Movies Similar to Quilty: Painting the Shadows

Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict(2015)

Bouncing between Europe and the United States as often as she would between lovers, Peggy Guggenheim’s life was as swirling as the design of her uncle’s museum, and reads more like fiction than any reality imaginable. Peggy Guggenheim – Art Addict offers a rare look into Guggenheim’s world: blending the abstract, the colorful, the surreal and the salacious, to portray a life that was as complex and unpredictable as the artwork Peggy revered and the artists she pushed forward.

Penthesilea: Queen of the Amazons(1974)

Penthesilea, the first of six films made by Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen, traverses thousands of years to look at the image of the Amazonian woman in myth. It asks, among other questions, is the Amazonian woman a rare strong female image or is she a figure derived from male phantasy? The film explores the complexities of such questions, but does not seek any concrete answers.

Exergo(2024)

Departing from peripheral details of some paintings of the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, a female narrator unravels several stories related to the economic, social and psychological conditions of past and current artists.

Lee Scratch Perry's Vision of Paradise(2015)

Lee Scratch Perry's Vision of Paradise is a unique project in many ways. It is the life story of the legendary musician, but it is not a biography, it is a fairytale documentary! The director followed Lee Perry for thirteen years and discovered an unbelievable story, a revelation, told about and with one of the major protagonists of contemporary music, the other half of the story that has never been told. The movie can be seen as a guide for how to change the world with music, with a positive attitude, mindset or, as Lee Perry calls it, vibration.

Tinkebell - Who Killed the Blue Bird?(2024)

Artist Katinka Simonse, alias Tinkebell, is a controversial, very mediagenic phenomenon. In her universe there is no distinction between life, art and activism; Tinkebell is her own work of art. Everything she encounters on her life path can become part of her story. Filmmaker Judith de Leeuw was given access to all images about Tinkebell, including her entire private archive. She thus constructed an archive film about how as a human being, living on the ruins of the past, you can be a character in your own story. What is the price you can afford if you continue to believe at any cost?

Renoir and the Girl with a Blue Ribbon(2019)

This documentary follows three parallel stories. First, that of the masterpiece, The Little Girl with the Blue Ribbon, this melancholic Renoir work with the "musical face" described by Henri Michaux. The painting was constantly tossed around, shelved by its patrons, looted by the Nazis, found by the Monument Men, recovered by the family, sold to a controversial collector, before finally arriving at the Kunsthaus Zurich. We also discover the painter's biography, and the eventful life of his model, Irene Cahen d'Anvers. Born into the Jewish upper middle class, this free and divorced woman long disowned the painting and left it to her daughter, who was murdered at Auschwitz. Discover the tumultuous journey of this painting, its model, Irene Cahen d'Anvers, and its connection to the dark hours of the Nazi regime.

Podoby sveta(1985)

Golan: A Farewell to Mr Cinema(2015)

The final documentary in Christopher Sykes’ trilogy about legendary Palestinian-born Israeli movie director, producer, and studio mogul Menahem Golan looks back to the prolific filmmaker’s great Hollywood days, then forward to reveal a man who, in his eighties, still buzzes with energy, talking lovingly about what inspires him as he anticipates making a new blockbuster and receiving the Oscar he’s always wanted. - Denver Film Society

The Warhol Effect(2024)

Lifting the lid on the fascinating last decade of Andy Warhol's life and the legacy he left for future artists, through never-before-seen footage and interviews with insiders.

How Many Colours Has a Hand?(1971)

A film about and with Max Ernst.

Priit Pärn in Tallinn(2013)

Documentary about the work of the Estonian cartoonist and animation director Priit Pärn

Clear Canvas(1984)

James Williams' 1984 expressionistic video poem explores the creative urge in its purest form. This hauntingly beautiful piece was among EZTV's early video art classics, shot on analog Betamax and edited off-line on analog 3/4" video. A photographer, clothes and visual designer as well as a videomaker, Williams was EZTV's first art gallery curator, and also designed the EZTV logo.

Predictions of Fire(1996)

A visceral documentary focusing on the Slovenian collective art movement known as NSK ('Neue Slowenische Kunst') and its varied branches: 'Laibach', 'Irwin', and 'Red Pilot'.

Quentin Blake – The Drawing of My Life(2021)

The illustrator and author paints scenes from a 70-year-long career, including his work with Roald Dahl. With David Walliams, Joanna Lumley, Peter Capaldi, Ore Oduba and Michael Rosen.

James Tissot: L'étoffe d'un peintre(2020)

A movie about James Tissot (1836-1902), a French painter and portraitist

Kazuo Ohno: I Dance Into the Light(2004)

A documentary about legendary butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno.

Le grand roman de l'homme(2014)

At what point in our evolution did we start talking? To paint, play music and travel? When did we build our first imaginary worlds? When was the need to believe born? In short, where, when and how did the contours of man's essence take shape? Going back to the origins of language, art and writing, this documentary by Emmanuel Leconte and Franck Guérin traces the fantastic cultural epic of thought. Although animals also dream, today only our species has the power to recount its dreams, transforming them into stories, narratives and destinies... But where does this astonishing human faculty come from?

The Cremaster Cycle: A Conversation with Matthew Barney(2004)

For his five Cremaster films Matthew Barney's created a multitude of sculptural forms and structures. Recently both the sculptures and the films traveled to museums in Cologne, Paris and New York's Guggenheim. In THE CREMASTER CYCLE: A Conversation with Matthew Barney, the artist guides the camera through this remarkable creation at the Guggenheim Museum while being questioned by Michael Kimmelman, chief art critic of the New York Times.

Underground and Emigrants(1976)

In this film, outspokenly homosexual filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim has documented his encounters with friends in the New York "underground" arts movement, the better-known of whom are William Burroughs (who says nothing for the camera), Andy Warhol (seen in the distance) and Fernando Arrabal (who is interviewed in Spanish). The emigrants named in the title are notable Germans who left the country before World War II, such as Greta Keller and Grete Mosheim. Reviewers at the time of the film's release considered it to have been a sort of paid vacation for the filmmaker rather than a serious effort. (Clarke Fountain, Rovi)

Asdrúbal Trouxe o Trombone(2017)