Through the feature films and documentaries of directors including
Emmer, Erice, Godard, Hitchcock, Pasolini, Resnais, Rossellini and
Storck, Jacobs examines the way films 'animate' artworks by means of
cinematic techniques, such as camera movements and editing, or by
integrating them into a narrative.He explores how this 'mobilization' of
the artwork is brought into play in art documentaries and artist
biopics, as well as in feature films containing key scenes situated in
museums. The tension between stasis and movement is also discussed in
relation to modernist cinema, which often includes tableaux vivants
combining pictorial, sculptural and theatrical elements. This tension
also marks the aesthetics of the film still, which have inspired
prominent art photographers such as Cindy Sherman and Jeff
Wall.Illustrated throughout, Jacobs' study of the presence of art in
film, alongside the omnipresence of the filmic image in today's art
museums, is an engaging work for students and
scholars of film and art alike.