How to Read a Movie

Posted on by The Wandering Art Historian

The Wandering Art Historian YouTube channel has been a bit quiet since October 2020, but all that changed last month. My newest web series – How to Read a Movie – debuted in February and the response has been astounding!

If that title sounds at all familiar, it’s because it is a direct callback to my previous web series, How to Read a Painting. Over the course of 15 videos, I explained how artists used COLORS, SYMBOLS and repeated STORIES like clues in their paintings. Once the viewer cracks the code of what these COLORS, SYMBOLS and STORIES represent, the meanings of paintings can become more clear. It is a lot like being an art historical detective!

For this newest web series, I decided to apply the same art historical principles of analyzing COLOR, SYMBOLS and repeated STORIES to film and thus, How to Read a Movie was born!

This series is also a bit different in that these videos are not lectures, but conversations. This is an exciting new element that felt wildly apropos to the topic and so each video features a discussion between yours truly and a guest cinephile.

All four videos in this series are now LIVE on The Wandering Art Historian YouTube channel. You can find the links to all the videos below…

Episode 1 – “The Village” – Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

Episode 2 – “Alien” – Directed by Ridley Scott

Episode 3 – “At Eternity’s Gate” – Directed by Julian Schnabel

Episode 4 – “Midsommar” – Directed by Ari Aster

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I am writer and artist with a degree in art history who loves to talk to people about art. I have spent the last seven years building up The Wandering Art Historian “brand” as a way to connect with people who want to learn more about art. I give lectures and presentations and teach classes and host book club discussions with a creative or artistic connection. I also write about local artists, events, museums, and exhibitions to promote the arts in Central Florida. In 2021, I had a creative crisis. I struggled with authenticity in the art making process. I decided to make myself vulnerable and find out what a real, genuine Adrienne H. Lee artwork would look like. The process was challenging and emotional and revelatory. I learned that if necessity is the mother of invention, then authenticity is the mother of reinvention. I reinvented myself and learned an entirely new medium. The resulting artwork surprised me, and it will surprise you, too. Some people wish for a fairytale ending. For me, the fairy tale is only the beginning.