- 7 weeks ago
Ever notice striking similarities between certain movie and TV scenes and famous paintings? We're exploring the most artistically compelling film and TV visuals that were clearly, if not explicitly, inspired by renowned art. From the surreal depths of "The Cell" to the haunting climax of "Carrie", discover the surprising artistic inspirations behind some of your favorite scenes. Get ready to see cinema in a whole new light!
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00:00You're afraid. That's why you can't leave.
00:08It's okay, Julian.
00:10Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most artistically striking film and TV visuals
00:16that were obviously, if not explicitly, modeled after great graphic art.
00:21Out of respect for the challenge, animated films are not included.
00:24In the life of the painter, death may perhaps not be the most difficult thing.
00:32Number 10. The White Lotus, Echo and Narcissus
00:35I just want to give everyone what they want, and I'm in a family full of narcissists.
00:39Dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude.
00:40Art and narcissism are key themes throughout the HBO anthology The White Lotus.
00:45Their most poignant intersection comes at the climax of the Ratliff storyline in Season 3.
00:49Hey, the coladas.
00:51Yeah.
00:52Until last night, so...
00:55After Tim changes his mind about killing his family to spare them the consequences of his crimes,
00:59his son Lachlan accidentally drinks a poisoned smoothie.
01:09The shot of him vomiting into a pool echoes a John William Waterhouse painting
01:13of the mythical Greek figure Narcissus admiring his reflection in a lake.
01:17Beside him is Echo, who perishes over his rejection.
01:20Having exposed his family's self-serving behavior by emulating it,
01:24Lachie now reveals the horror of his father's selfish gesture of love.
01:27Tim thankfully revives his son, but the near tragedy shows how desperately they needed humbling.
01:32I think I just saw God.
01:34Number 9.
01:48Girl with a Pearl Earring
01:49Girl with a Pearl Earring
01:50You're not the first to forget your manners in front of his paintings.
01:56Tell me, girl,
01:57Do you think it finished?
02:00No one knows the identity of Johannes Vermeer's subject for his masterpiece,
02:04or if this girl with a Pearl Earring even existed.
02:07The novel and film adaptation of the same name go beyond speculating on the origins of the painting,
02:12purportedly of a household servant of Vermeer's.
02:14Cinematographer Eduardo Serra extensively referenced the painter's distinct framing and color style.
02:19Director Peter Weber goes further with his compositional pacing.
02:22This obviously comes into perspective in scenes of the fictional greets sitting for her portraiture.
02:27Take off your cap.
02:35No, sir.
02:37I cannot.
02:39Cannot?
02:41I will not.
02:43I need to see your face.
02:46The cap covers too much.
02:48Such attention to detail won the film praise and a cult following.
02:51as a vivid representation of artistry itself.
02:55Yeah.
02:55That's it.
03:00It still dispels much of the mystery surrounding its subject in a compelling way.
03:05I've come to the right place then.
03:06Tanaka.
03:13This is for you.
03:13Number 8.
03:21Twin Peaks Seated Figure.
03:23Ask them you what he's going to.
03:30Come back.
03:31In style.
03:33Figurative painter Francis Bacon was one of David Lynch's favorite artists.
03:37His surreally disturbing yet ethereal style obviously influenced the filmmaker's work,
03:41especially with one of his most iconic sets.
03:44Throughout the TV series Twin Peaks,
03:46FBI agent Dale Cooper regularly assesses the mysteries in dreams of a red waiting room within a void.
03:51The aesthetic and the suited Cooper's place in it allude to Bacon's seated figure.
03:55The box outline within the painting would appear in a more obvious recreation of 1953's Portrait of a Man
04:01when Cooper first visits the real world in Twin Peaks' The Return.
04:14Of course, the initial basis in Bacon's vision enhances the already trippy trope's impact on the show's artful atmosphere.
04:21Find it.
04:22All right.
04:23Number 7.
04:31Carrie.
04:32Study for Lady Macbeth.
04:33Ladies and gentlemen, I've got the winners.
04:37All right.
04:38I give you Tommy Ross and Carrie White.
04:42Yay!
04:48The climax of Brian De Palma's Carrie is one of the most haunting images in the history of horror cinema.
04:54In fact, the visual dates back to a Gustav Moreau piece inspired by Shakespeare's darkest masterpiece.
04:59Study for Lady Macbeth represents the eponymous figure in a ghostly form,
05:04surrounded by streams of blood to represent her madness and guilt.
05:07Sissy Spacek holds that very same posture as the blood-soaked Carrie White psychically sets her school on fire.
05:12All of these doors!
05:15What is going on?
05:16Oh!
05:17Oh!
05:18Oh!
05:18Oh!
05:19Oh!
05:19Oh!
05:19Oh!
05:20Oh!
05:20Oh!
05:20Oh!
05:21Oh!
05:21Oh!
05:21Oh!
05:22Oh!
05:22Oh!
05:23Oh!
05:23Oh!
05:23Oh!
05:24Oh!
05:24Oh!
05:25Oh!
05:25Oh!
05:26Oh!
05:26Oh!
05:27Oh!
05:27Oh!
05:27Oh!
05:27Oh!
05:27Oh!
05:28Oh!
05:28Oh!
05:28Oh!
05:28Oh!
05:30Moreover, De Palma's framing is stunningly similar to Moreau's.
05:33Alluding to an iconic symbol of remorse adds another heartbreaking layer to Carrie's explosive vengeance.
05:38It also deepens the story's message that women's strife can be a gory business.
05:43We'll pray.
05:45Yes.
05:46We'll pray.
05:49We'll pray.
05:50We'll pray.
05:53For the last time, we'll pray.
05:58Number 6. The Cell. Various.
06:00She's had quite a journey, not like anything we've ever seen before.
06:05So she's made contact?
06:07Oh, yes. She's gone very deep into his world.
06:10The beautification of the grotesque is exemplified in Tarsem Singh's sci-fi horror thriller The Cell.
06:15Many extreme art pieces were referenced in the design of a comatose serial killer's twisted dream world.
06:20H.R. Giger's signature biochemical paintings inspired some of the costume and set designs.
06:25Od Nerdrum's 1989 painting Dawn is all but recreated when special agent Peter Novak enters this apocalyptic nightmare.
06:41And his torture at the climax takes from several paintings of St. Erasmus' disembowelment,
06:47one of which appears towards the end of the movie.
06:50These are just a few of the intermedia art illusions that make The Cell a cult classic crossover of elevated craft
06:58and, excuse the term, visceral shock.
07:08Number 5. The Truman Show. Architecture au clair de lune.
07:12The Belgian surrealist René Magritte questioned reality by disrupting mundane images with abnormal elements.
07:19Doesn't that basically sum up the brilliant satirical dramedy The Truman Show?
07:22Good morning!
07:23Morning!
07:24Good morning!
07:25Oh, and in case I don't see you, good afternoon, good evening, and good night.
07:29Thus, when Truman Burbank leaves a reality TV show set for the first time in his life,
07:33he ascends a staircase modeled after architecture au clair de lune.
07:37Viewers who recognize this can revel in the irony of surrealist art being used as a gateway to reality.
07:43Alternatively, it could be playing on Magritte's own philosophy of the fragility of our perceptions.
07:50Truman.
07:52You can speak.
07:56I can hear you.
07:57The filmmakers haven't even confirmed the deliberate illusion in the set design.
08:03Nonetheless, a symbolic reference that esoteric makes this high-minded farce's ending all the more satisfying.
08:09In case I don't see you, good afternoon, good evening, and good night.
08:18Yeah.
08:19Number 4, Melancholia, Ophelia.
08:27The opening montage in Lars von Trier's Melancholia gives away more than just the apocalyptic ending.
08:32Justine floating in a lake with a wedding dress and flowers is easily the film's most iconic shot.
08:38It's even on the poster.
08:39But with its basis in Sir John Everett Millay's painting of Shakespeare's Ophelia,
08:55it foreshadows Justine's arc.
08:57Like Ophelia, she will suffer a breakdown after being abandoned by her love,
09:00thus setting up the entire cast's demise.
09:03We could be the perfect couple.
09:07We've had good sex.
09:09I don't think that's a very good idea.
09:16No.
09:19No.
09:20Granted, Hamlet couldn't have done much about a rogue planet crashing into Earth.
09:24Still, the dreamy preceding visual more elegantly asserts that Melancholia isn't about how the story plays out.
09:30It's a meditation on sorrow and mortality that have been inspiring artists long before Shakespeare.
09:35No, Lee.
09:36Close your eyes.
09:43Number 3.
09:46Shatan Tongo.
09:47Three figures near a canal with windmill.
09:49With fewer than 200 shots across 7 hours, Shatan Tongo shows an epic grasp on the nuances of imagery.
10:10The most recurring and potent visual is of destitute villagers wandering along a dirt road.
10:15This was also the premise of three figures near a canal with windmill.
10:19An especially dark Vincent Van Gogh that depicts three shadowy figures walking through mud.
10:23Some five and a half hours into the black and white film, three characters recreate the painting almost exactly.
10:28Shatan Tongo's walking sequences epitomize Béla Tarr's masterful impression of the aimlessness of poverty and existence itself.
10:42That they bring one of Van Gogh's long-lost masterpieces to life deepens their beauty and bleakness in connecting humanity to nature.
10:49Number 2.
10:57Shutter Island.
10:58The Kiss.
10:59Are you real?
11:02No.
11:07She's still here.
11:09Who?
11:12Rachel?
11:12She never left.
11:15The mind-bending tension of Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island takes a heartbreaking turn whenever Detective Teddy Daniels remembers his late wife Dolores.
11:24The dream of her turning to ash in his arms looks especially like a work of art, because it was.
11:29You have to let me go.
11:32I can't.
11:34I can't.
11:47Their embrace and Dolores' dress pattern are clearly reflective of Gustav Klimt's The Kiss.
11:52This symbolist portrayal of entangled lovers complements the sentimental passion of the otherwise brooding Teddy.
11:58It also suggests just how deeply the image of Dolores' death in a fire is ingrained in his fragile psyche.
12:03No matter what the medium, Scorsese is a master of using his enthusiasm for art to enrich his own.
12:16Before we unveil our top pick, here are some honorable mentions.
12:22Pan's Labyrinth.
12:23Saturn Devouring His Son.
12:24The Pale Man's Gruesome Feast pays homage to Francisco Goya's macabre masterpiece.
12:29Jango Unchained.
12:43The Blue Boy.
12:44Seeing the Thomas Gainsborough portrait gave Quentin Tarantino a colorful costume idea.
12:48You remember me?
13:04Hannibal.
13:05The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun.
13:08William Blake's haunting aesthetic influences Francis Dollarhyde more vividly here than in previous Red Dragon adaptations.
13:14The Great Red Dragon.
13:15Nosferatu.
13:29Death and the Maiden.
13:30A cinematic tribute to expressionistic contrasts between beauty and horror culminates in a stunning final shot.
13:36The Lighthouse.
13:45Hypnosis.
13:46Sasha Schneider's bizarre work was recreated in one of horror master Robert Eggers' most entrancing scenes.
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14:15Number 1.
14:16Dreams.
14:16Vincent Van Gogh.
14:17What Vincent Van Gogh did for representing nature and humanity on the canvas, Akira Kurosawa did for cinema.
14:38He did so more directly with the fifth vignette in the exquisite anthology Dreams.
14:43Kurosawa follows an art student as he visits a Van Gogh exhibition at an art gallery, then magically enters the paintings.
14:49Oh, my God.
14:56Hi.
14:58Bonjour.
15:00Savez-vous où habite Monsieur Van Gogh?
15:03Among them are Langlois Bridge at Arles, Watermill at Ghenep, and of course, Wheatfield with Crows.
15:09The rich cinematography and innovative special effects bring these masterpieces to life in a way they couldn't have been a century prior.
15:16Just because motion pictures are leading the evolution of art, doesn't mean they should brush off the still images that still move us.
15:28What are some other still masterpieces that were brought to life by the magic of filmmaking?
15:33Paint us a picture in the comments.
15:34Why don't you paint me?
15:36Because you don't understand.
15:39And she does.
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