Virgil Oldman je svetovo uznávaný znalec v oblasti výtvarného umenia a starožitností. Vo svojom osobnom živote je však uzavretým samotárom prenasledovaným mnohými obsesiami. Nikdy sa nedokázal zblížiť s iným človekom, nie je schopný s niekým spolupracovať a v živote sa nezamiloval do žiadnej ženy. Jeho okolie ho preto považuje za výstredného génia. Bližší vzťah má len s Robertom, mladým a zručným reštaurátorom historických mechanických strojčekov a hodín. Ale ani tento vzťah nie je možné nazvať osobným. Jedinou vecou, ktorej Virgil venuje svoju vášeň, je tajná zbierka ženských portrétov všetkých umeleckých štýlov a období, ktorú mu pomáha doplňovať Billy Whistler, druhý človek, ktorého je ochotný pustiť do svojho súkromia. A tak jeho život beží celkom bez emócií a nečakaných zmien. Až v deň jeho šesťdesiatych tretích narodenín príde nečakaný telefonát od neznámej ženy, ktorá sa predstaví ako Claire Ibbetsonová...
In London's contemporary art world, everyone has a hustle. Art Spindle runs a high-end gallery: he hopes to flip a Mondrian for millions. One of his assistants, Beth, is sleeping with Art's most acquisitive client, Bob Macclestone. Beth wants Bob to set her up in her own gallery, so she helps him go behind Art's back for the Mondrian. Bob's wife, Jean, sets her eye on a young conceptual artist, Jo, who lusts after Art's newest assistant, Paige. Meanwhile, self-absorbed videographer Elaine is chewing her way through friends and lovers looking to make it: if she'll throw Dewey, her agent, under the bus, Beth may give her a show. And the Mondrian? No honor among thieves.
A young woman who has just started a job at an art museum writes an email to a friend she lived with until recently. The other woman, also young, works as an artist and has just moved to a new city. A narrator reads this email, but we don't know which of the two women the voice belongs to, whether to the sender or to the receiver of the message. Neither are we aware of the details of this relationship; but what we do know is that, in addition to their interest in art, they share a concern for the difficulties of carrying out their personal and professional lives in the present. By focusing on the peripheral or hidden details of some paintings in the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, this narrator relates several stories linked to the social, economic and psychological conditions of the artists, both past and present.
Tim Jenison, a Texas based inventor, attempts to solve one of the greatest mysteries in all art: How did Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer manage to paint so photo-realistically 150 years before the invention of photography? Spanning a decade, Jenison's adventure takes him to Holland, on a pilgrimage to the North coast of Yorkshire to meet artista David Hockney, and eventually even to Buckingham Palace. The epic research project Jenison embarques on is as extraordinary as what he discovers.
The odyssey of a young Cape Breton woman as she moves to the big city (Halifax) and supports herself after the birth of her illegitimate child by posing for college art classes, on her way to becoming an artist in her own right.
A portrait of the artist as a "sublime demon with the archangel's face", with an innovative musique concrète soundtrack.
JORDAN is a lonely Manhattan painter. When GINGER, a suicidal 19 year old squatter calls Jordan by accident, she threatens to kill herself if he doesn't meet her for lunch. This dark dramedy is 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' on lithium. 16mm film
Short experimental film based on the theme of waiting, and how with time good things will come.
Janina Ramirez explores the BBC archives to create a TV history of Leonardo Da Vinci, discovering what lies beneath the Mona Lisa and even how he acquired his anatomical knowledge.
Three very different people — a quantum physicist, a neuroscientist (Sheetal Sheth), and an FBI agent — find themselves drawn into a spiraling mystery. Confronted with a mysterious car accident, the three must interpret clues that defy common sense. Their collective quest takes them from science to art to music to mysticism in a widening search for answers. After an intense outward chase to satisfy their rational minds, the trio realizes the answers they desire lie buried deep within themselves. As each seeker begins to embrace the true nature of reality, each is rewarded with revelations beyond their wildest imaginings. What they learn leaves them humbled and in awe of the strange and beautiful universe we call home. When everything makes sense, nothing makes sense. This highly philosophical narrative has been applauded by scientists, artists, thinkers, scholars, media, academia, students and audiences from 10 to 80+ years old.
Michael Palin heads for rural Pennsylvania and Maine to explore the extraordinary life and work of one of America's most popular and controversial painters, Andrew Wyeth. Fascinated by his iconic painting Christina's World, Palin goes in search of the real life stories that inspired this and Wyeth's other depictions of the American landscape and its hard grafting inhabitants. Tracking down the farmers, friends and family featured in Wyeth's magically real work, Palin builds a picture of an eccentric, enigmatic and driven painter. He also gets a rare interview with Helga, the woman who put Wyeth back in the headlines when the press discovered he had been painting her nude, compulsively but secretly for 15 years.
A year in the life of Elsa Michaud and Gabriel Gauthier, students of Fine Arts in Paris, lovers in troubled times, overwhelmed by maddening verbal and auditory stimuli, witnesses of a globalized violence more visible than ever in a chaotic digital era, in which the slow execution of simple gestures in a silent performance is an act of resistance.
A movie about James Tissot (1836-1902), a French painter and portraitist
Explores the paths being forged by six modern artists, giving us rare insight into the minds behind this rousing new wave of painting.