The prestige of art has transformed itself to the silver screen, as more and more oil paintings make their way to the walls of majestic scenes in motion pictures. Many stage producers that are trying to give the perception of class and a luxurious setting add high-end reproductions of famous paintings to the background to spice up the scene.



Never was this more evident than in the "Ocean's eleven" movie trilogy. The movie that is actually a remake of a famous rat-pack 1960's film, has (in my opinion) the coolest cast ever assembled in Hollywood, ever since the aforementioned rat-pack. With brilliant and exciting actors such as George Clooney, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt, the producers had to create a world of unsurpassed luxury and style.

I happened to watch both sequels last week, Ocean's Twelve and Thirteen, and I was astonished to see in the background walls of Terry Benedict's gleaming office, the ruthless Casino Mogul (played by Andy Garcia) the famous Klimt oil painting, Adele Bloch-Bauer I, the same painting that in reality is hanging in the Neue Galerie in New York City bought by cosmetics tycoon, Ronald Lauder for $135 Million two years ago and is considered by many as the Mona Lisa of New York City.

When I saw Ocean's Twelve and Adele sparkling of gold tones in the background, I thought that the producers of the film really did their home work and added the most expensive oil painting known to man to the background of the exuberant Terry Benedict. However, in Ocean's Thirteen, Adele was still hanging in the background, but the painting got stripped down from all it's gold and had only silver tones?

Ocean's Eleven is one of many motion pictures that have used art to create a sense of style and luxury in their scenes. Another hit movie of recent that had featured famous and extravagant artworks is "I am Legend" staring Will Smith. Here the art played a different role, with the world civilization basically annihilated by a deadly virus, Will Smith, the only living human being left in New York City, hangs in his living room the famous Van Gogh Starry Night oil painting, probably taken from the Museum of Modern Art on Fifth Avenue.

It's cool to see that the producers of this film identified that even if you were the last human being on the face of the earth, you'd still like to have Van Gogh's, Monet's and Picasso's hanging on your Walls.

So the next time you get a chance to see a great movie flick, look for the art on the walls, and see how does it relate to the story. It's great when two separate artistic worlds such as paintings and modern film making mesh together, and feed off each other to create a new interpretation for both mediums.