Artist biographies / biopics
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- DirectorAlexander KordaStarsCharles LaughtonGertrude LawrenceElsa LanchesterThe respected painter takes to drink and faces down scandal after his wife dies.
- DirectorMick DavisStarsAndy GarciaElsa ZylbersteinOmid DjaliliThe story of Amedeo Modigliani's bitter rivalry with Pablo Picasso, and his tragic romance with Jeanne Hebuterne.
- DirectorEd HarrisStarsEd HarrisMarcia Gay HardenRobert KnottA film about the life and career of the American painter, Jackson Pollock.
- DirectorJulian SchnabelStarsJeffrey WrightMichael WincottBenicio Del ToroThe brief life of Jean Michel Basquiat, a world renowned New York street artist struggling with fame, drugs and his identity.
- DirectorCharles MattonStarsKlaus Maria BrandauerRomane BohringerJean RochefortIconic artist Rembrandt van Rijn worked in the fields of painting, drafting, and printing, becoming the most iconic artist in all of Dutch history. This documentary profiles the story of a man whose varied works left an indelible mark on the world.
- DirectorAgnès MerletStarsValentina CerviMichel SerraultPredrag 'Miki' ManojlovicArtemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653) was one of the first well-known female painters. The movie tells the story of her youth, when she was guided and protected by her father, the painter Orazio Gentileschi. Her professional curiosity about the male anatomy, forbidden for her eyes, led her to the knowledge of sexual pleasure. But she was also well known because in 1612 she had to appear in a courtroom because her teacher, Agostino Tassi, was suspected of raping her. She tried to protect him, but was put in the thumb screws...
- DirectorPeter GreenawayStarsMartin FreemanEmily HolmesEva BirthistleAn extravagant, exotic and moving look at Rembrandt's romantic and professional life, and the controversy he created by the identification of a murderer in the painting 'The Night Watch'.
- DirectorMilos FormanStarsJavier BardemNatalie PortmanStellan SkarsgårdPainter Francisco Goya faces a scandal involving his muse, who is labeled a heretic by a monk.
- DirectorIm Kwon-taekStarsChoi Min-sikAhn Sung-kiYoo Ho-jeongIn a time of political and social unrest in nineteenth-century Korea, an uncouth, self-taught painter explores his natural talent amidst the repressive world around him.
- DirectorJulie TaymorStarsSalma HayekAlfred MolinaGeoffrey RushA biography of artist Frida Kahlo, who channeled the pain of a crippling injury and her tempestuous marriage into her work.
- DirectorRoger PlanchonStarsRégis RoyerElsa ZylbersteinAnémoneLife, passion, love...all these were part of Toulouse-Lautrec's art. His artistic development among the masters of the postimpressionism.
- DirectorJohn MayburyStarsDerek JacobiDaniel CraigTilda SwintonBiography of British painter Francis Bacon focuses on his relationship with his lover, George Dyer, a former small time crook.
- DirectorMaurice PialatStarsJacques DutroncAlexandra LondonBernard Le CoqThe final sixty-seven days of Van Gogh's life are examined.
- DirectorSeijun SuzukiStarsKenji SawadaTomoko MariyaMasumi MiyazakiPainter and poet Yumeji Takehisa (1884-1934) gets involved with a beautiful widow, becoming a rival of her dead husband's ghost and the jealous lover who murdered him.
- DirectorAndrei TarkovskyStarsAnatoliy SolonitsynIvan LapikovNikolay GrinkoThe life, times and afflictions of the fifteenth-century Russian iconographer St. Andrei Rublev.
- DirectorCarol ReedStarsCharlton HestonRex HarrisonDiane CilentoThe biographical story of Michelangelo's troubles while painting the Sistine Chapel at the urging of Pope Julius II.
- DirectorJacques BeckerStarsGérard PhilipeLilli PalmerAnouk AiméeAbout the last years of the life of the great artist Modigliani. A poor Italian artist suffering from alcoholism and opium addiction falls in love with Jeanne, a girl from a wealthy family whose parents are categorically against it.
- DirectorVincente MinnelliGeorge CukorStarsKirk DouglasAnthony QuinnJames DonaldThe life of brilliant but tortured artist Vincent van Gogh.
- DirectorRobert AltmanStarsTim RothPaul RhysAdrian BrineThe familiar tragic story of Vincent van Gogh is broadened by focusing as well on his brother Theodore, who helped support Vincent. The movie also provides a nice view of the locations which Vincent painted.
- DirectorDerek JarmanStarsNoam AlmazDexter FletcherNigel TerryA retelling of the life of the celebrated 17th-century painter through his brilliant, nearly blasphemous paintings and his flirtations with the underworld.
- DirectorPeter WatkinsStarsGeir WestbyGro FraasKerstii AllumThis biopic of Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch focuses on the influences that shaped his art, his devastating affair with a married woman that will haunt him for the rest of his life
- StarsPhilippe LeroyGiulio BosettiGiorgio PiazzaMiniseries dramatizing the life of the Italian Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519).
- DirectorRob EpsteinJeffrey FriedmanStarsJames FrancoTodd RotondiJon PrescottAs Allen Ginsberg talks about his life and art, his most famous poem is illustrated in animation while the obscenity trial of the work is dramatized.
- DirectorJane CampionStarsAbbie CornishBen WhishawPaul SchneiderThe three-year romance between 19th-century poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne near the end of his life.
- DirectorMichael HoffmanStarsHelen MirrenJames McAvoyChristopher PlummerA historical drama that illustrates Russian author Leo Tolstoy's (Christopher Plummer's) struggle to balance fame and wealth with his commitment to a life devoid of material things.
- DirectorRichard AttenboroughStarsAnthony HopkinsDebra WingerJulian FellowesC.S. Lewis, a world-renowned Christian theologian, writer and professor, leads a passionless life until he meets spirited poet Joy Gresham from the U.S.
- DirectorBruno NuyttenStarsIsabelle AdjaniGérard DepardieuMadeleine RobinsonCamille Claude impresses already-famous sculptor Auguste Rodin. He hires her as an assistant, but soon Camille begins to sculpt for herself and she also becomes his mistress. But after a while, she would like to get out of his shadow.
- DirectorAgnieszka HollandStarsLeonardo DiCaprioDavid ThewlisRomane BohringerYoung, wild poet Arthur Rimbaud and his mentor Paul Verlaine engage in a fierce, forbidden romance while feeling the effects of a hellish artistic lifestyle.
- DirectorPeter GreenawayStarsMartin FreemanEva BirthistleJodhi MayAn 'essayistic' documentary in which Greenaway's fierce criticism of today's visual illiteracy is argued by means of a forensic search of Rembrandt's Nightwatch. Greenaway explains the background, the context, the conspiracy, the murder and the motives of all its thirty-four painted characters who have conspired to kill for their combined self-advantage. Greenaway leads us through Rembrandt's paintings into seventeenth-century Amsterdam. He paints a world that is democratic in principle, but is almost entirely ruled by twelve families. The notion exists of these regents as charitable and compassionate entities. However, reality was different.
- DirectorPaul MorrisonStarsRobert PattinsonJavier BeltránMatthew McNultyAbout the young life and loves of artist Salvador Dalí, filmmaker Luis Buñuel and writer Federico García Lorca.
- DirectorPeter WebberStarsScarlett JohanssonColin FirthTom WilkinsonA young peasant maid working in the house of painter Johannes Vermeer becomes his talented assistant and the model for one of his most famous works.
- DirectorBrian GilbertStarsStephen FryJude LawVanessa RedgraveThe turmoil in poet/playwright Oscar Wilde's life after he discovers his homosexuality.
- DirectorLech MajewskiStarsRutger HauerMichael YorkCharlotte RamplingThis movie focuses on a dozen of the five hundred characters depicted in Bruegel's painting. The theme of Christ's suffering is set against religious persecution in Flanders in 1564.
- DirectorDavid DevineStarsThomas Jay RyanAlison PillKathryn LongSearching for inspiration, impressionist Edgar Degas hires a struggling young ballerina to pose for him. However, their critical attitudes and equally stubborn opinions push both towards greater heights. Based on actual events.
- DirectorCarlos SauraStarsFrancisco RabalJose CoronadoDafne FernándezFrancisco Goya (1746-1828), deaf and ill, lives the last years of his life in voluntary exile in Bordeaux, a Liberal protesting the oppressive rule of Ferdinand VII. He's living with his much younger wife Leocadia and their daughter Rosario. He continues to paint at night, and in flashbacks stirred by conversations with his daughter, by awful headaches, and by the befuddlement of age, he relives key times in his life, particularly his relationship with the Duchess of Alba, his discovery of how he wanted to paint (insight provided by Velázquez's work), and his lifelong celebration of the imagination. Throughout, his reveries become tableaux of his paintings.
- DirectorHenning CarlsenStarsDonald SutherlandMax von SydowJean YanneThis biographical film, based on the life of French artist Paul Gauguin (Donald Sutherland), follows the painter as he returns to Paris after a long stay in Tahiti and must confront his wife, his children, and his former lover.
- DirectorKenji MizoguchiStarsMinosuke BandôKinuyo TanakaKôtarô BandôUtamaro is a great artist who lives to create portraits of beautiful women, using the brothels of Tokyo to provide his models.
- DirectorAlbert LewinStarsGeorge SandersHerbert MarshallDoris DudleyLoosely inspired by Gauguin's life, the story of Charles Strickland, a middle-aged stockbrocker who abandons his middle-class life, his family, and his duties to start painting, as he has always wanted to do. He is from then on a awful human being, wholly devoted to his ideal: beauty.
- DirectorPaul CoxStarsJohn HurtMarika RiveraGabriella TrsekThis documentary, on the life of artist Vincent Van Gogh, is told through his letters to his brother Theo, from 1872 until his tragic death. We gain first hand insight into the man, his motivations, and his humanity.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaIshirô HondaStarsAkira TeraoMitsuko BaishôToshie NegishiA collection of tales based upon eight of director Akira Kurosawa's recurring dreams.
- DirectorBob BalabanStarsJoan AllenJeremy IronsEd Begley Jr.Biopic of American artist Georgia O'Keeffe and her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz.
- DirectorWoody AllenStarsOwen WilsonRachel McAdamsKathy BatesWhile on a trip to Paris with his fiancée's family, a nostalgic screenwriter finds himself mysteriously going back to the 1920s every day at midnight.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsJosé FerrerZsa Zsa GaborSuzanne FlonFictional account of French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
- DirectorChris MaybachStarsRichard TuttleConnie ButlerRoy DowellRichard Tuttle is an unconventional artist. Many of Tuttle's works are small pieces made of unusual materials, such as wire, or string, and many are both sculptures and paintings. Utilizing a wide variety of materials and possessing a unique sensibility, Tuttle produces works which confound art critics and museumgoers. Richard Tuttle: Never Not an Artist explores Tuttle's work and critical response to it. The film examines Tuttle's art and its impact in several locations: his home in New Mexico, in New York with collectors, and in Miami Beach, where Tuttle was chosen to create a rather large piece of public art.
- DirectorTerry ZwigoffStarsRobert CrumbAline Kominsky-CrumbCharles CrumbAn intimate portrait of controversial cartoonist Robert Crumb and his traumatized family.
- DirectorAlex GibneyStarsHunter S. ThompsonJohnny DeppJoe CairoA portrait of the late gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.
- DirectorThomas RiedelsheimerStarsAndy GoldsworthyAnna GoldsworthyHolly GoldsworthyPortrait of Andy Goldsworthy, an artist whose specialty is ephemeral sculptures made from elements of nature.
- DirectorJonathan DemmeStarsDavid ByrneBernie WorrellAlex WeirConsidered by critics as the greatest concert film of all time, the live performance was shot over the course of three nights at Hollywood's Pantages Theater in December of 1983 and features Talking Heads' most memorable songs.
- DirectorPhilip KaufmanStarsGeoffrey RushKate WinsletJoaquin PhoenixIn a Napoleonic era insane asylum, an inmate, the irrepressible Marquis De Sade, fights a battle of wills against a tyrannically prudish doctor.
- DirectorGary WalkowStarsCourtney LoveKiefer SutherlandLisa SheridanTwo murders that shaped the lives of several college students who went on to become some of the most influential writers of the Beat Generation.
- DirectorStephen DaldryStarsMeryl StreepNicole KidmanJulianne MooreThe story of how the novel "Mrs. Dalloway" affects three generations of women, all of whom, in one way or another, have had to deal with suicide in their lives.
- DirectorJulian FarinoStarsStephen Campbell MooreOliver MilburnMichael ElwynFollowing the success of his poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage", Byron becomes the toast of London.
- DirectorBent HamerStarsMatt DillonLili TaylorMarisa TomeiThis drama centers on Hank Chinaski, the fictional alter-ego of "Factotum" author Charles Bukowski, who wanders around Los Angeles, CA trying to live off jobs which don't interfere with his primary interest, which is writing. Along the way, he fends off the distractions offered by women, drinking and gambling.
- DirectorBennett MillerStarsPhilip Seymour HoffmanClifton Collins Jr.Catherine KeenerIn 1959, Truman Capote learns of the murder of a Kansas family and decides to write a book about the case. While researching for his novel In Cold Blood, Capote forms a relationship with one of the killers, Perry Smith, who is on death row.
- StarsDenis PodalydèsAnne AlvaroMaya SansaBiographical film about French writer Jean-Paul Sartre, concentrating on his passionate affairs with women.
- DirectorLaurent TirardStarsRomain DurisFabrice LuchiniLaura MoranteTo satisfy his creditors, a witty actor reinvents himself as a satirical playwright, with uproarious, yet bittersweet, results.
- DirectorWilliam DieterleStarsPaul MuniGale SondergaardJoseph SchildkrautThe biopic of the famous French muckraking writer and his involvement in fighting the injustice of the Dreyfus Affair.
- DirectorMark DonskoyStarsAleksei LyarskyVarvara MassalitinovaMikhail TroyanovskiyA drama reveals the great writer's inauspicious early years as an orphan raised by conniving relatives.
- DirectorCurtis BernhardtStarsOlivia de HavillandIda LupinoPaul HenreidGenius authors Emily and Charlotte Brontë fall in love with their curate as they seek to get their work published.
- DirectorPaul SchraderStarsKen OgataMasayuki ShionoyaHiroshi MikamiA fictionalized account in four chapters of the life of celebrated Japanese writer Yukio Mishima.
- DirectorPhilip KaufmanStarsFred WardUma ThurmanMaria de MedeirosAnaïs Nin meets American writer Henry Miller in Paris in 1931. She keeps a diary of her sexual awakening, which includes Henry and his wife June.
- DirectorMaría Luisa BembergStarsAssumpta SernaDominique SandaHéctor AlterioThis fact-based film examines the life of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (Assumpta Serna), a Roman Catholic nun from Mexico City who, in the midst of the Spanish Inquisition, established herself as an important New World philosopher, poet, playwright and early feminist. When Sor Juana comes under the scrutiny of a vicious archbishop (Lautaro Murúa) for her unconventional ways, she must appeal to a powerful political connection -- the Viceroy's scholarly wife.
- DirectorSteven SoderberghStarsJeremy IronsTheresa RussellJoel GreyKafka works during the day at an insurance company, where events lead him to discover a mysterious underground society with strange suppressive goals.
- DirectorGérard MordillatStarsSami FreyMarc BarbéJulie JézéquelMay, 1946, in Paris young poet Jacques Prevel meets Antonin Artaud, the actor, artist and writer just released from a mental asylum. Over ten months, we follow the mad Artaud from his cruel coaching of an actress in his "theatre of cruelty" to his semi-friendship with Prevel who buys him drugs and hangs on his every word. Meanwhile, Prevel divides his time between Jany, his blond, young, drug-hazed mistress and Rolande, his dark-haired, long-suffering wife, who has a child during this time. Cruelty, neglect, poverty, egoism, madness and the pursuit of art mix on the Left Bank.
- DirectorMichael RadfordMassimo TroisiStarsMassimo TroisiPhilippe NoiretMaria Grazia CucinottaA simple Italian postman learns to love poetry while delivering mail to a famous poet, and then uses this to woo local beauty Beatrice.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsEdmund GwennEsmond KnightJessie MatthewsThe story of Johann Strauss the elder and younger.
- DirectorAbel GanceStarsHarry BaurAnnie DucauxJany HoltLyrical biography of the classical composer, depicted as a romantical hero, an accursed artist.
- DirectorJulien DuvivierVictor FlemingJosef von SternbergStarsLuise RainerFernand GraveyMiliza KorjusIn 1845 Vienna, Johann Strauss II (Fernand Gravey) - 'Jonahi' to his friends - would rather write and perform waltzes than anything else, this at a time when a waltz is not considered proper society music. After he is fired from his clerical bank job because of his preoccupation with composing, he decides to follow his passion and form an orchestra. After some famed opera singers, including Carla Donner (Miliza Korjus), hear his music, they expose Johani's music to the masses, to royalty and to music publisher Julius Hofbauer (Hugh Herbert). As such, Johani becomes the toast of Vienna. With his new found musical fame, Johani's life, which includes his work in the European Revolutions, changes. He becomes torn for his love for his loving and faithful wife Poldi Vogelhuber (Luise Rainer) and his more emotionally passionate but somewhat destructive love for Carla Donner, who herself is involved with Count Anton Hohenfried (Lionel Atwill).
- DirectorReinhold SchünzelStarsAlan CurtisIlona MasseyBilly GilbertThe romantic story of Franz Schubert 's fight for recognition of his music. Fleeing Austria, he arouses passion strongly akin to mother love in a beautiful bucolic girl, who loves him to much to sacrifice genius on the altar of marriage.
- DirectorCharles VidorStarsPaul MuniMerle OberonCornel WildeBiography of Frederic Chopin.
- DirectorCharles VidorGeorge CukorStarsDirk BogardeCapucineGeneviève PageThe romantic story of Hungarian pianist Franz Liszt (Sir Dirk Bogarde), whose scandalous love affair forced him to abandon his adoring audiences.
- DirectorDanièle HuilletJean-Marie StraubStarsGustav LeonhardtChristiane LangPaolo CarliniThe life and music of Johann Sebastian Bach as presented by his wife, Anna.
- DirectorKen RussellStarsRichard ChamberlainGlenda JacksonMax AdrianPiano teacher Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky struggles against his homosexuality by marrying, but unfortunately he chooses a nymphomaniac whom he cannot satisfy.
- DirectorKen RussellStarsRobert PowellGeorgina HaleLee MontagueComposer Gustav Mahler's (Robert Powell) life, told in a series of flashbacks as he and his wife (Georgina Hale) discuss their failing marriage during a train journey.
- DirectorKen RussellStarsRoger DaltreySara KestelmanPaul NicholasComposer and pianist Franz Liszt (Roger Daltrey) attempts to overcome his hedonistic life-style while repeatedly being drawn back into it by the many women in his life and fellow composer Richard Wagner (Paul Nicholas).
- StarsRonald PickupCarla FracciGiampiero AlbertiniGiuseppe Verdi was born in 1813 and lived until 1901, his life spanning nearly a century of political turmoil and considerable personal turmoil. This 1982 biographical television miniseries, as seen on PBS's Great Performances, dramatizes the life of this classic Italian composer known for operas including La Traviata, Rigoletto, and Aida and his Requiem.
- DirectorBernard RoseStarsGary OldmanJeroen KrabbéIsabella RosselliniThe life and death of the legendary Ludwig van Beethoven. Besides all the work he is known for, the composer once wrote a famous love letter to a nameless beloved, and the movie tries to find out who this beloved was--not easy, as Beethoven has had many women in his life.
- DirectorMary HarronStarsLili TaylorJared HarrisMartha PlimptonThe story of Valerie Solanas, a '60s radical who preached misandry in her "Scum" manifesto. She wrote a screenplay for a film that she wanted Andy Warhol to produce, but after he repeatedly ignored her, she shot him.
- DirectorJames IvoryStarsAnthony HopkinsNatascha McElhoneJulianne MooreThe passionate Merchant Ivory drama tells the story of Françoise Gilot (Natascha McElhone), the only lover of Pablo Picasso (Sir Anthony Hopkins) who was strong enough to withstand his ferocious cruelty, and move on with her life.
- DirectorAlfonso CuarónStarsEthan HawkeGwyneth PaltrowHank AzariaModernization of Charles Dickens' classic story finds the hapless Finn as a painter in New York City pursuing his unrequited and haughty childhood love.
- DirectorBanksyStarsBanksyMr. BrainwashSpace InvaderFollowing the style of some of the world's most prolific street artists, an amateur filmmaker makes a foray into the art world.
- DirectorAndrei TarkovskyStarsMargarita TerekhovaFilipp YankovskiyIgnat DaniltsevA dying man in his forties remembers his past. His childhood, his mother, the war, personal moments and things that tell of the recent history of all the Russian nation.
- DirectorAleksandr SokurovStarsAleksei AnanishnovGudrun GeyerA man goes for a walk through the countryside with his dying mother.
- DirectorVíctor EriceStarsFernando Fernán GómezTeresa GimperaAna TorrentIn 1940, after watching and being traumatized by the movie Frankenstein (1931), a sensitive seven year-old girl living in a small Spanish village drifts into her own fantasy world.
- DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsNina Pens RodeBendt RotheEbbe RodeIn the elegant world of artists and musicians, Gertrud ends her marriage to Gustav and takes a lover, the composer Erland Jansson.
- DirectorChristopher HamptonStarsEmma ThompsonJonathan PryceSteven WaddingtonThe platonic relationship between artist Dora Carrington (Dame Emma Thompson) and writer Lytton Strachey (Jonathan Pryce) in the early twentieth century.
- DirectorShuqin HuangStarsGong LiFang-TsenShichang DaA Chinese prostitute weds, studies painting, and becomes a renowned artist and professor in Paris.
- DirectorJim SheridanStarsDaniel Day-LewisBrenda FrickerAlison WhelanChristy Brown, born with cerebral palsy, learns to paint and write with his only controllable limb - his left foot.
- DirectorOrson WellesGary GraverOja KodarStarsOrson WellesOja KodarFrançois ReichenbachA documentary about fraud and fakery.
- DirectorRonald NeameStarsAlec GuinnessKay WalshRenee HoustonAn ill-behaved, lovably scruffy painter, Gulley Jimson, searches for a perfect canvas, determined to let nothing come between himself and the realization of his exalted vision.
- DirectorHenri-Georges ClouzotStarsPablo PicassoHenri-Georges ClouzotClaude RenoirA filmed record of Pablo Picasso painting numerous canvases for the camera, allowing us to see his creative process at work.
- DirectorWilliam DieterleStarsJennifer JonesJoseph CottenEthel BarrymoreIn Depression-era New York, an impoverished painter has a chance encounter with an enigmatic, old-fashioned little girl in Central Park who inspires him and changes his destiny.
- DirectorEmile de AntonioStarsPhilip LeiderLeo CastelliWillem de KooningThe definitive documentary on the New York School Painters. Featuring footage of all the major figures of the New York Art Scene between 1940-1970, showing many of the artists before they became famous.
- DirectorHarry MosesStarsTeri HortonTod M. VolpeBen HellerIn this documentary, veteran filmmaker Harry Moses exposes the controversy in the world of high priced artwork. He paints a vivid picture of how art is bought and sold in America.
- DirectorSophie FiennesStarsAnselm KieferBill KatzKlaus DermutzStarting in 2000, German artist Anselm Kiefer began constructing a series of large elaborate structures, comprising 48 buildings, a labyrinth of tunnels, bridges, lakes and towers. The film bears witness to an incredible creative process.
- DirectorChristina ClausenStarsFab 5 FreddyJeffrey DeitchJulia GruenA portrait of New York artist Keith Haring.
- DirectorKurt LandStarsAmelia BenceGuillermo MurrayDora FerreiroThe life of the writer and poet Alfonsina Storni.
- DirectorAugusto Cesar VatteoneStarsÁngel MagañaTito AlonsoArturo ArcariThe film tells the story of the priest Lorenzo Massa who inspired the "San Lorenzo de Almagro" club from Buenos Aires.