As any Bond nut will testify, the scene in Dr. No where Bond Girl Ursula Andress emerges from the water was inspired by Sandro Boticelli's The Birth of Venus. And, as Chuck Sambuchino points out in the October issue, it doesn't take an art historian to recognize the connection between Edvard Munch's expressionist painting The Scream and Wes Craven's Scream trilogy and it's villian's elongated rubber mask.

But sometimes the artistic references aren't so obvious. Movies are filled with subtle homages to famous paintings. Blade Runner (1982), often cited as a masterpiece of art direction and film noir, owes its look to the urban images of Edward Hopper, specfically Nighthawks. " I was constantly waving a reproduction of this painting under the noses of the production team to illustrate the look and mood I was after in Blade Runner, says director Ridley Scott in Paul M. Sammon's book Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner.

So as you head out to the movies this weekend, keep your eyes peeled for subtle and not-so-subtle tributes to your favorite artists and paintings. If you find any, we'd love to hear about it.