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The influence of painting in cinema

Cinematographic creation, of any kind, is related to diverse artistic disciplines, like literature, theater and, of course, painting. Occasionally, it’s easy to find the trace of Fine Arts in the big screen; for example, Pina (2011) by Wim Wenders is an evident homage to contemporary dance, and The Belly of an Architect (1987) by Peter Greenaway, a tribute to Roman architecture.

In the case of painting, there are films with an indubitable source of inspiration, like Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) by Peter Webber, based on the homonymous work by Johannes Vermeer. But there are also times when painting informs the esthetic choices of unexpected films. While discussing his most recent work, Pacific Rim, Guillermo del Toro mentioned in an interview with The Huffington Post that one of the film’s less obvious references is Colossus by Francisco Goya, created between 1818 and 1825.

After del Toro’s statement, the website Film.com published a list of films influenced by works of art, written by Nick DeSantis. Here, we present a collection of images with some of the titles mentioned by this article, as well as some ideas that came up at the FICM headquarters: