Entering the Picture

Like Alberti said, painting is the mistress of all other arts and while he did not mean cinema as the art form came 400 years after his death, we can interpret it as such. If it weren't for painting, we wouldn't have photography and if it wasn't for photography, we wouldn't have cinema. The first movies were created by not our modern HD cameras but were created by bringing images together to create a moving image (See here for first motion picture). For animation movies, we can even go as far to say painting is not just a mistress but a wife to it. No matter how many technologies people come up with, painting still holds its throne in animation making, only difference is it is made with more advanced technology. Stop motion animation whose most prominent use of art is painting and sculpture is even closer to Alberti's idea.  (See here for examples of stop-motion)

In the video, John Rhodes talks about the opening sequence of "Written on the Wind" by Douglas Sirk and states that "The door is open, we can see the vestibule beyond and we realise this is the world that we’re entering. And the film is really staging that possibility of entering this world for us." which reminds me of the difference between paintings from Early Middle Ages and Renaissance paintings. If we watch the first motion picture and compare it to not even today's technologically advanced cinema but to movies from 50s, it is possible to see this connection. First motion picture, like painting from Early Middle Ages, are fascinating but they do not have the qualities Alberti talks about. They're still, without perspective, taking place in one horizontal place, thus failing at pulling us into a space and creating a story. They don't have a background or clues that show what kind of environment or characters we're interacting (I believe in most art forms, appreciation and theorising cannot be made without interaction with it) with. On the other hands, Renaissance paintings and later movies, give us those qualities. Just as Renaissance painting are done with extreme attention to detail and story, so are the movies. Cinematographers, art directors, costume artists, directors, etc., sometimes spend hours on one shot of the movie, to create a shot that reflects characters' inner feelings or to drop a clue about an upcoming scene or foreshadowing a movie's end. For example (I will use an example that I assume most of you are familiar with) in the 5th movie of Harry Potter series, character Sirius Black views his family tree with his godson Harry by his side. The family tree has pictures of the family members, Sirius mentions his cousin Bellatrix Lestrange as the worst of them. Later, the camera focuses on Bellatrix's picture as Sirius and Harry talks about being a real family in the future, foreshadowing Bellatrix killing Sirius in front of Harry. The focus on family tree was a choice by the director, to give the feeling of suspense and worry. In Renaissance painting, details such as background, environment, clothes, etc. are given to tell the story better. 

Another similarity between film and painting is the perspective. In first motion picture, all we see is a horse moving, not moving to somewhere but looking like it's running on a treadmill, like the lack of perspective in painting from Early Middle ages. Film, later on, uses the same techniques as painting to create a perspective. Like painters, directors use certain techniques that make the viewer look at a certain place, draw the focus on a particular object or a character while at the background, another story might be taking place.