– By Bhavya Balamurali
Few films evoke artistic sensibilities quite like these cinematic works where every frame feels like a painting and every scene stirs the soul of an art lover.
The Mill and the Cross by Lech Majewski’s
Image Credit: Charlotte Rampling as Mary via Christianity Today
Lech Majewski’s ‘The Mill and the Cross’ is in every right an art piece in itself. He quite literally brings Peiter Bruegel’s 1564 painting ‘The Way to the Calvary’ to life with his one-of-a-kind film.
Bruegel’s chaotic masterpiece sets Christ Passion within a rustic Flemish village capturing the daily life, such as farmers at work, lovers hiding in the field, all while the crucifixion plays out in the background. Majewski stitches this together in a cinematic masterpiece through computer generated blue screens and massive backdrops he painted himself. Faithful to Bruegel’s vision, he does not retell the crucifixion through grand dialogues or dramatic plot, rather he observes it through the rhythm of 16th century Flemish life, walking you into Brugel’s dense world.
The film is a strange, hypnotic, and visually stunning piece of art that every art lover needs to watch at least once.
The Mills and the Cross is now streaming on Apple TV+ and Netflix.
Dreams by Akira Kurosawa
Image Credit: Martin Scorsese as Vincent van Gogh in Dreams by Akira Kurosawa via Pinterest
‘Dreams’ is a deeply personal, visually abstract work from the legendary Akira Kurosawa. Known for his dramatic works, Kurosawa shifts his style to create one of the most poetic and painterly films with ‘Dreams’.
As the title promises, the movie is made up of eight surreal, visually arresting tales which were inspired by the vision Akira had in his dream. Easily one of the most colourful films ever made, the director blends elements of whimsy, terror and melancholy to capture the abstraction of dream. Rich with symbolism, he turns landscapes into canvases inspired by painting, from serene nature to nightmarish vision drenched in hues that recall Celtic folklore and painted abstraction of a dream world.
Dream is an unmissable film for anyone who loves cinema as art and if that isn’t reason enough, Martin Scorsese casually appears as Vincent van Gogh.
Dreams is available on Prime Videos.
Barry Lyndon by Stanley Kubrick
Image Credit: Barry London via Medium
Stanley Kubrick, disheartened over his abandoned Napoleon project, Kubrick’s turned his eyes to William Makepeace Thackery’s The Luck of Barry Lyndon, a tale set in the same gilded century, and what emerged was a not a mere period drama but a cinematic masterpiece that feels like the 18th century come to life.
Shot entirely in European locations, the film captures a 18th century Irishman navigating fate, fortune and folly in his relentless climb through society. Kubrick and John Alcott famously studied works of Dutch masters to capture the soft, glowing look of the period. You will spot hints of painters like Thomas Gainsborough and John Constable, whose work are the clearest window into a world untouched by photography, anchoring the film in time. Kubrick and cinematographer John Alcott didn’t just slap on a sepia filter and call it vintage, they obsessively recreated the 18th century oil on canvas, successfully capturing the world through visuals.
Winning four Academy Awards, Barry Lyndon is less a film and more a world you get trapped inside. If you are an art, history, literature lover, this film is the holy relic that will drift you, scene by scene, like a guest in another century.
Barry London is available on Prime Videos.
Melancholia by Lars von Trier
Image Credit: Justine in ‘Melancholia’ via Pinterest
Packed in painterly symbolism, Lars von Trier’s ‘Melancholia’ feels like a slow, exquisite painting unravelling in motion.
Split into three parts, the film opens with a collection of surreal, painting-like apocalyptic tableaus that captures the anxieties of an Earth about to crash with the Blue Planet ‘Melancholia’. Grounded in absolute symbolism, the film dives headfirst into the messiness of depression, death and that creeping feeling that the universe doesn’t care. Inspired by Schopenhauer’s philosophical pessimism, the film delves into a psychological inspection of the characters through art as the language, even referencing John Everett Millais’s Ophelia to capture the grief, madness and eerie serenity.
Melancholia is a symphony of cosmic despair painted across the screen. If you are an art lover, this movie will make you pause and dissect each frame.
Melancholia is available on Netflix and Apple TV+.
What Dreams May Come by Vincent Ward
Image Credit: What Dreams May Come via Pinterest
Long considered unfilmable, ‘What Dreams May Come’ by Vincent Ward follows the story of a dead man searching for his wife in the afterlife.
Through a surreal visual odyssey, this 1988 American fantasy drama looks into the world of art, creating a visual experience crafted like an artist’s dream. The afterlife landscape looks as though lifted from a painter’s canvas, with scenes that resemble oil paintings. Ward borrows from the canvases of the romanticist painter Casper David Friedrich, especially his haunting “Two Men Contemplating the Moon”. Using optic flow technology, the frames dissolve like memory or a metaphysical fantasy where grief, love and afterlife are painted, capturing otherworldly melancholy.
What Dream may Come lets you step inside a painted metaphysical world where love defies even death.
You can watch ‘What Dreams May Come’ on Prime Videos.
So if you love aesthetics, visual poetry, or want to see your favourite paintings magnified and brought to life on screen, these films are for you. For more such artful recommendations, keep an eye on our website.
