FILMS X ART

The Lighthouse by Robert Eggers (2019) x

The starry night by Vincent Van Gogh (1889)

The thought of merging a scene from the Lighthouse with The Starry Night was the feeling of claustrophobia behind each of them. Watching lighthouse was a very claustrophobic experience for myself and the story behind the painting by Van Gogh has always intrigued me. While merging the two gives a very different feel from how they actually are, together it gives a more positive vibe, feeling of “under the open skies and free”.

The black and white colours of the film traps the audience in the lighthouse with the two characters, with no escape at all, while Vincet Van Gogh painted The Starry Night while admitted in an asylum after being diagnosed with epileptic fits. There is a longing of being outside with more freedom than is allowed in both and it is also how the whole world felt, locked inside their homes amid the lockdown.

This painting also broke his usual style of painting-what-he-saw and brought to the audience the change in his headspace while he was recovering in the asylum. The film, lighthouse uses claustrophobia as a source of keeping the audience hooked and trapped to the screens, as that feeling overpowers every other the moment the two and only characters of the film are left alone in an empty island with resources that will last not too long, and nothing but endless sea with crashing waves surrounding them. The powerful performances by the characters shake you to the core and plays with your psyche. The swirls strokes of the painting adds more to the feeling of nausea and being trapped in film/space.

@india.in.cinema is an effort to explore and merge together various forms of art that enhance each other. Visit on Instagram for more :)