The film director Cecil B DeMille's early silent films, had a dark, moody quality that
was characterized by the director as "Rembrandt lighting". Movies have been inspired by fine art
from the very beginning of the cinema industry, sometimes in the form of a sequence, sometimes
in the art direction or the position of the actors, or sometimes in the 'feel' of a movie.
For some films, the homage is obvious, in others more enigmatic. Many filmmakers and
art directors take direct inspiration from artists to inform their own creative vision,
often referencing scenes that are already familiar to us in specific works of art.
As the French new wave director Jean-Luc Goddard said: "It's not where you take things FROM it's where you take them TO"
Edward Hopper is seen as one of the first 20th century artist to be influenced by the cinema.
He was an artist, more than any other, who loved cinema - and cinema loved him. They both looked
to each other for stylistic interpretation and both created worlds of extraordinary imagination.
As Hopper's work became more well-known over the years to the general public, filmmakers made
more self-conscious references to his paintings. This experimental film by Gustav Deutsch uses 13
beautifully recreated paintings by Hopper to tell the story of a woman spanning three decades.
In 2020 Wim Wenders released this 'love letter' to Edward Hopper.
Wim Wenders: "In front of Edward Hopper's paintings, I always get this feeling that they are frames from movies
that were never made, and I start wondering What's the story that is beginning here?
What will happen to these characters in the next moment?"
Edward Hopper was 13 years old when the first motion pictures were shown.
He was in his late forties when talking pictures came,
and he died just as Bonnie and Clyde was being released. You could say his life was tied to cinematic history.
His work was inspired not just by his movie obsession, but by the very act of going to the cinema,
and we see this in this early etching depicting two isolated figures looking down on an unseen screen.
We see cinemas in his other paintings, as well of course with his masterpiece: 'New York Movie".
Filmmakers would hook on to Hopper's creations - and return the compliment by turning to him for stylistic inspiration.
German Expressionism was one of his early influences. Films he saw in Paris at the turn
of the 20th century - and the high angle images he produced around this period,
would later be replicated by a new avant-garde generation.
His career would really take off during the great depression of the 1930s,
and the films of that period - and his paintings -reflected the dark pessimism at the time. A time of great insecurity.
World War II brings another period of uncertainty and gives birth to Film Noir.
Woman: "I can't stand it anymore what if they do hang me?"
These dark films would look for inspiration directly from Hopper's paintings
who was himself looking for inspiration in the movies.
It was these films shot in Hollywood in the 1930s and 40s which Hopper really loved. Films with a voyeuristic edge,
set in an unnamed city, an ambiguous setting. Films, whose aesthetics were themselves derived
from German Expressionism. Like Hopper, these films use dark shadows and stark lighting
to create an extreme contrast between light and dark. But with classic Film Noir
it is not just 'style', it is all about the tone, as it is with Hopper's paintings.
Both take a familiar narrative element, and apply layer after layer of possible meaning, ambiguous
relationships, sexual tension, a cynical eye, and an underlying existential philosophy, were all
features we see in both Hoppers paintings AND cinema of this period.
Woman: "Accident insurance?"
In common with Film Noir, the subject Hopper returned to again and again, was the hardened
and stony-faced female protagonist. As I discussed in my main film on Hopper, he had a disastrous love
life and unhappy marriage, and he often used women as a vehicle to channel his unhappiness.
It is in this early watercolour that we first see the unhappy and discontented female lead.
In this painting she is the wife being ignored by her husband.
Here, a defeated woman contemplates her lot in life.
And here, a sullen-faced girlfriend ignores her partner.
It is in 'Nighthawks' that we see her as a classic 'Femme Fatale'.
I sometimes feel as if all of Hopper's women are ready to walk off frame and commit a misdemeanor.
Woman "If you don't mind". *gun shot*
Alfred Hitchcock, no stranger to the icy female lead, spoke openly of Hopper's influence, and we
see evidence throughout Hitchcock's films. They are very much alike in their love of suspense and ambiguity,
and in their interest in themes of voyeurism, loneliness, and isolation. Not to mention... windows.
VO: "This is the scene of the crime. A crime of passion, filmed in a way you have never seen before"
Like Hitchcock, it is what Hopper chose to exclude in his paintings which adds tension. The narrative
power lies in what is obscured or unseen. One of hopper's images directly influenced Hitchcock.
But it was a big influence on so many other films, and even illustrations of the day.
Hitchcock: "An old house...
...which is, if I may say so, a little more sinister looking, less innocent than the motel itself.
We saw in the longer film how Hopper's 'Nighthawks' was inspired by a book by Hemingway,
and how the subsequent film version was then inspired by 'Nighthawks'.
A great example of this symbiotic and mutually beneficial relationship
can be found in an obscure and rarely seen film, released two years before he completed 'Nighthawks'.
I think, looking at details such as the corner setting, the position of the sidewalk, and even a
soda jerk wearing a similar cap, this may have been one of the main inspirations for Hopper's diner.
An entire generation of film directors would be influenced by Hopper,
and that aesthetic would be instantly recognizable
as a certain type of 'American landscape', not just aesthetically - but in terms of mood.
David Lynch, another American fan, would also reference many of Hopper's paintings in his films.
Lynch, like Hopper, peeled back the facade of the perfect American life, to expose sinister 'goings-on'
And in the third season of 'Twin Peaks', he used the painter's references - quite liberally.
Hopper's vision of American life, has had a huge impact on how the rest of
the world pictures the United States. It is a world that today we still call 'Hopper-esque'.
He is what we think of as a quintessential American artist,
yet he was also a major influence on so many non-American filmmakers, who saw an intensity
in Hopper, a sense of emptiness, and a lack of communication that we can ALL understand.
Many of the filmmakers have their own fascination with the American dream - and the dark side behind it.
They recognize the themes of disconnection. They see that the psychology behind a Hopper
painting, can be translated into any culture and any language, and they made Hopper one of their own.
Michelangelo Antonioni, said: "The theme of most of my films, is loneliness", and his films typically
featured bored lovers, whose lives are blighted by quiet despair and existential unhappiness.
He professed to being stylistically inspired by Hopper (as well as Giorgio de Chirico).
Roy Andersson's films, are instantly recognizable for their stylized presentation and painterly
approach, and the director, whose films show the alienation and solitude of modern life,
cites Hopper as a major influence. Like Hopper's paintings, Andersson carefully
stages every single frame. His sets are elaborately built over several months,
and his films sometimes take four years to make! Andersson's scenes - like Hopper's - often leave
it up to the viewer to guess what is happening outside the picture frame. WE complete the picture.
The diner in 'Nighthawks', his most iconic image, and possibly his most cinematic, has been recreated
time and again in the cinema. The diner has become a shortcut to 'emotional dysfunction'.
Woman: "I know i can't rely on you Arthur. Not for anything"
Man: "There's a lot of bad boys out there". Woman: "I know"
Woman: "But i got eyes in the back of my head"
*Gunshot*
Director: "And CUT!"
Filmmakers continue to be inspired by Edward Hopper, whose works still resonate in the 21st century.
And his influence is felt even in a new generation of K-pop stars.
Edward Hopper, the biggest fan of cinema, would have been astonished to know his
influence would still be felt by so many young filmmakers, and even
Korean pop stars, decades after he created his images.
But who knows? Maybe in another life, he would have been directing films himself?
Director: "CUT!"
Edward Hopper: "Could that be?"
Woman "Is there a cue when i enter?"