From Renoir to Picasso

Michael Palin's Quest for Artemisia

December 2015 •English

Michael Palin discovers the story of 17th-century Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi. He unearths not only her paintings, but a complex and difficult life.

Andrei Rublev

December 1966 •Russian

An expansive Russian drama, this film focuses on the life of revered religious icon painter Andrei Rublev. Drifting from place to place in a tumultuous era, the peace-seeking monk eventually gains a reputation for his art. But after Rublev witnesses a brutal battle and unintentionally becomes involved, he takes a vow of silence and spends time away from his work. As he begins to ease his troubled soul, he takes steps towards becoming a painter once again.

Hitchhiker: Windows

January 1990 •English

Girl with a Pearl Earring

December 2003 •English

This film, adapted from a work of fiction by author Tracy Chevalier, tells a story about the events surrounding the creation of the painting "Girl With A Pearl Earring" by 17th century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer. A 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.

Svengali

September 1954 •English

A man hypnotizes a young woman into being an opera singer.

Conversations with My Gardener

June 2007 •French

A successful artist, weary of Parisian life and on the verge of divorce, returns to the country to live in his childhood house. He needs someone to make a real vegetable garden again out of the wilderness it has become. The gardener happens to be a former schoolfriend. A warm, fruitful conversation starts between the two men.

Manhattan Undying

May 2016 •English

A vampire seeks out an artist to paint her a portrait so that she can see her image for the first time.

Mr. Turner

October 2014 •English

Eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner lives his last 25 years with gusto and secretly becomes involved with a seaside landlady, while his faithful housekeeper bears an unrequited love for him.

Nightwatching

September 2007 •English

An 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.

An American in Paris

September 1951 •English

Jerry Mulligan is an exuberant American expatriate in Paris trying to make a reputation as a painter. His friend Adam is a struggling concert pianist who's a long time associate of a famous French singer, Henri Baurel. A lonely society woman, Milo Roberts, takes Jerry under her wing and supports him, but is interested in more than his art.

Visiting Van Gogh

October 1985 •German

Lucian Freud: Portraits

June 2004 •English

Filmmaker Jake Auerbach decides to offer a description of his friend Lucian Freud that's more truthful than the common media image by asking a number of people who have sat for Freud's portraits to share their experiences with the camera. They include several of Freud's friends and daughters, and the film becomes a depiction not only of his art, but also his private persona. Lucian Freud does not appear, with the exception of a brief shot at the end of the film.

Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon

September 1998 •English

In the 1960s, British painter Francis Bacon surprises a burglar and invites him to share his bed. The burglar, a working class man named George Dyer, accepts. After the unique beginning to their love affair, the well-connected and volatile artist assimilates Dyer into his circle of eccentric friends, as Dyer's struggle with addiction strains their bond.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

August 2008 •English

Two girlfriends on a summer holiday in Spain become enamored with the same painter, unaware that his ex-wife, with whom he has a tempestuous relationship, is about to re-enter the picture.

Thoughts and Visions of a Severed Head

January 1991 •French

The theme of death is heavily interwoven in Smolder’s surreal salute to Belgian painter Antoine Wiertz, a Hieronymus Bosch-type artist whose work centered on humans in various stages in torment, as depicted in expansive canvases with gore galore. Smolders has basically taken a standard documentary and chopped it up, using quotes from the long-dead artist, and periodic statements by a historian (Smolders) filling in a few bits of Wiertz’ life.

Oomappenninu Uriyadappayyan

April 2002 •Malayalam

A girl who suffers from speech and hearing impairment falls in love with a poor man who is speech-impaired. Their lives turn upside down when her family tries to get her married to a rich man.

Frida

August 2002 •English

A biography of artist Frida Kahlo, who channeled the pain of a crippling injury and her tempestuous marriage into her work.

Bosch: The Garden of Dreams

June 2016 •Spanish

2016 marks the 500th anniversary of the death of Hieronymus Bosch. It is almost the only information about the artist of The Garden of Earthly Delights that we can put a precise date to. Bosch, the garden of dreams is a film about his most important painting and one of the most iconic paintings in the world: The Garden of Earthly Delights.

Luchian

Invalid date •English

Stefan Luchian is a passionate painter who rebels against conservative art groups, determined to create a new form of art that celebrates beauty and nature's wonders, while racing against time to leave his artistic legacy before his illness overtakes him.

A Stolen Life

May 1946 •English

A twin takes her deceased sister's place as wife of the man they both love.