The use of artworks in movies and TV Series

Imitation, interpretation and iconology

Funny face, Stanley Donen, 1957

Vocabulary• Shout-out: a mention, credit or greeting, an allusion to another work or

inspiration• Iconology: the analysis of the contextual significance of an image or

symbol• Prop: short for theatrical property, refers to anything movable used by

the cast on stage• Cinematism: Word created by Serguei Eisenstein to define a theory of

aesthetics based on the parallelism between painting and cinema“It seems that all the arts, throughout the centuries, tended toward cinema.

Conversely, cinema helps us to understand their methods”

• Screencap: short for screen capture• Bingewatching: A marathon viewing of tv shows

ToC:

1. Tableau vivant: from reenactment to allusion2. A frame within the frame: the always

thought-out place of artworks2.2 James Bond and the intertextuality of

paintings3. Art of fiction: New dimensions for narration

A subjective interpretation:Ophelia, oil on canvas, John

Everett Millais,1851-1852, Tate London

Bright Star, Jane Campion, 2009

The tableau vivant:

Arrested Development, S01E08, Created by Mitch Hurwitz, 2003

A fixed image captured within the art of movement.Introducing an actual living work of art in a movie or series motivates the spectator to question the ability of the film to bring life on screen. It blurs the frontier between the frame of a painting and the one of the film, the acting and the incarnation of the actor.

The tableau vivant is an ancient tradition, dating back to the directing of Mysteries in front of churches in medieval times, it later became an upper-class distraction, as depicted in this movie.

Ceres, Antoine Watteau, oil on canvas, 1717, National GalleryThe House of mirth, Terrence Davis, 2000, based on the book by Edith Wharton

Arrested Development, S01E08 In the case of this comedy, the tableau vivant is a setting for the characters’ storyline, but also meaningful on the topic of family bonds, the artwork being the most obvious possible to serve the purpose of the narration.

Christus, Giulio Antamaro, 1916Viridania, Luis Bunuel, 1961History of the world, part I, Mel Brooks, 1981The Simpsons, S16E19, Matt Groening, 2005

Da Vinci’s last supper is one of the most referenced artworks in movies, often as a parody, but also as a visual comment on characters.

The tableau vivant most of the time is reduced to a more or less implicit reference:

La marquise d’O, Eric Rohmer, 1972 The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Terry Gilliam, 1988

The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Jim Sharman, 1975

The frame within a frame: the presence of artworks on a set

• A social implication: an artwork is first and foremost recognized for its value.

• A historical background: art pieces can also bring veracity to a reenactment.

• A psychological clue: the presence of an art piece or the character’s interaction with it are ways to build a character.

Frozen, Disney, 2013 A shout-out to The Swing, by Fragonard,1767, Wallace Collection, redesigned to fit the aesthetics of the animated movie.

Of course, the different uses of an artwork as a prop can, and many times do coexist

Gotham, S01E04, 2014 In the background, a reproduction of the Oath of the Horatii, by Jacques-Louis David, 1784

Titanic, James Cameron, 1998Study for Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Picasso, 1906-1907

Artworks are also often used in post-apocalyptic worlds, as a way to evoque the last traces of humanity,

or the attempts to salvage its patrimony.

Children of men, Alfonso Cuaròn, 2007David, Michelangelo, 1501-1504, Firenze

The Fall, S02E02 & S02E03, Allan Cubitt, 2014

Few to no artworks usually appear in crime stories and investigative series. In The Fall, we follow both the killer and the investigator. The computer screen of the first shows an unidentified engraving of a dark subject whereas hers is almost literaly a blank page.

However, once the killer has entered her room, leaving behind a new screen wallpaper as a clue, the nightmare is literaly shared, and the search becomes personal.

The Fall, S02E03 & S02E06

The Nightmare, Johann Heinrich Füssli, 1781, Detroit Institute of Arts

Pierrot le fou, Jean-Luc Godard, 1965

Above Ferdinand’s head, three postcards : Les Amoureux, Picasso, 1923, National GalleryPaul en Pierrot, Picasso, 1925, Musée Picasso ParisCap Ferrat, Chagall, 1952, colored lithography

“Pierrot-Ferdinand reads a paperback edition of Elie Faure's Histoire de l'Art and frequents works of art in the form of postcards that can be pinned to the wall. His experience is that of the ordinary twentieth-century man who accedes to art through commentary and reproductions” (Jean-Louis Leutrat Kaleidoscope p.85).

Close-ups on three of the postcards in Marianne’s apartment, are inserted in the sequence, not motivated by a look but used by Godard as a comment on the stillness of their dialogue:Femme nue, Renoir, 1880, Musée Rodin, ParisPaul en Pierrot, Picasso, 1925, Musée Picasso, ParisLa blouse roumaine, Matisse, 1940, MAM Paris

The frame of the shot has become the frame of the artwork, integrating the fixed image in the grammatical structure of the movie

James Bond and the intertextuality of the series through the use of paintings

Skyfall, Sam Mendes, 2012Meeting in the National Gallery, Q is backed by Joseph Wright of Derby's cutting-edge scientific piece Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump of 1768 and Bond is framed by Thomas Gainsborough's The Morning Walk of 1785, each painting giving a character trait to the men we have on screen

They are facing another painting:The "Fighting Temeraire" Tugged to Her Last Berth

to be Broken Up, J.M.W. Turner, 1839They each give their opinion:- Q : the inevitability of time

- Bond : a big bloody ship

At the end of the movie, Bond meets the new M in his office, where a painting of Thomas Buttersworth, Trafalgar victory, 1825 shows the Fighting Temeraire at the height of her glory, right behind the HMS Victory, the boat of the heroic Amiral Nelson.

But boat paintings and marines are not only meaningful in this one movie, it actually calls back the whole Bond saga : Here is Sean Connery in M’s office in Dr. No, Terrence Young, 1962, the very first Bond movie.

Skyfall, 2012The Thomas Crown Affair, John

McTiernan, 1999Where Pierce Brosnan steals a Monet

from the Met.

Art of fiction, for fiction:

Arrested Development, S04E01, 2014

A fictional artwork can have two distinct roles:• More than a prop, it can become the center of the plot• It is directly directed towards the spectator, with comedic or other intent, since it is considered a real piece within the fictional dimension.

The grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson, 2014

Boy with apple, Johannes Van Hoytl the Younger, XVIth

century

The painting is actually the creation of Michael Taylor for the needs of the movie. The main inspiration is a painting of Bronzino, but the name of the fictional painter indicates a northern artist.

Lodovico Capponi, Agnolo Bronzino, 1550-1555, Frick Collection

In The Big Lebowski, by the Cohen Brothers, Julianne Moore plays Maude, an artist specialist of action painting. Naked and hanging from the ceiling, she sprays paint on canvas in a Pollock

manner, making art that has been described as “strongly vaginal”. The spectator shares the Dude’s dumbfounded look in front of the scene.

Of course, comedy and/or horror can derive from an existing piece. In those cases, the characters’ interaction with them leads to a fictious and comical situation, often

deriving from the damaging of the work, an iconoclasm :

Mr. Bean, 1998Portrait of the artist’s mother, Whistler, 1871, Musée d’Orsay

Batman, Tim Burton, 1989Selfportrait aged 63, Rembrandt, 1669, National Gallery

Vincent Van Gogh: L’église d’Auvers-sur-Oise, 1890, Musée

d’Orsay

Below : Detail with a Krafayis at the window

Doctor Who, S05E10, 2010

Vincent Van Gogh: The Pandorica opens or Blue box exploding, 1890

Doctor Who, S05E12, 2010

Ferris Bueller’s day off, John Hughues, 1986 As a way to conclude on the various ways an artwork can be used in a movie, a sequence which combines the several uses of an artwork and

offers an aesthetic questioning of the links between the arts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubpRcZNJAnE

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