Close-Up Culture list 25 films where the frames look like oil paintings and the camera treats the art direction like the protagonist.

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1. Mr. Turner (2014)
What you’ll see: Painting · Landscapes · Light · Seascapes

2. The Great Beauty (2013)
What you’ll see: Rome · Sculpture · Architecture · Decadence

3. Frida (2002)
What you’ll see: Self-portraits · Surrealism · Mexican folk art · Colour

4. The Square (2017)
What you’ll see: Galleries · Installations · Performance art · Art-world absurdity

5. Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)
What you’ll see: Street art · Graffiti · Banksy · Art markets

6. Basquiat (1996)
What you’ll see: Neo-expressionism · Graffiti · New York · Downtown art

7. Loving Vincent (2017)
What you’ll see: Oil paintings · Van Gogh · Landscapes · Animated brushwork

8. Big Eyes (2014)
What you’ll see: Pop art · Portraiture · 1950s America · Art-world deception

9. At Eternity’s Gate (2018)
What you’ll see: Van Gogh · Sunflowers · Landscapes · Colour

10. The Painter and the Thief (2020)
What you’ll see: Portraiture · Painting · Theft · Unlikely friendship

11. Finding Vivian Maier (2013)
What you’ll see: Street photography · Portraits · Chicago · Hidden archives

12. The Salt of the Earth (2014)
What you’ll see: Photography · Landscapes · Documentary · Human stories

13. Mapplethorpe (2018)
What you’ll see: Photography · Flowers · Portraits · New York nightlife

14. Phantom Thread (2017)
What you’ll see: Couture · Dressmaking · Textiles · Obsession

15. The Neon Demon (2016)
What you’ll see: Fashion · Photography · Models · Beauty

16. Pina (2011)
What you’ll see: Dance · Choreography · Bodies · Performance

17. Black Swan (2010)
What you’ll see: Ballet · Costumes · Choreography · Transformation

18. All That Jazz (1979)
What you’ll see: Dance · Theatre · Rehearsals · Showbiz

19. Synecdoche, New York (2008)
What you’ll see: Theatre · Sets · Miniature worlds · Existentialism

20. The Souvenir (2019)
What you’ll see: Filmmaking · Film school · Memory · Creative ambition

21. Gerhard Richter: Painting (2011)
What you’ll see: Abstract painting · Photography · Colour · Process

22. The Price of Everything (2018)
What you’ll see: Contemporary art · Auctions · Collectors · Money

23. The Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)
What you’ll see: Fashion photography · Studio sets · Models · Surreal imagery

24. The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965)
What you’ll see: Michelangelo · Frescoes · The Sistine Chapel · Renaissance art

25. The Danish Girl (2015)
What you’ll see: Painting · Portraiture · Fashion · Identity