Cinema and visual art have always shared a deep connection, with filmmakers often drawing inspiration from classic paintings to create memorable scenes. By borrowing the visual language of famous artworks, directors can evoke specific emotions, themes, and historical contexts.
Here are some iconic movie scenes that were directly inspired by some of the most renowned paintings in art history. Follow me into this fascinating intersection of art and film!
Gladiator - Pollice Verso, by Jean-Léon Gérome
The producers of the film approached Scott with the painting of Pollice Verso by Jean-Léon Gérome before the director read the script, and the glory and brutality of the painting hooked the director to visualize the film. There is a direct reference to the painting where Commodus holds out his thumb to spare Maximum, which is directly taken from the gestures shown in the painting.
Star Wars - The Fallen Angel, by Alexandre Cabanel
The Fallen Angel (French: L'Ange déchu) is a painting by French artist Alexandre Cabanel. It was painted in 1847, and depicts the Devil during his fall from Heaven. In the same way Lucas chose to depict Anakin falling from grace and succumbing to the Dark Side. The resemblance is uncanny.
Marie Antoinette - Bonaparte Crossing the Great Saint Bernard Pass, by Jacques-Louis David
It's impossible to overlook "Bonaparte Crossing the Great Saint Bernard Pass" by Jacques-Louis David, fabulously remanifested by Sofia Coppola in "Marie Antoinette". The imposing rearing horse, led by a resolute Napoleon with a red cape, pays true homage to the masterpiece by the French painter.
Shutter Island - The Kiss, by Gustav Klimt
Scorsese’s neo-noir psychological thriller, Shutter Island, tells the story of a US Marshal with a shady past sent to investigate a psychiatric hospital where patients have gone missing in strange circumstances. In his distorted mind, his love still exists but vanishes in a tormenting fashion.
Mad Max: Fury Road - The Elephants, by Salvador Dalí
Mad Max: Fury Road, is a masterpiece for its powerful and carefully constructed visual awe. Based on a precisely-curated color palette and masterful use of lighting, the post-apocalyptic film symbolizes the decadence and dystopian state of the world which resembles the madness of the world inside the head of Dali.
A Clockwork Orange - Prisoners Exercising, by Vincent Van Gogh
A Clockwork Orange was brought to the screen by director Stanley Kubrick. What would become one of the filmmaker's canonical films, it deals with the actions of a young criminal and his gang; at a point the film pays homage to the painting of Van Gogh with immaculate fashion.
Melancholia - Ophelia, by John Everett Millais
An apocalyptic drama starring two sisters played by Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg, this film by Lars Von Trier has been critically-acclaimed for its impeccable cinematographic execution and original treatment of its subject. The scene is a direct reference to Ophelia with the striking similarities.
The Exorcist - The Empire of Lights, by René Magritte
A classic in the horror genre that's been the subject of all kinds of analysis and discussion over the years, it is a story of a twelve-year-old girl possessed by a demon, that still packs the same terrifying punch as it did when it was first related forty years ago in 1973. The earie ambiance, the lonely lamp, seems to be a reference to the painting of Magritte.
Dreams from Wheatfield – Crows, by Vincent van Gogh
One of the vignettes is titled Crows with Martin Scorsese as Vincent van Gogh, and the visual effects for the segment were provided by George Lucas. In the vignette, an art student finds himself inside the art works of Vincent van Gogh and meets the artist making one of his paintings, Wheat Field with Crows, in front of a field. The film is surreal and is immersive in creating Van Gogh’s world as the student travels through several of the artist’s landscapes.
Django Unchained - Blue Boy, by Thomas Gainsborough
The Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough has inspired and interpreted several works in popular media. In the case of Django Unchained, the painting helped in designing the costumes for the main character. In the film, Django wears a valet outfit akin to the subject of The Blue Boy when he is freed.
Nighthawks - Pennies from Heaven, by Edward Hopper
One of the masterpieces of Hopper was recreated in the film "Pennies from Heaven”. All is there, down to the smallest detail. The elements of "Nighthawks" find their counterparts; unsettling atmosphere, the waiter, the two seated men, the young woman lost in thought, the percolators. An almost identical staging that plunges us into the heart of a diner with the appearance of a giant aquarium.
Bonus: Apocalypse now – Ride of the Valkyries, by Richard Wagner and Cesare Viazzi
"Ride of the Valkyries" (German: Walkürenritt or Ritt der Walküren) refers to the beginning of act 3 of Die Walküre, the second of the four epic music dramas constituting Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. It is also an illustration by Cesare Viazzi. The "Ride" features as diegetic music in Apocalypse Now, where the Air Cavalry squadron plays it on helicopter-mounted loudspeakers during their assault on a Viet Cong-controlled village as psychological warfare and to motivate their own troops.
The magic of cinema often lies in its ability to blend different forms of art. These iconic scenes remind us how deeply interconnected the world of film and painting can be. Have you noticed any other art-inspired moments in movies?