WEBVTT

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The film director Cecil B. DeMille's 
early silent films

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had a dark, moody quality
that was characterized

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by the director as "Rembrand lighting".

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Movies have been inspired by fine art

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from the very beginning
of the cinema industry,

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sometimes in the form of a sequence,

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sometimes in the art direction
or the position of the actors,

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or sometimes in the "feel" of a movie.

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For some films, the homage is obvious,
in others more enigmatic.

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Many filmmakers and art directors
take direct inspiration from artists

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to inform their own creative vision,

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often referencing scenes
that are already familiar to us

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in specific works of art.

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As the French new wave director 
Jean-Luc Goddard said:

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"It's not where you take things from
it's where you take them to."

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Edward Hopper is seen as one 
of the first 20th century artist

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to be influenced by the cinema.

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He was an artist, more than any other,
who loved cinema — and cinema loved him.

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They both looked to each other
for stylistic interpretation

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and both created worlds 
of extraordinary imagination.

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As Hopper's work became more well-known
over the years to the general public

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filmmakers made more self-conscious
references to his paintings.

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This exerimental film by Gustav Deutsch
uses 13 beautifully recreated paintings

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by Hopper to tell the story of a woman
spanning three decades.

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In 2020 Wim Wenders released
this "love letter" to Edward Hopper.

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"In front of Edward Hopper's paintings
I always get this feeling

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"that they are frames from movies
that were never made,

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and I start wondering:

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"What's the story that is beginning here?

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"What will happen to these 
characters in the next moment?"

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Edward Hopper was 13 years old
when the first motion pictures were shown.

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He was in his late forties
when talking pictures came,

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and he died just as Bonnie and Clyde 
was being released.

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You could say his life 
was tied to cinematic history.

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His work was inspired 
not just by his movie obsession,

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but by the very act 
of going to the cinema,

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and we see this in this early etching 
depicting two isolated figures

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looking down on an unseen screen.

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We see cinemas in his other paintings,
as well of course with his masterpiece:

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"New York Movie".

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Filmmakers would hook on
to Hopper's creations

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— and return the compliments

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by turning to him
for stylistic inspiration.

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German Expressionism was one
of his early influences.

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Films he saw in Paris at the turn
of the 20th century

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— and the high angle images
he produced around this period,

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would later be replicated 
by a new avant-garde generation.

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His career would really take off
during the great depression of the 1930s,

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and the films of that period 
— and his paintings —

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reflected the dark pessimism at the time,

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a time of great insecurity.

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World War II brings another period
of uncertainty

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and gives birth to Film Noir.

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Woman: "I can't stand it anymore 
what if they do hang me?"

NOTE Paragraph

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These dark films would look
for inspiration

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directly from Hopper's paintings

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who was himself looking 
for inspiration in the movies.

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It was these films shot in Hollywood
in the 1930s and 40s

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which Hopper really loved.

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Films with a voyeuristic edge,

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set in an unnamed city,
an ambiguous setting.

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Films whose aesthetics were themselves

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derived from German Expressionism.

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Like Hopper, these films 
use dark shadows and stark lightinga

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to create an extreme contrast 
between light and dark.

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But with classic Film Noir 
it is not just "style",

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it is all about the tone,

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as it is with Hopper's paintings.

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Both take a familiar narrative element,

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and apply layer after layer
of possible meaning.

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ambiguous relationships, sexual tension,
a cynical eye

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and underlying existential philosophy,

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were all features we see

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in both Hopper's paintings
and cinema of this period.

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Woman; "Accident insurance?"

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In common with Film Noir,

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the subject Hopper
returned to again and again

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was the hardened and stony-faced 
female protagonist.

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As I discussed in my main film on Hopper,

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he had a disastrous love life
and unhappy marriage

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and he often used women 
as a vehicle to channel his unhappiness.

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It is in this early watercolour

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that we first see the unhappy
and discontented female lead.

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In this painting she is the wife
being ignored by her husband.

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Here, a defeated woman
contemplates her lot in life.

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And here, a sullen-faced girlfriend
ignores her partner.

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It is in "Nighthawks" that we see
her as a classic Femme Fatale.

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I sometimes feel
as if all of Hopper's women

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are ready to walk off frame
and commit a misdemeanor.

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Woman: "If you don't mind".

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(Gunshot)

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Alfred Hitchcock, no stranger
to the icy female lead,

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spoke openly of Hopper's influence

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and we see evidence throughout
Hitchcock's films.

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They are very much alike 
in their love of suspense and ambiguity,

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and in their interest in themes
of voyeurism, loneliness and isolation.

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Not to mention... windows.

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"This is the scene of the crime.

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"A crime of passion, filmed in a way
you have never seen before."

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Like Hitchcock, it is 
what Hopper chose to exclude

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in his paintings which adds tension.

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The narrative power lies in what 
is obscured or unseen.

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One of Hopper's images directly
influenced Hitchcock.

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But it was a big influence

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on so many other films,
and even illustrations of the day.

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Hitchcock: "An old house...

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"which is ..., if I may say so,
a little more sinister looking,

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"less innocent than the motel itself."

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We saw in the longer film 
how Hopper's "Nighthawks"

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was inspired by a book by Hemingway

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and how the subsequent film version
was then inspired by "Nighthawks".

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A great example of this symbiotic 
and mutually beneficial relationship

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can be found in an obscure 
and rarely film

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released two years before 
he completed "Nighthawks".

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I think, looking at details such as 
the corner setting,

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the position of the sidewalk,

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and even a soda jerk 
wearing a similar cap,

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this may have been one of the main
inspirations for Hopper's diner.

NOTE Paragraph

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An entire generation of film directors
would be influenced by Hopper,

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and that aesthetic would be
instantly recognizable

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as a certain type of "American landscape"`

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not just aesthetically,
but in terms of mood.

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["All the paintings of Edward Hopper

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[could be taken from 
one long movie about America,

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[each one, the beginning of a new scene."
— Wim Wenders]

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David Lynch, another American fan,
would also reference

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many of Hopper's paintings in his films.

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["I like many painters, 
but I love Francis Bacon the most,

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[and Edward Hopper" — David Lynch]

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Lynch, like Hopper, peeled back the facade
of the perfect American life

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to expose sinister "goings-on".

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And in the third season of Twin Peaks

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he used the painter's references
quite liberally.

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Hopper's vision of American life,
has had a huge impact

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on how the rest of the world pictures
the United States.

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It is a world that today
we still call "Hopper-esque".

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He is what we think of
as a quintessential American artist,

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yet he was also a major influence
on so many non-American filmmakers,

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who saw an intensity in Hopper,
a sense of emptiness,

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and a lack of communication
that we can all understand.

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Many of the filmmakers
have their own fascination

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with the American dream
— and the dark side behind it.

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They recognize the themes
of disconnection.

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They see that the psychology
behind a Hopper painting

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can be translated into any culture
and any language,

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and they made Hopper one of their own.

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Michelangelo Antonioni said: "The theme
of most of my films is loneliness"

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and his films typically 
featured bored lovers,

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whose lives are blighted by quiet despair
and existential unhappiness.

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He professed to being stylistically
inspired by Hopper

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(as well as Giorgio de Chirico).

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Roy Andersson's films
are instantly recognizable

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for their stylized presentation
and painterly approach,

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and the director, whose films show

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the alienation and solitude
of modern life,

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cites Hopper as a major influence.

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Like Hopper's paintings,

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Andersson carefully stages
every single frame.

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His sets are elaborately built
over several months,

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and his films sometimes 
take four years to make!

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Andersson's themes — like Hopper's —

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often leave it up to the viewer 
to guess what is happening

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outside the picture frame.

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We complete the picture.

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The diner in "Nighthawks",
his most iconic image,

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and possibly his most cinematic,

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has been recreated time and again
in the cinema.

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The diner has become a short cut
to "emotional dysfunction".

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Woman: "I know I can't rely 
on you, Arthur.

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"Not for anything."

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Man: "There's a lot of bad boys 
out there.

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Woman: "I know."

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Woman: "But I got eyes 
in the back of my head."

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(Gunshot)

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Director: "Cut!"

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Filmmakers continue to be inspired
by Edward Hopper

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whose works still resonate
in the 21st century.

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And his influence is felt even
in a new generation of K-pop stars.

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Edward Hopper, the biggest fan of cinema,
would have been astonished

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to know his influence would still be felt
by so many young filmmakers

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and even Korean pop stars, decades 
after he created his images.

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But who knows?

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Maybe in another life, he would have 
been directing films himself.

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Director: "Cut!"

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Edward Hopper: "Could that be?"

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Woman: "Is there a cue when I enter?"