Ophelia by John Everett Millais was all over the internet months ago, when Taylor released her single The Fate of Ophelia (sadly the only remarkable thing about this era), and I was living my best life.

I know the discourse about whether this was a proper representation of Ophelia was huge, but I’m not here to talk about that this time. I was just happy to see Millais’ painting all over my timeline. And yes, I’m well aware it was already a widely known painting, but that only made me realise how much it has influenced pop culture, and not only that, but also the depiction of female suffering in media.

Millais’ Ophelia is one of the most powerful visual templates for female death and madness in Western culture, and cinema is one of the best mediums to prove this. This painting has become so iconic in our collective imagination that almost every female death scene in water feels linked to it first, and to Shakespeare’s character second.

There’s a pretty extensive list of scenes in film history shaped after Millais’ take on Ophelia’s death. Every single one adapts different aspects of it, which fascinates me, and I want to share them with you.

So, as part of my Art×Cinema universe, I wanted to inaugurate a new subseries where, instead of focusing on a movie and the artworks that appear in it, I focus on an artwork itself and the movies that were influenced by it.

Here’s the question: is every woman floating on water in cinema a reference to Millais’ Ophelia? I personally think it depends on the context. Let me explain:

The Painting:

Ophelia

Millais portrays the tragic death of Ophelia, one of Shakespeare’s most iconic and tragic heroines. After her lover Hamlet kills her father, she sinks into madness and drowns in the river while singing, something that is only described in Gertrude’s speech in the play, not shown on stage.

Read more

Yes, my delusional mind thinks this is the year I am somehow buying my own place, and my late night scrolling on real estate portals, staring at 50 m² apartments that cost what a mansion did six years ago persona, felt personally attacked when I saw Charlie and Emma’s apartment on screen.

And if you know me already, you know I am as obsessed with that apartment as everyone else, but there is one specific aspect that completely stole my attention: the paintings.

I was fangirling so hard when it is revealed that Charlie is the head curator of Boston’s Cambridge Art Museum, and not only that, he tries to sneak Emma into the building at night for one of their first dates. That felt like a direct insult from the universe because he is literally living my dream life. It also instantly justifies why the apartment looks the way it does. It is not random, it is a space built by two people whose jobs are basically reading, editing and looking at art all day, so it is obviously filled with books and paintings.

But if there is something the FramexFrame series has drilled into our brains, or at least I hope so, it is this: when a painting is hanging on a wall in a movie, it usually means more than this character has impeccable taste.

There is a scene after the reveal where Emma and Charlie are arguing and my mind completely ignored the dialogue because I was too focused on the artwork right above the fireplace. I didn’t recognize it, but it was so specific and so weirdly perfect in that context that I knew it had to be intentional. And it was.

So let’s break down this paintings, shall we?

The Apartment

It might not seem that important at first glance, but the apartment in The Drama is doing an insane amount of storytelling by itself. It is not just a pretty backdrop to flex how much money they have, it is basically the most important witness of their entire relationship and how it starts to crumble.

Production designer Zosia MacKenzie (who also designed for Dream Scenario so she is already familiar with Borgli’s brilliant mindset) was very clear in interviews. They did not want to rely on prop art and instead filled the apartment with real works by contemporary artists, looking into New York galleries like Perrotin or Kordansky. They printed them on linen so it would feel like a museum curator’s actual home, where every piece makes sense inside their own cosmos.

Because most of the film is locked into this one space and structured around a single revelation, the art on the walls works like a silent witness. It never moves or speaks, but it watches and quietly reflects what is going on and what is going to happen.

I got so invested in this that I tried to draw a map of where each painting lives in the apartment with my zero architectural knowledge and spatial skills, just from rewatching the movie on loop and out of my commitment to you guys, so I am sorry if this is not 100% accurate.

And now, the fun part, the paintings.

Shambolic Figure by Tristan Unrau

It is true that every artwork in this apartment gets a moment, but Shambolic Figure felt like an extra character to me, and I think it is probably the one that everyone, even people not interested in art at all, wondered about.

Above the fireplace hangs Shambolic Figure by Tristan Unrau (who is actually Kristoffer’s friend). It is a weird, blobby, almost creature like figure on a table, holding a glass. MacKenzie explained how this melting blob felt like the perfect fit to mirror Charlie’s mental state once Emma’s past is revealed.

That is why the placement is so convenient. It literally sits behind Charlie during the key conversations about Emma’s confession, and also while he struggles to write the speech. So every time we see that living room, there is this liquefying red mass hovering behind Charlie, that visually represents his mental breakdown.

I also love how the blob looks like it is set in a space that could almost be the confessions scene itself, mirroring Charlie’s state as he sits there listening to the rest of those awful admissions.

Photocall by Eirik Sæther

During the scene where Emma drags Charlie’s pants down, we get a clear view of Photocall by Norwegian artist Eirik Sæther, one of the contemporary artists MacKenzie mentions as part of Charlie and Emma’s collection.

It is not a figurative painting, but it does not need to be. Even if you only catch it subconsciously, the title is already doing the work. A photocall is a staged moment where people pose for the press, trying so hard to look perfect, a performance of self in front of cameras.

There is no need to dig very deep to connect that to the film. We literally get a scene where the couple is posing for the wedding photos with the biggest elephant in the room pressing against them, pretending to be the perfect soon to be married couple while guns are practically flashing behind their retinas.

It is so brilliant and funny to include in their collection a piece whose title foreshadows what they are going to be forced to do during their whole wedding preparation process.

Spring by Danielle Orchard

This one is really interesting, because it is hanging next to two other artworks, so it might go a little unnoticed. Spring by Danielle Orchard is instantly recognizable: stylized, slightly cubist, but there is one thing about the version in the apartment. It is hanging upside down.

Which, if you think about Charlie’s job, is wild. This guy is not accidentally hanging a contemporary painting the wrong way around when he has probably seen it more than once before bringing it home. So why is it placed like that?

I have no official confirmation, but it is interesting because most of Danielle’s oeuvre depicts women, and she has talked about how she paints the risks inherent to truly knowing another person, which is exactly what the movie is about.

About this piece, my personal interpretation is that this particular painting flipped completely changes the energy of what we are seeing. The painting depicts a dead chick on the palm of a hand, and if you turn that upside down, it might look like the hand is dropping the little bird. So the correct orientation is about care and loss, a hand cradling something fragile that could not be saved. Flip it, and the energy shifts, maybe reflecting that Emma indeed was saved before it was too late, when she found a group and a net of support.

Untitled by John Gall

We also have Untitled by John Gall in the apartment, which is one of my favorite details because it is almost too perfect once you know who he is. Gall is a legendary book cover designer and creative director at Alfred A. Knopf, and he is really into collage art. To mention one of his iconic covers, I am sure everyone has seen the Klara and the Sun one, and it is absolutely incredible.

It feels so cool, almost romantic, to think that there are artworks in the apartment that also reflect Emma’s career and passions merged with Charlie’s.

This piece got sold for €514,95 in case you were wondering.

Peony II by Sara Cwynar

Peony II by Sara Cwynar is one of the stars of the living room. MacKenzie calls it out specifically. It is the vibrant floral print glowing on the wall, alongside the large photograph Shell by Bjarne Bare, who even attended The Drama premiere, and other anchor pieces.

The peony becomes a portrait of their relationship. On the surface, it is gorgeous, perfect and colorful, but underneath it is something that is past its peak and quietly falling apart. You can see two petals already on the floor.

The Passion of Anna poster

And of course, I was saving the cinephile reference for the end!

If you ask me, Charlie and Emma look like a paradigmatic pretentious cinephile couple, especially Charlie. So it ends up being ironic that they are so into Ingmar Bergman’s filmography that they have a poster of The Passion of Anna in their living room. Because that film, just like these paintings, revolves around trust in a relationship and how a revelation about the past can throw everything into a vortex.

In fact, Kristoffer Borgli even asked both Robert Pattinson and Zendaya to watch The Passion of Anna as prep for their roles, so having the poster there is the culmination of perfect easter egg.

Conclusion

So yes, The Drama’s apartment is gorgeous. I wish I was the head curator of a museum and had to use that spiral staircase every day while admiring my personal art collection mirroring my personal struggles. I tried to rant much and keep this as concise as possible, so I hope you enjoyed it!

If you love diving into the meaning of art hidden in plain sight in movies, consider subscribing, because I am working on more FramexFrame articles.

Further reading and sources:

John Gall’s Portfolio

In ‘The Drama’, the “Emotional Meltdown” of a Plot Twist Hangs Like Artworks in the Protagonists’ Apartment — Production Designer Zosia Mackenzie Reveals

An Exclusive Look Inside Zendaya and Robert Pattinson’s Dream Apartment in The Drama

In ‘The Drama,’ Mid-Century Furniture and Original Art Capture a Relationship on the Brink

I know, I know, it’s almost February, way too late to post anything related to 2025, I know. But in my defense, I’ll say I’ve been genuinely so busy and I wanted to see as many queer movies as possible before publishing the final list.

I’ve seen a lot of queer films from last year, not as many as I’d like to (the eternal curse of the cinephile, it’s never enough). So maybe if you’re missing a title here, it’s not because I hated it, I simply couldn’t watch it. Still, I wanted to share my favorites among the ones that I actually got the chance to see. Sadly a lot of them disappointed me and it broke my heart, but a few of them surprised me and I really want to recommend them to you all.

And since I have the impression that each year we get even fewer queer films, which in the current situation makes sense and makes everything even scarier, I think a shoutout to some of them won’t hurt, even though it’s a delayed one.

I also took the liberty of adding some scales that might help you find your perfect movie match. They're based on stuff I personally think matters: how queer the film is (in terms of representation and screentime), how visually stunning it looks, and the overall story quality. Please note that the story rating is about how interesting I found the plot itself, not the overall rating of the film.

Let’s dive in:

Hedda

Directed by Nia DaCosta

This one caught me completely off guard. I was excited for this movie but I never thought I would like it that much and I’m sad because I haven’t seen that many people talk about it.

It’s all due to the fantastic Nia DaCosta/Tessa Thompson combo. The direction of this movie is probably the thing I liked the most. The cinematography is amazing and Tessa is so alluring and charismatic, she’s perfect for the role. The production design is wonderful (I’ll make a post about it).

The story is tense, chaotic, tragic. Maybe not the best choice if you’re looking for a silly happy sapphic romance. But if you’re into toxic yuri like me, do not miss this one.

Is it a book adapt? It’s a play adapt.

Queerness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Visual Pretiness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Story Quality Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Kiss of the Spider Woman

Directed by Bill Condon

I’m a theatre kid, so it would be weird if I wasn’t into musicals, and I was really curious about this one because the original film (I know it’s also a play and a book adaptation) had a lot of potential.

The plot is amazing. Turning it into a musical works perfectly. The best thing about the 1985 version was the cast in my opinion. William Hurt and Raul Julia were insanely good, still unmatched, and it was difficult to keep it up, but the new cast makes a pretty decent job. Even JLo is great, surprisingly.

The musical numbers are beautiful. It’s a remake that I think was not unnecessary. I’m appalled it bombed at the box office.

Is it a book adapt? Yes

Queerness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Visual Pretiness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Story Quality Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

100 Nights of Hero

Directed by Julia Jackman

One of my most anticipated. The trailer was so weird, gave me Lanthimos vibes, and having another sapphic movie with Lanthimos vibes was everything I needed to be happy.

And I think that’s the best thing about this movie: how it’s made, the production design, the editing. It’s a great movie to experience.

Still, I think it's flawed. The acting was a little off for me sometimes, not great chemistry either imo, focuses too much on the men, but the message is cute and I didn't need this to be super perfect to actually enjoy it.

Is it a book adapt? Yes, a graphic novel!

Queerness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐½
Visual Pretiness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Story Quality Scale: ⭐⭐⭐

Plainclothes

Directed by Carmen Emmi

I’ve been hyped for this movie since it premiered at Sundance. When I got to finally see it, I was worried about it disappointing me. It didn’t.

First of all, and the first thing you notice when you watch it, is the editing and how it combines image formats. Works so well, makes the movie even more appealing. The plot is very good. I was surprised about how engaging it was, because I was expecting the movie to be merely focused on the romance, but the whole plot is so cool. Tom is amazing in this role, needs to be talked about more.

Love it.

Is it a book adapt? No

Queerness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Visual Pretiness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Story Quality Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Wedding Banquet

Directed by Andrew Ahn

Not my favorite of the bunch. I think the original Ang Lee movie was pretty problematic, and this one is an improvement in that aspect.

Still not a perfect movie, but it has something that I really enjoyed and that’s queer families and couples being domestic in a super cozy kind of way, and it’s not something we usually see in cinema or media at all, and I loved seeing that, and I thought you may enjoy it too.

Also, Lily Gladstone being a cute butch again is all I ever wanted.

Is it a book adapt? No

Queerness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Visual Pretiness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐
Story Quality Scale: ⭐⭐⭐

Lesbian Space Princess

Directed by Emma Hough Hobbs, Leela Varghese

As an animation lover, I’ve been hyped for this movie since I first heard that title because it was already promising and perfect. I was initially going to watch it at Sitges and got sick the day of the screening and I’ve never been more mad in my life.

Anyways, I eventually saw it and loved it. It’s just a cute silly movie. The humor is basic and sometimes childish even, but you have a great time. I had fun. The story and worldbuilding is so cool, the songs are bops in fact, and it’s refreshing to have this kind of animation in movie format too.

I wish they created a whole franchise of lesbian space movie adventures.

Is it a book adapt? No

Queerness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Visual Pretiness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Story Quality Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo

Directed by Diego Céspedes

How amazing is it to see a Latin western with a whole trans women ensemble, with some touches of surrealism, found family, and beautiful cinematography? This film balances every aspect perfectly and I really enjoyed it.

Explores themes like AIDS, marginalization, queer communities in a Chilean mining town and does it in a pretty original and beautiful way.

Is it a book adapt? No

Queerness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Visual Pretiness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Story Quality Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Love Me Tender

Directed by Anna Cazenave Cambet

A hidden gem. This movie is also a book adaptation, if you want to read it first, but it’s also a pretty interesting queer film. Vicky Krieps plays a woman who realizes she’s a lesbian later in life, so she tells her ex husband and from that they have a pretty nasty fight for custody. What I love about this film is how it balances the whole exploring her sexuality plot with issues like motherhood or even misogyny. The story is pretty crude, it’s sad, but the movie also makes it feel warm and hopeful at times.

And big highlight: Vicky’s performance. There’s a scene that almost broke me.

Is it a book adapt? Yes

Queerness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Visual Pretiness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Story Quality Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Twinless

Directed by James Sweeney

Probably my favorite queer film of 2025. Because yes, it’s a great gay film, but it’s also a fantastic film, period. I loved the plot. It’s funny, weird, original and has a kind of humor that’s totally up my alley.

Also enjoyed how it’s made. It has some beautiful shots that made me mumble out loud “this is a pretty nice shot.”

Big recommendation here. It’s very enjoyable, James Sweeney was such a great discovery, and bonus points to mustache Dylan O’Brien. I really appreciated that too.

Is it a book adapt? No

Queerness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Visual Pretiness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Story Quality Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Sorry Baby

Directed by Eva Victor

Sorry Baby went completely overlooked by the Oscars and I couldn’t allow it. I will fight to give you the recognition you deserve, Sorry Baby.

Even though queerness is not a key aspect of the movie, it’s nice to see a movie with queer characters just existing and participating in a plot without the queerness being discussed. And Sorry Baby is a wonderful movie where we have Naomi Ackie playing the queer best friend of the protagonist and being happy with her partner, and it was really nice to see.

But also the movie is an impressive directorial debut, depicts trauma in a really unique way.

Is it a book adapt? No

Queerness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐
Visual Pretiness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐½
Story Quality Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

A Nice Indian Boy

Directed by Roshan Sethi

This was cute, pretty cute, pretty enjoyable, pretty easy to watch. And sometimes we just need that. Not a cinematic masterpiece, just a gay romcom of an Indian guy falling in love with Jonathan Groff (because who wouldn’t).

Great pacing, silly jokes, basic but effective story. Gay romcom excellence.

Is it a book adapt? No

Queerness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Visual Pretiness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐
Story Quality Scale: ⭐⭐⭐

Ice Tower

Directed by Lucile Hadžihalilović

Not a movie for everyone, I’m warning you.

It’s a slow movie, oneiric and poetic, and the reason why I include it: visually stunning. It’s not a love story. If you are looking for that, the whole sapphic plot is super toxic, but interesting and like I said, so beautiful.

It’s one of those movies that really makes you feel immersed in the atmosphere. Marion Cotillard does intimidating like no one else. I think it’s a movie that deserves a watch if you’re into this kind of film.

Is it a book adapt? No

Queerness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐½
Visual Pretiness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Story Quality Scale: ⭐⭐⭐½

Maspalomas

Directed by Aitor Arregi, Jose Mari Goenaga

It’s still rare and refreshing to see queer movies with an old protagonist. And I mean old. The main character of this movie is a 76-year-old man who suffers a stroke. So the movie not only explores queerness and sexuality at an old age, but also recovery, isolation, fatherhood.

It’s a beautiful tale, really emotional, beautifully shot.

Is it a book adapt? No

Queerness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Visual Pretiness Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Story Quality Scale: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

And that's all from me, hope this was helpful. Let me know if you've seen any of these and whether you agree with me. I'm hoping to be back next year with an even longer and more packed recap of queer movies.

Thank you for reading!

Yes, I’m talking about movie posters.

I love movie posters. I really want to get into poster design way more, so it’s kinda ironic that I’m here judging movie posters when I’m a pretty bad poster designer myself. But this is not going to be a critique of any sort, just a shoutout and highlight of the movie posters that caught my eye this year, coming from a place of profound admiration and love.

And disclaimer: these are my favorite posters and I’m considering them independently of my opinion of the movie itself. In fact, I haven’t seen a few of these movies and I actually didn’t like most of the ones I did watch. So, don’t judge a movie by its poster, I guess?

Honorable Mentions

Let me start with a quick roundup of honorable mentions because, as always, I’m not good at picking. I think a lot of posters deserve recognition this year.

Now let’s get to my favorites, not in particular order, like I mentioned, I’m really bad at picking and I think each one has something that scratched the back of my brain in a really satisfying way, here are my picks and reasoning:

Sound of Falling

DIR. MASCHA SCHILINSKI

It may seem like I'd have a preference for grungy posters because it's the kind of design that I mostly do, but god, this one may be one of my favorite posters in a long time. It looks like a painting, both in the composition and the color palette, and the distortion transforming the landscape into sound waves is so brilliant. There’s a variant that reminded me of a Rembrant.

Just seeing a poster so beautifully crafted like this makes me think the film itself will carry that same aura.

Hard Truths

DIR. MIKE LEIGH

Big fan of illustrated posters.

I’m not a good illustrator so it makes me admire this kind of work even more. The dark textured background with yellow font catches my eye immediately and seeing the edge of the strokes on her shoulder adds some tactile depth. It captures the perfect expression on Marianne’s face, her eyes so real. And the bright green of the stems breaking the composition? 10/10.

Eddington

DIR. ARI ASTER

As a movie, Eddington disappointed me a bit. I liked it, just not as much as I'd hoped it would. Still, the poster delivers and I remember perfectly the first time I saw it. A24 always puts so much effort into the graphic design of their branding and I think it's part of the reason they have that impeccable image currently.

A greyish eye catching illustration with a bright western-looking font for a neo-western? Just perfect, no complaints from me.

No Other Choice

DIR. PARK CHAN-WOOK

I know I said these posters weren’t going to be ranked, but let me make an exception. No Other Choice posters are my favorites this year. They’re gorgeous, meticulously detailed and deeply satisfying to examine. And the best part? They actually do the movie justice, which doesn’t happen nearly as often as it should.​

The illustration is incredible, packed with cutouts of scenes that reveal new meaning after you've watched the film, which makes it even cooler. It's set in a sinuous composition like the path the protagonist has to follow to get what he wants, a motif that also appears in the movie.

The Testament of Ann Lee

DIR. MONA FASTVOLD

So good, so good. I'm such a sucker for kaleidoscope effects, and with this movie, this concept makes so much sense. When you see it, you can totally get that she's into some kind of trance. There's a divine looking light on top of her and the posture of the people is dramatic, caught in the movement. Feels like a Renaissance painting to me, so I love it. I also dig the tree vector and the font choice.

Hamnet

DIR. CHLOÉ ZHAO

Everything surrounding Hamnet fascinates me. I haven’t seen it yet. It doesn’t come out in Spain till next year, and I’m trying not to think about how much that kills me. But everything I’ve seen has been really well designed. It’s delicate, subtle, poetic and beautiful, and fits the theme perfectly.

Bugonia

DIR. YORGOS LANTHIMOS

As a Vasilis Marmatakis worshipper, I must admit this is not one of my favorites of his collaborations with Yorgos (not because this one is bad, just because the previous ones were so iconic). But still, it deserves a spot among the best of the year for sure. I’m pretty confident everyone remembers this poster once they’ve seen it. It’s bold, it sticks with you. The color of blood with the color of honey, Emma’s baldness that is still shocking to see, and on top of it all, the font design that created a whole unique aesthetic for the movie.

Frankenstein

DIR. GUILLERMO DEL TORO

I really loved Frankenstein, and I thought the posters were not as good as the movie till the IMAX version poster came out. It’s a masterpiece, exudes the artsy, overflowing with details energy that the movie has. Actually, one of the images from the movie that is engraved into my retina still is the opened-up corpse in the laboratory, and choosing that as the core of the design is such a good choice. Big fan of the gothic font too, probably my second favorite from this year.

Eel

DIR. CHU CHUN-TENG

Have you seen this? It’s a work of art. This is the power of poster design because if not of this poster, maybe i’d have never heard of this film. So filmmakers, invest on a good poster design is the best publicity you’ll ever have. I can’t wait to see this movie.

Bring Her Back

DIR. DANNY PHILIPPOU, MICHAEL PHILIPPOU

I recall the first time I saw this poster and how I instantly developed the necessity to see this movie just from how creepy and intriguing it was. The circular composition, those bloody eyes in the center taking all of your attention and then the chipped nail polish, like the bullseye. Your attention moves from one circle to the next. Like I said, A24 posters rarely fail.

A Long Way Home

DIR. NIEN-HUA WU

Including a second Huang Kuo-jui poster because I just love this kind of design and and this one has stuck with me ever since I discovered it. It catches my eye, then gives me that nostalgic feeling just seeing the picture of the mom and the kids and the childish scribble font. Just a few elements that work so nicely together.

Sentimental Value

DIR. JOACHIM TRIER

One of my favorite movies of the year having one of the best posters too just feels about right. It’s so clean and balanced, feels like a Fibonacci sequence, so satisfying to see. Love the framing of each face. Really simple but effective design, perfect combo with the movie.

BLEAT!

DIR. ANANTH SUBRAMANIAM

Including a short film poster because I’ve fallen in love with it. Gives me Ghibli vibes. The color contrast is so well managed, you see the darkness and it takes you a moment to figure out what is going on in the scene. The yellow eyes? Such a good touch. I’ll always be a fan of handwritten fonts, and it works perfectly here.

The Phoenician Scheme

DIR. WES ANDERSON

Lastly, quick hightlight of this particular poster from the Phoenician scene. Love and Sanit Sebastian reference and how it follows the art theme the movie has, a museum piece indeed.

And the rant is over. Believe it or not, I wanted to include even more posters but I restrained myself and tried to make some choices for once. Hope you like this kind of article too. I’m planning on posting more 2025 recaps in the coming weeks. Thank you for being patient and sticking with me this year, thank you for all the support. Wishing you all the best things for 2026.

This is why I created this Substack.

I’ve been obsessed with the intersection of cinema and art for years. I’ve read a lot of books, articles, I literally wrote my final university essay about it and I realized I couldn’t explore it properly within the limitations of social media formats. So I’ve created this blog, hoping to share all my obsessions and discoveries with people who might care about them too (hopefully that’s you).

I’ve seen a lot of tweets and edits lately talking about how certain movies look like this or that painting, comparing frames to famous artworks or compositions (which bothers me a bit, because sometimes the comparisons are reaches and aren’t really accurate). So I’d love to dive deeper into that: not just comparing scenes, but exploring why a shot looks like that, why the filmmaker chose to recreate that specific painting, or why there’s a particular artwork hanging on the wall in the background of the key scene of your favorite movie (I LOVE talking about this).

Movies and art have always had this kind of symbiosis and there’s a whole topic to unravel. So I’m really happy to welcome you to my series Frame x Frame, where I’ll explore all these aspects in monthly articles.

Art x Cinema

I’m so happy that Guillermo del Toro and the release of Frankenstein are giving me the perfect opportunity to start this series in the best way. Like where better to begin this exploration than with a filmmaker who has spent his entire career referencing all history of art icons constantly?

GdT has created such a rich and visually unique style that you can easily recognize his movies based on a single frame. There are a lot of reasons behind that. In his book Guillermo del Toro Cabinet of Curiosities: My Notebooks, Collections, and Other Obsessions he explains everything that goes through his brilliant mind during his creative process, including how painters have inspired his image language.

He mentions artists like Marcel Schwob, Félicien Rops, Degas, Picasso, Renoir, Caravaggio or Manet. You can clearly see he is an art lover who has studied all the masters to shape his craft. In fact to give you a recent example, in Frankenstein there are really obvious moments inspired by art, like the super tender first encounter between Elizabeth and Adam (calling him the creature sounds really mean to me) where their tentative touch is a clear reference to the Creation of Adam by Michelangelo. And it makes so much sense, and I screamed while watching it. That scene is x2 better because of that composition.

But between all those talented artists I chose Goya to make the pairing. Why? Well I think everyone has seen The Pale Man/Saturn comparison already, but the thing is that’s not the only element that connects them. I believe that Francisco and Guillermo’s oeuvres shares even more fascinating links and it’s nice to study how art can connect two great minds with centuries of distance.

I’ve divided this article into two parts because I really don’t want this to be a heavy read. In this one, I’ll talk about the overall references in Guillermo’s filmography and I’ll make a second post with the actual case studies.

Del Toro x Goya

I don’t want to make this too long, but I need to set a little bit of context first.

Goya is one of my favorite painters ever (I mean, I’m Spanish duh), but seriously, his story is super interesting and his artworks even more so. He was born in 1746 in Fuendetodos, Zaragoza. He worked in different styles like neoclassicism and romanticism. The key things are that he was the court painter during a really convulsive period in Spanish history and he also suffered from a sickness that made him progressively go deaf. These two facts gave his work a pretty compelling duality of themes and styles.

Goya lived in a constant contradiction, he had to paint colorful royal portraits and celebrate court life while witnessing the horrors unfolding around him. This internal conflict between his duty and his conscience shaped everything he created.

Del Toro himself said:

For his part, Guillermo del Toro is a Mexican filmmaker and brilliant mind behind movies like Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water or Crimson Peak.

To establish their connections, I want to narrow down the vast collection of paintings Goya made (I’ll talk about the rest in other articles because wow) to three of his most iconic series: Los Caprichos, Los Desastres de la Guerra and (the best ones, imo) his Pinturas Negras.

Fantasy, Creatures and Darkness

When I think of Guillermo, I think of monsters. I think of movie monsters. And when I think of Goya, I think of monsters too. Even though there may be other painters more often associated with darkness and creature depictions, Goya was one of the first and most influential creators and his monsters come from a very particular place.

Los Caprichos is a series of 80 prints that he published in 1799. They were experimental, witty, strongly critical and satirical of Spanish society, including religion and politics (a huge thing coming from a court painter). Almost each print shows a scene with a title underneath. I highly recommend you check out the whole collection here, but let me highlight a few of them, especially this one.

El sueño de la razón produce monstruos (The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters) is the number 43 of the etchings. We see a sleeping figure (there are theories that it’s Goya himself) with a lot of creatures behind it. Goya’s artworks are full of different creatures, from vampires to witches, to giants and monsters with animal heads, believed to be sourced from Spanish tales and folklore.

And even though he stated that he didn’t believe in these creatures, he painted them, using them as allegories to criticize the flaws of his society. So Guillermo learned not only some of Goya’s visual language but also his way of using monster allegories to depict human traits.

Different Wars, Same Monsters

I think this is one of the key aspects of their interconnection that compels me the most: how the wars of the same country in different eras have actually been behind their depiction of monsters and grotesquerie. Both GdT and Goya’s monsters aren’t just fantastical, they come from lived trauma shaped by war.

Goya lived through the Peninsular War (1808–1814). There’s a lot of juicy history behind all this, but for now I want to focus on how this conflict was reflected in Goya’s work.

In 1808, Spain started a war against the French Napoleonic occupation. The situation of Goya in court became tricky and this is what pushed him to paint one of his most renowned titles: Los fusilamientos del tres de mayo. But also his series Los Desastres de la Guerra.

Los Desastres de la Guerra is a really graphic series of 82 prints depicting war scenes he created between 1810 and 1820. When he created these, his health was worse and he was almost completely deaf, so his painting turned crueler and darker. When I say graphic, I mean it, some triggering representations of dead bodies, mutilations, and violated bodies. If you want to explore this series, you can do it here, but fair warning: they’re visceral and difficult to view. It shows the consequences of war not only on the battlefield but also the famine and the horror in a really direct way.

Guillermo del Toro dedicated two movies to a different Spanish conflict. The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth take place around the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and are critiques of Franco’s fascist regime (I’ve heard he has plans on completing the trilogy and I’m thrilled).

In both the movie and the etchings, we see a combination of fantasy and raw reality. We see monsters and humans and learn that humans are the real monsters. He uses ghosts to represent the void and hurt created by war the same way Goya uses bat-like creatures to depict a system that sucks resources out of people, even after dying.

Black Paintings, Black Stories

And now the main course, without disrespecting the rest, Las Pinturas Negras.

Goya painted this series of 14 paintings on the walls of a house called La Quinta del Sordo where he secluded himself due to his illness. These are dark-colored paintings that depict mysterious and haunting scenes. What’s remarkable is that Goya painted these on his own walls, not for sale or exhibition, while he was falling into a void due to his deafness. They were later transferred to canvases after his death.

Guillermo said that this is what he used as inspiration for his visual language. He likes the paleness of the skin (yes, I’ll talk about Saturn devouring his son and the Colossus in the case studies), their color scheme.

This preference for muted, sickly tones appears throughout his films, shaping his monsters’ appearances. Recently we meet his version of Adam in Frankenstein, pale, ethereal and tall, difering from the previous depictions of Mary Shelley’s creation. But not only him, the Elves and Angel of Death from Hellboy, his reapers from Blade II, or the infamouses the Faun and the Pale Man from Pan’s Labyrinth all fit into this aesthetic.

Guillermo’s creatures are pale, grey, white, surrounded by darkness creating and striking and unique look that was directly taken from Goya’s style.

Frame x Frame

So I hope you like this format. I already have a few drafts with more Artist x Director analysis that I hope you enjoy. In part two of this series, I’ll break down specific scenes from del Toro’s films and show you exactly where Goya’s fingerprints are visible. Subscribe so you don’t miss it :)

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The White Lotus is one of my favorite shows of all time, I’ve been hooked since Season 1. Honestly, I can’t remember being more excited about a season finale than I was for the end of that first season. Mike White is a genius. He delivers social critique like no one else, Eat the Rich at its finest, but what totally wins me over about this series is its attention to detail.

The books featured in the show play such an important role, and it fascinates me. I’ve always been drawn to book props in media, but The White Lotus masters this like no other show. After all, it's a story about people on vacation, luxury vacations, and using vacation reads as a way to deepen character development? Peak writing if you ask me.

And it’s not subtle, either. The shots are intentional. Characters hold the books so that the cover and title are clearly visible and it’s because they want us to notice. It adds an extra layer to their personalities and story arcs, sometimes even serving as foreshadowing.

I actually have a few videos talking about this, my tiktok account basically grew because of them, but to summarize:

In Season 1, Paula and Olivia were the ones constantly carrying books, giving us a glimpse into their performative behavior. And in Season 2, Harper’s choice of Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli really caught my attention, and motivated me to start this kind of analysis.

Season 3 is no exception. In an interview with The Guardian, Michael Cory (the props master for the season) explained how he collaborated with Mike White to choose each book, even created fake ones, and how they occasionally swapped titles when a different book better suited a character.

So, let’s dive into all the research I’ve done watching a fair amount of times every episode, and how, once again, the show tells us a lot of things through something as simple as a book cover.

Disclaimer *some spoilers ahead*

Chelsea

I just have to start with her, for obvious reasons. Chelsea had a really fascinating personality, and it came through perfectly in her book choices. She brought an entire suitcase of books on vacation, as we see in episode 7, where she hands a few of them to Saxon. While I’ll focus on the ones we actually see her reading, that scene gives us a quick glimpse of Kundalini Tantra by Swami Satyananda Saraswati, a book about yoga that we later see Saxon reading too (I’ll talk about this one in the next part).

Chelsea usually enjoys reading by the pool, as long as the oldest Ratliff sibling isn’t interrupting her.

Start Where You Are by Pema Chödrön

The first book we see Chelsea reading, in Episode 1, is Start Where You Are by Pema Chödrön. Pema is an American-born Tibetan Buddhist nun who has written many books, and I suspect Chelsea is a fan of her work, since she owns more than one of her titles. This particular work is described as a guide to cultivating fearlessness and awakening a compassionate heart.

It’s a perfect fit for her character. Chelsea consistently shows kindness and empathy, especially towards the hotel staff, which makes a huge contrast to the behavior of the other guests. She was clearly a spiritual person, and it's no surprise that she chose to spend her vacation reading about meditation, Buddhism, or love.

The show also uses this book to quietly frame both her arc and Saxon’s. Their first interaction happens when Chelsea is reading it by the pool. Saxon tries to unsuccessfully flirt with her, but she simply turns her back to him and keeps reading. And then, the last time we see the book is after Chelsea’s death: Saxon takes it with him on the trip home, and we see him reading it on the boat until Victoria returns with the phones.

The Essential Rumi

A few episodes later, in Episode 6, we see Chelsea reading by the pool again, this time with a copy of The Essential Rumi, a compilation of poems about love and longing by the 13th-century mystic poet Rumi. Saxon is there too, talking to her, which mirrors their first interaction in Episode 1. The difference is that their relationship has developed a bit by this point.

Once again, this book choice fits perfectly with what we know about Chelsea’s beliefs. She was deeply interested in mysticism, as we see in the way she described her connection with Rick, her thoughts about the universe, and the idea of soul groups she explained to Saxon.

These beliefs are also what lead her to repeatedly turn down Saxon’s advances. She genuinely believed she was spiritually connected to Rick and that they were meant to be together for life. Which ended up being true, but in the most tragic way possible.

Each member of the trio of friends brought a holiday read with them, and it's fascinating how different their choices are. Just like their group dynamic, their reading habits and book preferences say a lot about who they are.

Laurie

Modern Lovers by Emma Straub

Laurie was originally assigned a different book, The Lonely City by Olivia Laing, but the props team eventually decided to give that one to Piper1. I’ll talk more about that in the next part. Instead, in Episode 6, we see Laurie with a copy of Modern Lovers by Emma Straub at the pool.

We never actually see her reading it, though, because she is too caught up in her frustration with Jacklyn to concentrate. She eventually gives up and sets the book down on the table, without even marking the page.

And honestly, this book is way more fitting than the her initial assingment. Modern Lovers is a novel about a group of friends who used to be in a band in college. It explores themes like the passing of time, the tension between past and present, how relationships and bolds evolve, marriage struggles, and the complications of parenthood. With this choice, the show uses one of the most classic techniques in film and television, giving a character a book that mirrors their own storyline.

It feels especially meaningful when you think about Laurie’s monologue in the final episode (give Carrie Coon that Emmy), where she opens up about her fears and insecurities surrounding the choices she has made in her life.

And here’s a completely unnecessary fact, but I can’t keep it to myself. In the book, the protagonist used to have feelings for one of her friends back in college. I would have absolutely loved it if Mike White had added that twist to Laurie’s storyline. Missed opportunity, Mike. A White Lotus season without a messy queer character is like an angel without its wings.

Kate

All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers

We only see Kate reading in Episode 8. When Jaclyn comes to find her, Kate is holding a copy of All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers, though we can tell she hasn’t gotten very far into it.

The story follows a journalist who becomes obsessed with the unsolved murder of her childhood neighbor, uncovering dark secrets hidden in her hometown of Wakarusa, Indiana.

She uses a bookmark, which I think is worth pointing out, because of course she does. It is a small detail, but these subtle contrasts in how each of the friends reads offer a lot of insight into their personalities.

It is also kind of funny that she is reading a crime thriller in the same episode where we finally get confirmation that someone is going to die. In fact, more than one person. The actual murder even happens right in front of her, or at least begins in the exact spot where she had just been, with the man she had taken a photo with.

Besides that, Kate fits the true crime fan profile perfectly in my opinion. She seems like the type who would be into crime podcasts, probably including the one hosted by Ashley Flowers, the author of the book, herself.

Jaclyn

Jaclyn is a diva, a famous and successful actress who clearly enjoys reading about the lives of her fellow female artists, no matter the length of the book, apparently.

My Name Is Barbra by Barbra Streisand

Because only a diva would choose Barbra Streisand’s 1040-page autobiography as her poolside read. In Episode 6, she is at the pool with her friends, relaxing. She does not start reading the book until Laurie confronts her about her night with Valentin, and it feels like an excuse to stop the conversation. She opens it to what seems like a random page, and there is no bookmark in sight.

Just like Paula and Olivia in Season 1, this book is probably more of a performative tool for Jaclyn. Carrying a massive book across the world and reading it in public, by the pool, feels like a performance. It reinforces her image as a cultured, intellectual celebrity.

Glowing

The prop department created this fictional book about the hotel’s owner, and they even wrote an excerpt that we briefly see when Jaclyn flips through its pages. Sritala was a star, and she likely had the kind of iconic, fascinanting life story that deserved to be captured in a book like that. To bring her to life visually, the production used real photos of actress Patravadi Mejudhon when she was young to illustrate the fictional biography.

Jaclyn finds the book in the first episode, after Sritala leaves it in her room, hoping she will discover it. We see Jaclyn holding it again in the final episode. She probably cannot read it, since it is in Thai, but while she is holding it, there is a sense that something clicks for her. That moment seems to push her to try and repair things with Laurie and to express just how meaningful the trip has been for her and their friendship.

Once again, the show uses a book to help close a character arc, featuring it in both the first and last episode, and giving it an important role in the character’s storyline.

I didn’t want this to be excessively long, and there was just too much to unravel for one post. So I figured the best option was to divide it into two parts.

This is Part One, where I’ve focused on Chelsea and the trio of friends. In Part Two (coming soon), I’ll dive into the Ratliff family’s picks, turns out they are really into books too, as well as Belinda’s choice.

So stay tuned! Subscribe if you enjoy this kind of content and want to support it. That would mean a lot. I already have a few more episodes planned for this series, and I can’t wait to share them with you :)

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