Edward Hopper and Cinema: A Great Art Explained Extra

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?"