Cinematic

About

Cinematic art borrows the look and grammar of feature films: staged scenes, dramatic lighting, costumes and sets, wide framing, and the sense that a story is under way just outside the picture. Painting got there early. Edward Hopper's Nighthawks (1942), a lit diner seen from a dark street, reads like a film still, and cinematographers have borrowed from Hopper ever since.

Photographers made the link explicit. Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills (1977–80) cast the artist as heroines of films that never existed. Jeff Wall began staging elaborate scenes for large backlit transparencies in the late 1970s, and Gregory Crewdson works with lighting crews and actors to build eerie small-town tableaux. In moving image, Isaac Julien spreads lush narratives across several screens, and Steve McQueen moved from short artist's films to features such as Hunger (2008). Look for strong colour grading and a single frozen moment of suspense.