After a brief voiceover by Jacques Pruvost highlighting the Guernica atrocity of April 1937, María Casares recites a poem by Paul Eluard on the subject of that atrocity illustrated with numerous paintings, drawings and sculptures of Pablo Picasso, latterly the painting Guernica (1937). The oppressive musical arrangements were composed by Guy Bernard.
La vie et le quotidien des peintres de Skagen, au nord du Danemark. L'un de ces peintres, Peder Severin Krøyer (Stellan Skarsgård), inspire ceux qui l'entourent mais il sait que la folie dont souffrait sa mère va bientôt l'atteindre à son tour.
In a story loosely based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's short novel The Gambler, Nick Nolte plays Lionel Dobie, an acclaimed abstract artist who finds himself unable to paint during the days before the scheduled beginning of a major gallery exhibition of his new work. Rosanna Arquette is Paulette, his apprentice/assistant and former lover. Lionel is still infatuated with her, but Paulette wants only his tutelage, which makes things difficult since they live in the same studio-loft. Paulette dates other people, including a performance artist (Steve Buscemi) and a painter (Jesse Borrego).
Pendant la période nazie, au nom de l'art pur aryen, le régime organise deux expositions à Munich en 1937, une d' « art classique » et l'autre d'« art dégénéré ». C'est l'occasion pour le régime sous les ordres d'Hitler et de Goering de faire main basse sur les œuvres des grands maîtres classiques pour la création du « Louvre de Linz » et d'enrichir leurs collections personnelles.
À la suite d'un coma éthylique qu'a eu le père de Jockey, son meilleur ami Tony fait la rencontre d'une jeune infirmière (Gloria) dont il tombe amoureux. Forcé par une bande de skinhead de transporter des nains de jardin à Grenoble les deux jeunes partent à travers la France dans un voyage aussi improvisé que hors la loi. En chemin ils font la connaissance, lors du vol d'une voiture, d'un vieil homme qui parcourt la France avec un sac à dos et une carte où tous les lacs sont entourés d'une marque rouge. Dans son sac à dos, un vieux Luger dans le chargeur duquel trois balles attendent.
It begins with the Korean artist being suspicious of a Japanese art-lover who values his work. The story then goes back to his man's early years. Beginning as a vagabond with a talent for drawing, he has a talent for imitating other people's art, but is urged to go on and develop a style of his own. This process is painful and he often behaves very badly, getting drunk and being hostile to those who care about him and try to help him.
Marie (Émilie Dequenne), une jeune fille sans argent et sans famille, quitte le Nord pour la région de Perpignan. Elle ne possède qu'un don, celui du dessin.
When newlywed Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz), an art dealer, travels from Chicago to North Carolina to pursue a local, self-taught painter (Frank Hoyt Taylor) for her outsider art gallery, she takes the opportunity to meet the family of her husband George (Alessandro Nivola) who live close by.
L'histoire du film est plutôt basée sur la relation du peintre avec les divers monarques d'Iran. La distribution des rôles est surtout confiée aux acteurs iraniens les plus connus comme Jamshid Mashayekhi interprétant le peintre, et Ezzatollah Entezami qui incarne Nasseredin Shah.
Gustav Klimt's life story unfolds in a series of disjointed sequences in the artist's mind as he lies dying of pneumonia in a Viennese hospital where he is visited by his friend, Egon Schiele (Nikolai Kinski). Themes within the film include Klimt's platonic friendship with Emilie Floege (Veronica Ferres). Much of the film is centred on Klimt's relationship with Lea de Castro (Saffron Burrows), a dancer to whom he is introduced by the film pioneer Georges Méliès.
All Paris is frightened by the murders attributed to "Bluebeard". Modiste Lucille (Jean Parker) is introduced to Gaston Morrell (John Carradine), a puppeteer and painter, by her friend. They are attracted to each other, and she accepts a commission to design some costumes for his puppets.
Tom Logan (Robert Redford) is an Assistant District Attorney in the New York City District Attorney's Office, who is on his way to becoming the new District Attorney. Into his life enters Laura Kelly (Debra Winger), an attorney who is representing Chelsea Deardon (Daryl Hannah). Chelsea is accused of stealing a painting from an art dealer, Victor Taft (Terence Stamp). However, Chelsea claims that the painting is actually hers, as her father made it for her and signed it to her on her 8th birthday 18 years ago - the same day that her father and most of his paintings went up in smoke in a mysterious fire.