Tarkovsky's mysterious masterpiece that charts the life and times of an obscure 15th Century Russian icon painter. Rublev's character is recreated, through 8 separate chapters, as a symbol of Russian suffering at the hands of Tartar invaders. Beautifully told, a fantastic and brilliantly directed tale. find out more...

Low-key biopic of graffiti vandal turned New York darling Jean-Michel Basquiat. Catapulted to art-world super-stardom after a chance meeting with Andy Warhol, the obscene amounts of money his paintings suddenly command soon sends him down the slippery slope of big-time drug abuse. Enthralling. find out more...

The moving and superbly directed account of the life of the talented sculptor Camille Claudel and her tempestuous affair with the already famous Rodin, which lasted 15 years during which time she inspired some of his greatest works, but suffered with her own sanity. Depardieu and Adjani excel. find out more...

The film focuses on Camille's time spent in an asylum after she is sent there by her brother, the poet Paul Claudel, who questions his sister's sanity when she destroys some of her own works. She lives a reclusive life trying to prove to her doctor that she is mentally stable while waiting in hope that her brother will visit and consent to her discharge from the institution. 

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"I am dying in time to the splash of their oars - if arms as steady as these had embraced me in life...". This film is Jarman's vision of the life of the Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1573 - 1610). Caravaggio revisits periods of his tempestuous life in a series of deathbed flashbacks and prose-poem voice-overs, focusing particularly on the intense relationship between himself and a couple who model for him in Rome, Lena and Ranuccio. This sexual and violent love triangle eve find out more...

Jon Nguyen directs this documentary which explores the life and career of renowned film-maker and screenwriter David Lynch. With the aid of extensive interviews with Lynch himself, the film gives an intriguing insight into the director's formative years and recounts some of the experiences which helped shape his later work. While candidly providing a detailed account of some of his early films, Lyn find out more...

Saved from a group of drifters by Kim Byung-moon uncouth and self-taught painter Jang Seung-up offers a drawing as a means of thanks. Examining the picture, Kim realises Jang's extraordinary potential and becomes his mentor, encouraging him to pursue the life of an artist. find out more...

A visually stunning and passionate potted history of one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century, the Mexican, Frida Kahlo. This film deals primarily with Frida's private life, the enduring relationship with her husband and fellow artist, Diego Rivera, and her many scandalising affairs. Frida is a dramatic and affectionate portrait of a remarkable woman. find out more...

A fascinating biopic of Francis Bacon, concentrating on his relationship with George Dyer, a burglar whom he caught in his house and promptly seduced, whose amorality and innocence he found attractive and whom he introduced to his Soho pals. Dyer's bouts with depression, his drinking, pill popping and nightmares strain the relationship in this clash between the arty, boozy Soho set and the East End criminal fraternity, as does his pain with Bacon's casual infidelities. Bacon paints and talks wit find out more...

Vincent Minelli directs this biopic that, unusually for Hollywood, doesn't subsume the subject's achievements in a fictionalised life-story, explaining one not in terms of the other, but fully celebrating both. Douglas is superb as the artist living on the edge. Not just for art aficionados.

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