpton; Both an absorbing time capsule of Warhol's 'factory' ultra–decadence and a gutsy portrait of extremism and delusion. Lili Taylor is a dynamo of…
Lust and Revenge (1996): Dir. Paul Cox
Feat. Nicholas Hope, Claudia Karvan; An unlikely creative partnership between the solemn, prolific Dutch–Aussie director Paul Cox (MAN OF FLOWERS, A WOMAN'S TALE) and John Clarke…
Total Eclipse (1995): Dir. Agnieszka Holland
Feat. Leonardo DiCaprio, David Thewlis; Voraciously dueling bohemians of late 19th century Paris, Leonardo Di Caprio and David Thewlis impersonate Rimbaud and Verlaine – French poet…
Unconditional Love (The Art of Passion) (1995): Dir. Arthur Bjorn Egeli
Feat. Pablo Bryant, Isabelle Dahlin, David Ellsworth…; Art and love conflict in this semi–autobiographical portrait of a young painter whose work and respect suffers after a whirlwind affair with a…
Sirens (1994): Dir. John Duigan
Feat. Hugh Grant, Sam Neill, Elle MacPherson…; Catholic minister Hugh Grant and wife are sent to rural Australia to dissuade renegade artist Sam Neill from painting 'pornography'. As an 'Elle…
Tom and Viv (1994): Dir. Brian Gilbert
Feat. Willem Dafoe, Miranda Richardson; A moving exploration of the intense yet painful relationship between Nobel prize–winning poet T.S. Eliot (Willem Dafoe) and his lovably…
Paris, France (1993): Dir. Georgio Ciccoretti
Feat. Leslie Hope, Peter Outerbridge; While her husband descends into madness, a novelist attempts to cure her writer's block by engaging in kinky sex with a drifter. Preposterous 'art'…
Pornographer, The (1993): Dir. Patrick S. Duncan
Feat. Nicholas Cascone, Melora Hardin; An ambitious attempt to draw a co–relate the legitimate art world and the pornographic one – both, it asserts, as being founded on…
Shadowlands (1993): Dir. Richard Attenborough
Feat. Anthony Hopkins, Debra Winger; Anthony Hopkins is terrific as academic and children's author C.S. Lewis, who discovers a well of unfathomable emotion when his American divorcee…
Zelda (1993): Dir. Pat O'Connor
Feat. Natasha Richardson, Timothy Hutton; A polished biography about the decadent, obsessive lives of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda.
Kafka (1991): Dir. Steven Soderbergh
Feat. Jeremy Irons, Ian Holm, Theresa Russell…; This unsuspecting follow–up film for the director of the independent smash hit, SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE went largely unreleased, though it has…
La Belle Noiseuse (1991): Dir. Jacques Rivette
Feat. Michel Piccoli, Emmanuelle Beart; Rivette's four–hour portrait of an artist as an old man explores the process and politics of a retired artist painting a nude model. Subtle,…
Meeting Venus (1991): Dir. Istvan Szabo
Feat. Glenn Close, Niels Arestrup; Glenn Close plays a Swedish diva (miming to our Dame Kiri) entangled in personal and political problems whilst leading in Wagner's Tannhauser.
Van Gogh (1991): Dir. Maurice Pialat
Feat. Jacques Dutronc; The ultra–naturalistic style of Maurice Pialat may not seem the best choice for a costume drama about probably the most–often filmed…
An Angel at My Table (1990): Dir. Jane Campion
Feat. Kerry Fox; Multi–award winning adaptation of Janet Frame's three autobiographies, deserving of its big reputation through compassionate storytelling and…
Henry and June (1990): Dir. Philip Kaufman
Feat. Maria de Medeiros, Fred Ward, Uma Thurman; From the diaries of French author Anais Nin, her steamy and stormy adventures with American writer Henry Miller and his wife are lensed to perfection.
Vincent and Theo (1990): Dir. Robert Altman
Feat. Tim Roth; This biopic charts the relationship between the tortured artist and his patron brother, with sympathetic direction and Tim Roth's performance as…
A TV Dante (The Inferno Cantos I - VIII) (1989): Dir. Peter Greenaway
Feat. John Gielgud, Bob Peck, Joanne Whalley; Striking recitation by Gielgud and company of the first eight cantos. Greenaway superimposes some truly potent images over a series of talking heads.…
Camille Claudel (1988): Dir. Bruno Nuytten
Feat. Isabelle Adjani, Gerard Depardieu, Alain Cuny; Intense, robust biopic of the French artist and lover of fellow sculptor, Auguste Rodin. Their tumultuous affair is passionately incarnated by…
Moderns, The (1988): Dir. Alan Rudolph
Feat. Keith Carradine, Linda Fiorentino, John Lone…; A witty and exquisite recreation of Paris in the 1920s, complete with the ‘lost generation’ of Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and F Scott…
Rowing with the Wind (1988): Dir. Gonzalo Suárez
Feat. Hugh Grant, Elizabeth Hurley, Lizzy McInnerny…; Earnest dramatisation of Mary Shelley's relationship with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley while in the midst of conceiving her famed novel…
Ebony Tower, The (1987): Dir. Robert Knights
Feat. Laurence Olivier, Roger Rees, Greta Scacchi…; Self–conscious but watchable satire has a young art critic finding himself attracted to the unusual lifestyle of a reclusive painter. Based on…
Wolf at the Door, The (1987): Dir. Henning Carlsen
Feat. Donald Sutherland, Max von Sydow; Thoughtful biopic of painter Paul Gauguin’s middle–years, with Donald Sutherland contending with the philistines of Paris upon his return…
Caravaggio (1986): Dir. Derek Jarman
Feat. Noam Almaz, Dawn Archibald, Sean Bean; A stylised, impressionistic biopic of the controversial bisexual artist from the Italian renaissance. The film is similarly cryptic, bold and…
Sunday in the Park with George (1986): Dir. Terry Hughes
Feat. Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Barbara Bryne; Movie adaptation of the musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, about a painter who immerses himself in creating a masterpiece. Inspired by…
Mishima - A Life in Four Chapters (1985): Dir. Paul Schrader
Feat. Ken Ogata; Fascinating study of the controversial Japanese author/militarist whose desire to merge life and art led to his ritualistic suicide. A luminous…
Grasp Of Wind, A (1984): Dir. Robert Franken, Russell Campbell
Feat. Neal Gunn; Dutch born New Zealand visual artist Robert Franken's one–and–only directorial effort is a quietly surreal, wordless fable in which a…
Mistral's Daughter (Mini-series) (1984): Feat. Stefanie Powers, Robert Urich, Lee Remick…; Blubbery, melodramatic saga of three generations of women by way of artist Julien Mistral. Based on a novel by Judith Krantz.
Sunday in the Country, A (1984): Dir. Bertrand Tavernier
Feat. Louis Ducreux, Sabine Azema, Michel Aumont…; An elderly painter invites his family to his country villa; in a single day their happinesses and sorrows come to be expressed. Subtle, intelligent…
Draughtsman's Contract, The (1982): Dir. Peter Greenaway
Feat. Anthony Higgins, Janet Suzman; A 17th Century painter is commissioned to draw the estate of a rich mistress, who in return endows him with certain liberties. A bizarre and…
Passion (1982): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Isabelle Huppert, Hanna Schygulla, Michel Piccoli; 'Film within a film' from France's thorniest director, sowing narrative confusion in his story of director Michel Piccoli trying to make a arthouse…
Islands in the Stream (1977): Dir. Franklin J. Schaffner
Feat. George C. Scott, David Hemmings, Gilbert Roland…; Solid, well–constructed adaptation of one of the more thoughtful Hemingway novels, with Scott as the sculptor who chooses to live in exile on a…
We Won't Grow Old Together (Nous Ne Vieillirons Pas Ensemble) (1972): Dir. Maurice Pialat
Feat. Marlène Jobert, Jean Yanne, Christine Fabréga…; A uniquely disquieting film covering the dissolution of an affair between an aged filmmaker and a much younger secretary, based on French director…
Hour Of The Wolf (Vargtimmen) (1968): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Max von Sydow, Liv Ullmann; One of dir. Bergman's most troubled visions, this concerns the descent of an unstable artist (von Sydow) and his sensitive wife (Ullmann) into a…
Trip, The (1967): Dir. Roger Corman
Feat. Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Susan Strasberg…; One of several collaborations between director Roger Corman and Jack Nicholson, who wrote the screenplay. A director of TV commercials gradually…
Andrei Rublev (1966): Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
Feat. Anatoli Solonitsyn, Ivan Lapikov, Nikolai Grinko; Enthralling historical drama vividly portrays the 15th Century Russian painter who was encumbered by the political turbulence of the time.
Empty Canvas, The (La Noia) (1963): Dir. Damiano Damiani
Feat. Bette Davis, Horst Buchholz, Catherine Spaak; Unsuccessful painter Buccholz falls for a young model who spurns his love and drives him to both ruin and his overbearing mother. Based on the novel…
Ken Russell at the BBC (Elgar; Debussy; Always on Sunday; Isadora; Dante's Inferno; Song of Summer) (1962-1968): Dir. Ken Russell
Feat. Oliver Reed, Vladek Sheybal, Vernon Dobtcheff…; The engrossing early works of the controversial director comprises six of his famed artist portraits
Testament of Orpheus (Testament D'orphee) (1960): Dir. Jean Cocteau
Feat. Jean Cocteau, Yul Brynner, Jean-Pierre Leaud…; Cocteau's swansong is an intensely personal odyssey, with the director himself immersed in a world of his cumulative creation. Like a moving…
Horse's Mouth, The (1958): Dir. Ronald Neame
Feat. Alec Guinness, Kay Walsh, Renee Houston; This impressively subtle portrait of a tortured artist stars Alec Guinness as a deteriorating painter whose pursuit of creative perfection has him on…
Lust for Life (1955): Dir. Vincente Minnelli
Feat. Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn; Kirk Douglas makes a stirring, enthusiastic Van Gogh in this biopic, choosing to echo the empassioned melancholia of his work rather than drawing…
Houdini (1953): Dir. George Marshall
Feat. Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Torin Thatcher; Drama exploring the life of magician and illusionist Harry Houdini, with then husband–and–wife Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh playing…
Moulin Rouge (1952): Dir. John Huston
Feat. Jose Ferrer, Colette Marchand, Suzanne Flon…; Opulently staged fictional biopic of Toulouse–Lautrec, highlighted by a dazzling can–can sequence. The pint–sized French painter is…
Blood of a Poet (1930): Dir. Jean Cocteau
Feat. Lee Miller, Pauline Carton; Cocteau's first film is a surrealist gem that sewed the seeds of his style. The Dali/Bunuel influence is clear, but this goes one step further with…

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