![](3D"http://www.roland-collection.com/rolandcollection/images/logos/19.=)
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Systran |
Edward Hopper
This film is based on a `search' undertaken by the film-maker = into the=20 life and work of the painter Edward Hopper. It uses conversations = with=20 Gail Levin, Curator of the Hopper Collection at the Whitney = Museum, New=20 York, and author of an exhaustive biography of Hopper, an archive=20 recording of an interview with Hopper and his wife Jo, and a close = examination of Hopper's paintings. It visits the places of = significance to=20 him - his birthplace in Nyack, his studios at Cape Cod and in = Washington=20 Square. It constructs a biography of an artist whose career was, = in many=20 ways, an exemplary American success story, both the man and his = art=20 sustaining America's image of itself. The film tells of Hopper's = visits to=20 Paris, his first studio in New York, his work as a commercial = illustrator=20 and his growing concern with the representation of light, but = concludes=20 that the biographical approach is limited - the paintings are not = direct=20 images of places he knew, they are events in their own right. = Looking=20 closely at the paintings and the sketches that Hopper made for = them, the=20 film demonstrates that they are constructed landscapes, conveying = the=20 idea, not the actuality, of a place - a cinema, a gas station, a = hotel=20 room. Similarly the figures are not individuals but types, caught = in poses=20 of inaction. Compared with the work of other American artists, = like Norman=20 Rockwell and Walker Evans, these scenes are full of = contradictions,=20 commenting on, not participating in, the dynamism of city life. = The=20 film-maker suggests that these paintings invoke a sense of = narrative, like=20 a movie still. The figures seem to be in a relationship to each = other, but=20 their story remains hidden and enigmatic, for there is no `action' = to=20 supply this.
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Edward Hopper Hotel Room=20
| Credits | Director/Writer Ron Peck Narration Ron=20 Peck Gail Levin Original music David Graham = Ellis=20 Arts Council of Great Britain |
| 47 minutes Color Recommended audience age range=20 = 15-adult |