5 best movies for art lovers

5 best movies for art lovers? Here are some of my favorites. As you know, I have always been passionate about art and so my whole world revolves around art, including this blog and my YouTube channel.

As it certainly has happened to you too, I often find myself in a crisis looking for a movie regarding art millions of times. So, I thought that it would be a good idea sharing with you some titles of movies for art lovers that I particularly liked. In fact, one thing I always love very much is going to the cinema or watching a good movie at home. But I have a big flaw: if the movie doesn’t catch me right away I always risk falling asleep. So I tend to choose movies that engage me from the very beginning and I don’t have to interrupt them.

 

My advice

I chose five movies that caught me for the atmosphere, plot or characters. Actually, there are several films that I’ve planned to watch or have already watched and would like to talk to you about.

Sometimes I also talk about it on Instagram @artnthecities, so if you don’t follow me there too, now you have one more reason. These 5 best movies for art lovers are not in order of preference since it would be impossible. They are completely different from one another and each has its own characteristics. So let’s get started!

 

5 best movies for art lovers. Big Eyes

 

The film tells the story of Margaret Keane. An American painter who in the Fifties and Sixties finds herself forced to hide her artistic skills because of her husband who takes her works passing it off as his own.

It tells the story of Keane’s life, as an artist but also as a wife and mother of a child. A little girl who witnesses her stepfather’s success and does not understand the relationship between her parents. And above all why her mother spends hours locked up in her study without exposing or selling artworks.

The whole story is told by a journalist. And the title is closely related to the works of Keane whose main trait is the characters with big eyes.

Both Tim Burton’s directing and photography are fantastic. The story can be followed easily, especially leaving on the edge to find out in the end if the woman will be able to regain possession of her art and her entire life or not. One of the strengths of the film is the fact that although the story is based on the biography of Keane it sometimes seems to witness surreal scenes, like her works, out of time.

 

5 best movies for art lovers. Midnight in Paris

 

For many of you, this title will already be known because when it was released at the cinema it was a great success. I personally watched and rewatched it dozens of times, but only for a reason: something similar to the protagonist often happens to me.

In the film, in fact, an American writer in search of inspiration for his novel and in the midst of a sentimental crisis with a cynical, rational, and spoiled girlfriend finds himself in Paris. Here he is on his pre-wedding and honeymoon vacation, with her parents.

One evening walking around Paris and trying to get back to the hotel, he gets lost and is rescued by a car whose driver invites him to get on. Exchanging a chat with the other passenger, he discovers that he is talking to Hemingway and so begins this journey through time in the Paris of the Twenties where he meets the Fitzgeralds, Gertrude Stein, Dalì, Bunuel, Picasso, Man Ray.

Every evening he decides to get lost in Paris and to plunge back into this past that it is not clear whether it is real or imaginary, making relationships and reliving the Paris of the lost generation as a protagonist. The story is intertwined and it is worth seeing the whole movie because the characterization of the characters and the plot, in my opinion, are something incredible.

But the reason why I like it so much is just the idea of finding yourself elsewhere. In this case in another era. While I happen to fantasize about simply being in another city because of some colours or smell or food that take me back there without even realizing it.

 

5 best movies for art lovers. Woman in gold

 

 

A movie that I cried for, which often happens when I watch a movie. And that, therefore, cannot necessarily be considered a great achievement, but it is truly a masterpiece in this case.

Woman in gold tells the story of Maria Altman, the nephew of Adele Bloch Bauer, the protagonist of the homonymous work by Klimt and how she fought against the Austrian government to claim back the portrait of her aunt taken from the Nazis in Vienna during the Second World War.

I love it from all points of view. The narrative of the story is clear from the beginning but complex enough to remain interesting throughout the film. And through the narration of war crimes, the Altman parties are taken against the Austrian government. The theme of public use is thus raised against the belonging of the work of art to the private collection. In addition, it questions the legitimacy of the appropriation of works of art by governments during wars.

Another fundamental aspect of the film, which is why I liked it very much is the discovery of the history of an artwork. All the works of art have their own history, they were made by the artist and from the first moment of creation, they belonged to private collectors to their families and then to the descendants and sometimes to the museums. So even this meaningful reconstruction of the life of the works and of the people makes this movie a masterpiece.

 

5 best movies for art lovers. The Best Offer

 

 

The Best Offer by Tornatore was interesting for me for many reasons. First of all the colours and settings, but in reality also the story and the labyrinthine narrative.

The main character is Virgin Oldman, a well-known auctioneer and collector who accidentally answers his office phone one day without the assistant’s screening. From that moment he finds himself immersed in a surreal story.

In fact, a young woman asks him to go to the family villa for an estimate of the works of his recently deceased parents. The girl is clear on her father’s wish, they wanted Oldman as an expert and he hesitantly accepts the assignment.

He will find himself at the centre of a very strange situation. The girl repeatedly denies herself and tells only later that she is suffering from agoraphobia and that she does not want to any relationship with others. The two characters after some time begin to get to know each other and start a relationship. It will evolve to change the fate not only of the auction but also of Oldman’s life and collection.

A brilliant movie because it leaves a little a bitter taste in the mouth but it also makes you believe in happy endings. And above all, leaves in that grey area where you are never certain whether it is reality or fiction.

 

5 best movies for art lovers. Frida

 

Frida is a very controversial movie in terms of plot, the truthfulness of the story and the way the characters are portraited. But I loved it. Before watching the movie I knew and I had studied the story of Frida Kahlo, I had also seen some of her works but this biography allowed me to click with the character Frida as a woman like never before on a deeper level.

The story tells of the entire life of the artist since she had an accident on the bus that caused her several serious injuries and the infirmity for months in a cast. What in my opinion from the first scenes of the film emerges in an overbearing way is the desire to live of this woman and, above all, the ability to never give up.

Art becomes a way to escape and tell about oneself, one’s own physical sensations but also inner ones. The story traces back the whole life of the artist and naturally the relationship with Rivera, who also repeatedly cheated on her but also the inhuman need from Frida to maintain a relationship with him.

It is not actually the story of one of the most influential women in the art of the 1900s what makes the movie interesting for me. It is exactly the characterization of the protagonist and her evolution. It makes us realize how everything that happens in our life changes and changes us. And therefore it makes us relate in a different way to the moment that surrounds us. In the case of Frida, it is the accident and the pain but it is also the love and the desire to live, which is a great trait of Mexican people. As if it were two sides of the same coin, for the character of Frida but also of each of us.

 

What do you think?

This is my list of 5 movies for art lovers, to be watched at least once in a lifetime. If you have already watched some of them leave a comment or suggest me new ones which inspired you. I am always looking for new movies so maybe another list will also come with new titles!