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

For instance, in the film, the scene where Christ carries allegedly immobilized images of painting compels Brigitte
the Cross was modeled after the painting The Ghent Christ Peucker to consider the film a perfect case of a conflict
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Carrying the Cross by Hieronymus Bosch. between “rival arts,” a conflict that resolves in a “triumph”
In Gangs of New York (2002), the semantic system of of film over painting. Peucker argues that Scorsese uses
the 16 -century painting of the Netherlands stands as painting “to say something about his chosen medium of
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the objective language for the visual message the film film” and concludes that for Scorsese, “film has triumphed
delivers. The composition and the narrative principles of over painting by means of its capacity of movement and
the paintings by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (Netherlands’ the representation of life.” One may disagree with this
Proverbs [1559], The Fight between Carnival and Lent interpretation since the contrast of mobility and stasis
[1559], and The Hunters in the Snow [1565]) have a intensified by the employment of paintings only benefits
considerable impact on the structure of film shots and the communication of the main ideas of this work of
scenes. It is possible to suggest that the Netherlands’ cinematic art addressing the themes of the imaginary
painting became a subject of interest for Scorsese in world and artificial ideals. The director hardly intends to
the process of making Gangs of New York because the oppose the art of painting. On the contrary, the film bears
cinematic creation of New Amsterdam demanded a resemblance to a painted canvas because it reconstructs
following the traditions of art that represented the “old” the intangible reality of the past, of an age long gone. Visual
Amsterdam and the “old world of Europe” the Dutch concepts such as “the pause,” “the suspended time,” and
colonists departed from only to recreate a new version of “the time wished to be stopped” are crucial in the design of
the realm bound to similar vices. In Gangs of New York, the the worldview presented by the film.
reconstruction of a new sin city follows the patterns made The styles of painting which contributed to constructing
by Pieter Brueghel and Hieronymus Bosch when they the objective language of this film are Realism,
visualized human follies, greed, cruelty, and violations of Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism, Art Nouveau, etc.
God’s commandments in their artworks. These styles of pictorial art originated in Europe, and for
Scorsese, they represented various cultural patterns of the
5. The analysis of The Age of Innocence by “old world” that the “new” American culture had been
Martin Scorsese modeled on in the epoch artistically reconstructed in the
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Among all of Scorsese’s films, the one that exemplifies the film. While the Realism of the Netherlands’ 17 -century art
deepest and the most transformative relationship between serves as an ideal model of life adopted by representatives
cinema and painting is The Age of Innocence. Painting of older generations of Europeans who settled in America,
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predominates the visual language of The Age of Innocence, the innovative styles of Impressionism and Art Nouveau,
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so it is hardly surprising that this work of cinematic art both emerged in the late 19 century, identify the novel
has inevitably attracted researchers studying the dialogue trends that shaped the mindset of younger generations.
between painting and film. 34-37 Extensive and scrupulous One of the themes in the film is related to the controversy
analysis has enabled scholars not only to identify paintings between the society of the Past and the social world of the
that inspired Scorsese in creating certain frames and Future. The Past is embodied by long-standing traditions, a
mise-en-scènes but also to recognize paintings as signs slow rhythm of the settled life, stability in relationships, and
denoting major themes and problems visualized in the innocent feelings. These morals constitute the United States
film. For instance, Paula Anca Farca, 34,p.57 who employs a as a country that still lives according to borrowed, foreign
psychoanalytical approach to film, states that Scorsese’s use patterns. The Future, on the contrary, is distinguished by a
of paintings “illuminates the characters’ relations to the break with traditions, individual values of independence,
rules of their society.” Farca declares that the paintings in and freedom of feelings. This theme allows Scorsese to
The Age of Innocence operate as Jacques Lacan’s Other, an explore one of the recurrent and critically important
entity that watches over the characters to make sure they social problems in his films: the wreckage of the whole
conform to its self-perpetuating rules. According to this civilization and the collapse of the system of values, which
theory, various sets of paintings in the film serve as visual seemed secure and unshakable.
means through which the characters “impose certain In the Age of Innocence, painting becomes the medium
guidelines” and thus perform for the other, then “their that the author of the film relies on in the cinematic
different responses to a variety of paintings underscore the reconstruction of both worlds – the one of the past and
flexibility of the symbolic order.” the one of the future. As a result, the film demonstrates
In The Age of Innocence, the inevitable contradiction multifaceted illusions humans shield from life with and the
between the mobile nature of film imagery and the failures in their struggle with the inexorable run of time. In

Volume 2 Issue 2 (2024) 5 doi: 10.36922/ac.2090