Page 60 - AC-2-2

Arts & Communication Dialogue of painting and cinema in The Age of Innocence

The gained insight into the interconnectedness of correspondence between visual models of the world created
various visual art and media may explain the reasons by painting and film. For instance, Aldouby discusses
18
why elements of other art forms are integrated into the the significant resemblance of the Symbolism characters,
cinematic language and help in understanding the laws scenes, and ideas to the personages, mise-en-scenes, and
of the universal language of visual art. I aim to explore concepts of the film Giulietta degli Spiriti and other films by
cinema’s relationship to other arts and media through a Federico Fellini. In her analysis of the embedded reference
case study employing multiple methods, including the to Boeklin’s Odysseus and Calypso, Island of the Dead,
conceptual and semiotic analysis of cinematic art pieces. chosen by the filmmaker in Casanova, Aldouby states that
the choice of these art-historical intertexts “reinstates the
A film is a message in a language of visual art. According
to linguistics theory by Ludwig Wittgenstein, each human subject, a creative individual, at the heart of the
25
romantic quest for meaning.”
message is formed by a correlation between the impersonal
rules of language and personal speech. Studying the nature Seeing and comprehending the analogies between
of speaking, Russian philosopher Daniil V. Pivovarov painting and film gives way to understanding how and
26
observed that every utterance is a combination of two why cultural patterns of another art are recreated in the
systems of linguistic means, which he defined as “objective” new media and how the subjective language of each work
and “subjective.” The objective language system is more of cinematic art is being formed in relation to the objective
static and is based on collegiate rules and impersonal languages of other visual arts.
meanings, while the subjective language system is more
flexible and is formed by personal meanings attributed by 4. Case study of the dialogue between
the speaker to signs of the objective language. Impersonal painting and cinema
objective and personal subjective elements are equally The theory becomes convincing only when it has been
important in producing each utterance. supported by practical evidence and implementation.
The objective language of painting is a complex The method of case studies has proved to be the most
semantic system in which we can identify indexical, efficient in the comparative research 31,32 of the relationship
iconic, and symbolic signs. This classification of signs in between cinema and painting, since every film demands
the language system of the work of visual art is loosely and deserves to be approached as a unique intermedial
based on Charles Sanders Peirce’s theory of signs. In the structure.
27
th
19 century, Peirce created semiotic theory, which proved The analysis of a film where the art of painting plays
to be efficient in the 20 century for scholars studying a decisive role in shaping the cinematic language may
th
both verbal and visual languages of arts. For instance, in give new empirical ground to the theoretical studies
Russian formalism, Roman Jakobson and other authors of interconnectedness between the visual languages of
28
followed Peirce’s distinction between icons, indexes, cinema and painting. While choosing the case to study
and symbols and developed the method of analyzing painting as an objective language of film, it is only logical
works of art as texts representing systems of signs. In the to turn attention to works by Martin Scorsese, who is an
st
21 century, Peirce’s theory has undergone evolution and artist with an encyclopedic knowledge of both film and
has been elaborated in relation to the visual art language art history and with a firm belief that cinema is generated
in the contemporary theory of art by the Russian scholar from fine arts, influenced, and nurtured by them.
Vladimir Zhukovsky. 29,30 According to this evolved theory, The dialogue between cinema and painting determines
in painting, the material signs are semantic elements of many films by Martin Scorsese. For instance, in Life
color, light and shade, composition, etc. Indexical signs are Lessons (1989), the film reconstructs a painter’s creative
characters or personages indicating animated or inanimate process, with the style of abstract expressionism as a
objects of reality. The integrity of indexical signs produces source of inspiration for a piece of art being created by the
iconic signs (scenes and events that unite all characters). protagonist in the course of the film. In Mean Streets (1973),
Each element of the picture refers to a certain worldview, the painting The Calling of St. Matthew by Caravaggio
conveyed by the work of art as a whole. A style of painting is not only influences the camera movement, staging, and
the objective language system that represents a worldview lighting of the scenes but also plays a key role in revealing
recurring in all pictures that belong to a certain style.
the meanings of the film’s characters and the story of a
When cinema employs an objective language of a certain conflict between sacred and profane, and of a personal
painting style, the patterns of a worldview represented religious quest for one’s true mission in life. Caravaggio’s
by a style are actualized in a work of cinematic art. The paintings, as well as artworks by other artists, inspired the
analogy between styles of painting and cinema indicates creative process of The Last Temptation of Christ (1988).

Volume 2 Issue 2 (2024) 4 doi: 10.36922/ac.2090