DANA BELL

How Do You Know That?
flashe and acrylic on canvas
2009
41 x 65

from Bell Book and Candle, 1958
Director: Richard Quine
Cinematography: James Wong Howe

Witch ‘Gil’ Holroyd discovers engaged Publisher ‘Shep’ Henderson. She puts a spell on him to fall in love with her and forget about his promise to marry his fiance. Sidney Redlitch is writing about witches in modern society. Here he tells Henderson where the witches headquarters are, and unknowingly informs him of his new love’s true identity.

Stop it or I'll Kill You Too
flashe and acrylic on canvas
2009
24 x 30

from Knock on Any Door, 1949
Director: Nicholas Ray
Cinematographer: Burnett Guffey

Humphrey Bogart plays lawyer Andrew Morton, who defended Nick Romano’s father, jailed for killing someone in self-defense. While in jail, the father dies of a heart attack, forcing the family to move into the slums because they no longer have an income. Morton has a continuing sense of responsibility and guilt over this as Nick is a vulnerable teen at this point and is drawn into juvenile delinquency in the slums. He repeats his motto often “live fast, die young and have a good-looking corpse.” After Nick is arrested a couple times, Morton tries to take him under his wing but Nick rejects him. Nick meets a girl and falls in love, marries but is unable to hold down a job. He returns to a life of crime. His wife pleads with him to stop, but he goes out anyway, finally returning to discover she has killed herself. Later Nick is brought to trial for the murder of a policeman near his local haunt. He asks Morton to be the defense attorney, and at first Morton resists, but then he decides that Nick is innocent. In the scene of the painting, Nick is being interrogated on the stand at the end of the trial by the District Attorney, and after what seems like hours of repeated brutal questioning, is asked if his wife killed herself because of him. Nick breaks down, grabbing the D.A. and yelling “Stop it or I’ll Kill you too!” admitting his guilt and closing the case. Morton ends the trial with a speech blaming society for the murder, who put Nick in the slums after his father’s death introducing him to criminality and withholding a good education. Morton claims that society has relinquished any responsibility for the crimes, and finally asks the press to print “we killed him.”

I'm Sorry I Had to Do it the Hard Way
flashe and acrylic on canvas
2009
32 x 42

from Knock on Any Door, 1949
Director: Nicholas Ray
Cinematographer: Burnett Guffey

This painting is also from the same court scene as “Stop it Or I’ll Kill You Too.” Just after Nick breaks and admits his guilt, the District Attorney exclaims “Sorry I had to do it the hard way,” referring to the intense, brutal questioning to get Nick to admit his “guilt.”

There's Not Much Time
flashe and acrylic on canvas
2009
59 x 84 in

from North By Northwest, 1959
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cinematographer: Robert Burks

Eve and Thornhill meet once again after she has shot him with blanks, faking his death. They are brought together by “The Professor”, the head U.S. Intelligence Agent, who is responsible for endangering Eve and Thornhill’s lives, using them as pawns to uncover information in his investigation of Vandamm as a spy. The Professor’s group has created a fictitious agent named “George Kaplan” in hopes of misleading Vandamm. Immediately before the fake shooting, Thornhill learned that the man he was mistaken for never existed, and that the woman he though sent him to his death was actually his ally.

It's You
flashe and acrylic on canvas
2009
65 x 95

from Sabrina, 1954
Director: Billy Wilder
Cinematographer: Charles Lang

Sabrina is a daughter of a chauffeur for a wealthy New York family. She is infatuated with
the playboy son of her father’s employer, and finds herself finally recognized by him.
She is shown here just after spying on him at a cocktail party where he flirts with
another woman. She sees him then gathering a bottle of champagne and two glasses
and walking out to the yard where Sabrina stands behind a tree. He is startled as he
notices her when he walks past her. He exclaims “Its You, Sabrina, I thought I heard
somebody.” Sabrina says after he quickly walks away “No, its nobody.“ Sabrina is
saddened to find David is not happy to see her, but he soon will be.

Coughing
flashe and acrylic on canvas
48 x 52

from Sabrina, 1954
Director: Billy Wilder
Cinematographer: Charles Lang

Sabrina is a daughter of a chauffeur for a wealthy New York family. Here we see her after being ignored by the playboy son of her father’s employer. She is infatuated with hinm, and in the end finds herself recognized by him.

Running
flashe and acrylic on canvas
2009
93 x 156 in

from The Sound and The Fury (stageplay), 2008
Director: John Collins
Artistic Director: James C. Nicola

I found this photo in the Arts section of the New York Time last year. I did not see the play and only read the review. I am interested in the reviewer’s response to the play based on William Faulkner’s novel written in 1929. The reviewer writes that for the main character, Benjamin Compson, “time isn’t sequential but simultaneous. The past and present blur, and people are all the ages they have ever been for as long as he has known them.” All 12 members of the theatre group play multiple roles in the play. I am fascinated by this idea of switching roles. I do believe that we are interchangeable and suggest this type of versatility in the abstraction of the figure in my paintings.

I'm Injured
flashe and acrylic on canvas
2009
36 x 48 in

from The Fugitive Kind, 1960
Director: Sidney Lumet
Cinematographer: Boris Kaufman

A mysterious woman stumbles onto the road saying she is blinded and injured. Val (AKA Snakeskin), a fugitive played by Marlon Brando, tries to help her, allowing the police to find him and leading to his death. The film and painting symbolize loneliness and separation.

Let A Husband Get to His Wife
flashe and acrylic on canvas
2009
24 x 30 in

from The Killer that Stalked New York, 1950
Director: Earl McEvoy
Cinematographer: Joseph Biroc

Character Sheila Bennett returns to New York from Cuba smuggling $40,000 worth of diamonds and unknowingly also brings a case of smallpox, which starts an epidemic in New York City. The police are looking for what they believe are two different people after she arrives, one is a carrier of smallpox who must be found to prevent the disease from spreading rapidly, the other is a diamond smuggler who just arrived from Cuba. It turns out to be one and the same person in Sheila Bennett. Sheila’s husband exclaims “Let a Husband Get to His Wife” and kisses her when she gets home, seemingly happy to greet her, but really mostly concerned with getting a hold of the diamonds she has brought him. During this kiss she infects him with smallpox.

Tell Them You Can't Spell
flashe and acrylic on canvas
2009
36 x 48 in

from Ace in the Hole, 1951
Director: Billy Wilder
Cinematographer: Charles B. Lang Jr.

This film is about using manipulation to create fame and profit. A former New York journalist, Tatum, finds work
at a small newspaper while still hoping to nd a big story. Stopping for gas at a trading post while on the way to
report on a rattlesnake hunt, he finally stumbles on a story he knows he can work to his advantage. Fallen
beams in an Indian cliff dwelling have trapped the proprietor of the trading post, Leo Mimosa. Tatum meets
Lorraine Mimosa, the wife of Leo, who is about to take advantage of Leo’s predicament to leave their unhappy
marriage. Knowing this would be bad for the story, Tatum guilt’s her into sticking around. She is eventually
happy that she does, because the trading post begins to make more money than it ever has, with hoards of
visitors eager to see the story unfold. Tatum conspires with the town sheriff to delay Leo’s rescue, implementing
a week-long attempt to drill down to him as opposed to shoring up the existing walls which might have gotten
him out within a day or so. Leo winds up dying. Towards the end of the film, reporters question Lorraine and
Tatum’s misdeeds are nearly revealed. Tatum finds out she has been offered $1000.00 to give the reporters a
story. Tatum says to her “Tell them that you can’t spell,” and reminds her that talking too much will implicate
her as well.

Do You Know How Many People Are Together RIght Now?
flashe and acrylic on canvas
2009
36 x 56 in

from Cat O’ NIne Tails, 1971
Director: Dario Argento
Cinematographer: Erico Menczer

This film begins with a break in at the Terzi genetic research facility. Some evidence is found and shared with a
reporter Carlo Giordani by a blind ex-reporter who lives next door to the facility. Soon after, a researcher from
the Institute is run over by a train but there is evidence that he was pushed, starting a series of murders tied to
the case. Anna Terzi, daughter of the head researcher, meets Carlos while he is investigating the mysterious
murders. She tells him about the XYY triad, revealing criminal tendencies in people. The film’s mystery has nine
threads, The Cat O’ Nine Tails. In this still, Carlo says to Anna “Do you know how many people are together right
now making love at this very second? “ She says no and he concludes “780 on the average.” They proceed to
make love, breaking the tension of the lm. Carlo later suspects she is the killer, but finally finds it was one of
the researches who must have tested positive for the XYY triad.

Family Table
flashe and acrylic on canvas
2009
24 x 38

from Pitfall, 1948
Director: Andre De Toth
Cinematographer: Harry Wild

An unhappy insurance salesman John Forbes fantasizes about a more exciting life. He is shown here with his family in the morning before he finds his excitement through Mac, a private detective who works for Forbes’ company. The image evokes the American Dream, which is quickly revealed as an illusion. Mac has fallen for a woman he is investigating for the company, so Forbes takes the case from him and meets Mona Stevens, who is suspected of receiving gifts of stolen items insured by Forbes’ company from her incarcerated ex-boyfriend called Smiley. Forbes questions her about these gifts and pretends to be unmarried as they go out on a boat, one of the items in question. The have an affair until Mona finds out Forbes is married from a jealous Mac, who beats him up to try to get her from him. Mona cuts off the relationship with Forbes, but Mac refuses to see this and tells Mona’s ex boyfriend Smiley about their affair. Smiley,
fresh out of jail and out for vengeance, seeks out Forbes, but Forbes winds up killing Smiley in self-defense. Mona hears of this over a police radio and in turn kills Mac. Forbes is in the clear because he killed in self-defense, but confesses all to his wife anyway. Forbes’ wife forgives him as he is released, while Mona’s life remains up in the air while she remains almost certainly guilty in the eyes of the law. The district attorney handling the case says “They may be holding the wrong person upstairs.”

You're Like New York, You're an Island
flashe and acrylic on canvas
2009
35 x 41
Available

from Annie Hall, 1977
Director: Woody Allen
Cinematographer: Gordon Willis

The painting is from a scene where two actors are in a post-relationship play by Woody Allen’s character Alvy Singer. They are re-enacting the end and yet the beginning of their relationship. Alvy Singer and Annie Hall are arguing about the merits of living in New York as opposed to L.A. The woman playing Annie Hall asks the actor playing Alvy Singer if he’s ever read Death in Venice, using it as evidence to the fact that New York is a dying city. He responds that she only read it after he gave it to her. She chimes back that he only gave her books with death in the title. Annie proclaims that Alvy is incapable of enjoying life and says to him “You’re Like New York, You’re an Island. ” The scene marks the end of the play which winds up with the couple getting back together, where in “real life” in the film, the couple does not reunite and moves apart from each other because of basic differences regarding the enjoyment of life. The scene intrigues me because it is an acting scene within an acting scene, heavily filtered into a basic idea. It interests me to know that Allen’s working title for the film was “Anhedonia,” a psychoanalytic term for the inability to experience pleasure from normally pleasurable life events.

I Can't Breathe
flashe and acrylic on canvas
2009
24 x 30

from The Stranger, 1946
Director: Orson Welles
Cinematographer: Russell Metty

This painting also shows a scene from The Stranger but depicts Mary and Kindler’s housekeeper Sarah. Mary is discovering the true identity of her husband as a Nazi war criminal and verbally abuses Sarah. Sarah gets upset and cries “I Can’t Breathe,” falls, and is then comforted by Mary who proclaims she couldn’t get along without her.

Dusting Crops Where There Ain’t No Crops
flashe and acrylic on canvas
2009
93 x 156

from North By Northwest, 1959
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cinematographer: Robert Burks

This image is from a famous scene where ad-man Roger Thornhill has a bad case of mistaken identity and is being hunted by Vandamm (who has sold government secrets) via a crop duster in the middle of a field on the outskirts of Chicago. Thornhill is believed to be Kaplan, a CIA agent, who was befriended by a fellow agent Eve Kendall (he isn’t made aware of her true identity until after this scene) and is trying to find the ‘real’ Kaplan. Here Roger is led to believe that Eve is sending him to his death and is on the side of Vandamm.

Buy Yourself a Cigar
flashe and acrylic on canvas
2009
46 x 83 inches

from The Big Sleep, 1946
Director: Howard Hawks
Cinematographer: Sid Hickox

The wealthy General Sternwood hires private detective Phillip Marlowe to help sort out the gambling debts of his wild daughters. Marlowe works to find the truth behind these debts, discovering that the daughters are involved in more than just gambling, but are also being drugged and blackmailed with pornographic photographs of themselves. In the scene from which the painting comes, Marlowe hires a woman cab driver to follow a car hoping to find Joe Brody, a blackmailer. Marlowe pays the cabbie, saying “Here you are sugar, buy yourself a cigar.” She asks him out on a date and hands him a card. Marlowe goes to his office finding Vivian,
daughter of Sternwood, who tells Marlowe she is being blackmailed $5000 for a pornographic photo of her sister Carmen.

I'm Going to Love you Trying to Escape
24 x 32 in

from The Spy in The Green Hat, 1966
Director: Joseph Sargent
Cinematographer: Fred Koenekamp

Spies from the Thrush company are masterminding a plot to divert the gulf stream to make Greenland a paradise, which will be controlled by the Thrush company and other countries will become cold. Agents from U.N.C.L.E., Solo and Kuryakin, are sent to stop the plan. Solo is forced to marry an Italian girl Pia Monteri and she is kidnapped during their wedding. Miss Diketon, secretary of Strago who is the head Thrush agent, is a proven killer who is also sadistic. Miss Monteri and Miss Diketon are shown here fighting over Diketon’s apparent jealousy over Strago’s handling of Monteri. Diketon suggestively says before the fight, “I am going to love
you trying to escape.”

A Nation Once Again
flashe and acrylic on canvas
2009
24 x 32 in

from A Hard Day’s Night, 1964
Director: Richard Lester
Cinematographer: Gilbert Taylor

This is a painting of Ringo Starr, from the film which centers on the Beatles and the phenomenon of their crazed fans. Paul’s Grandfather, also known as “a clean old man,” is a troublemaker and tries to get Ringo to strike out on his own and stop being so serious. Ringo finally does so, when a big show is delayed by technical difficulties, and he winds up in the local police station. Making Paul’s Grandfather proud by finally becoming a troublemaker, Ringo is taken in for acting in a suspicious manner, malicious intent, and conduct liable to cause a breach of the peace—“you name it he’s done it” the police officer says. He is met by the Grandfather in the police station
who’s been taken in for distributing photos of the Beatles and causing a scene in front of the upcoming concert venue. In this painting, Ringo is shown relaxing on the police station bench, while the Grandfather is starting a fight with the Police, claiming tht he is “A soldier of the Republic” and singing an old Irish Rebel song, “A Nation Once Again.” This refers to Liverpool’s ties to the Irish independence movement. They are finally let go for doing nothing really wrong. Ringo makes it back just in time for the show, and the Grandfather makes an appearance during the last number of the concert rising onto the stage on an elevator.

Tell Them You Can't Spell
flashe and acrylic on canvas
2009
32 x 48 in

from Ace in the Hole, 1951
Director: Billy Wilder
Cinematographer: Charles B. Lang Jr.

This film is about using manipulation to create fame and profit. A former New York journalist, Tatum, finds work at a small newspaper while still hoping to land a big story. Stopping for gas at a trading post while on the way to report on a rattlesnake hunt, he finally stumbles on a story he knows he can work to his advantage. Fallen beams in an Indian cliff dwelling have trapped the proprietor of the trading post, Leo Mimosa. Tatum meets Lorraine Mimosa, the wife of Leo, who is about to take advantage of Leo’s predicament to leave their unhappy marriage. Knowing this would be bad for the story, Tatum guilt’s her into sticking around. She is eventually happy that she does, because the trading post begins to make more money than it ever has, with hoards of visitors eager to see the story unfold. Tatum conspires with the town sheriff to delay Leo’s rescue, implementing a week-long attempt to drill down to him as opposed to shoring up the existing walls which might have gotten him out within a day or so. Leo winds up dying. Towards the end of the film, reporters question Lorraine and Tatum’s misdeeds are nearly revealed. Tatum finds out she has been offered $1000.00 to give the reporters a story. Tatum says to her “Tell them that you can’t spell,” and reminds her that talking too much will implicate her as well.

Here's To Men
flashe and acrylic on canvas
2009
61 x 85 in

from The Best of Everything, 1959
Director: Jean Negulesco
Cinematographer: William C. Mellor

The Best of Everything is one of the more disturbing movies I have painted, focusing on four women’s laughingly bad relationships to men. Three New York City women are roommates and workmates at a paperback book publishing company. They all work for Editor Amanda Farrow, a bitter older woman who has an extended affair with a married man. Each has extreme trials with the men in their life. Before we are made aware of their respective tribulations, they cheers one another with a cocktail exclaiming “Here’s to men. Bless their clean cut faces and dirty little minds." Things go downhill from there. One of the women, April, gets pregnant. Her fiancé makes her believe he intends to elope with her but instead, on the way, he tells her he’s taking her to get an abortion. She gets upset, jumps out of the car and loses the baby. Another roommate, Gregg, is an aspiring actress, dates a director introduced to her by Amanda. She swiftly lands a minor role in a play and quits her job. She is just as swiftly replaced by another actress and is rejected by her newfound love. She obsesses over the director and waits for him at his apartment, winds up out on a fire escape and falls to her death. Finally, Caroline is the only roommate
who climbs the ladder at their mutual job while suffering the loss of her boyfriend while he is
overseas by way of marriage to another woman. After Caroline is promoted to editor to replace Amanda when she is asked to marry a longtime acquaintance, Caroline becomes her ex-boyfriends mistress, mirroring Amanda’s previous arrangement. When Amanda leaves the marriage, Caroline is happy to give her job back because she believes that her ex-boyfriend will leave his wife for her. She finds out she is wrong.

You Have Your Own Life To Live
flashe and acrylic on canvas
2009
32 x 44 in

from My Love For Yours, 1939
Director: Edward Griffith
Cinematographer: Ted Tezla

In this 1939 film, Gail Allen is a successful Vice President of a New York City department store. A window washer sees her from outside her office window in the opening scene and gives her advice about which coat she should offer for sale after seeing her try on 3 different ones. She applies his advice. She meets a man Bill Burnett from Bali in a boat shop near her office on her lunch break. He swiftly falls in love with the independent businesswoman. Ms. Allen makes it known she has sworn off marriage and proclaims “out with emotions” in order to maintain her independence. Her good friend Lorna Smith gives Gail advice that there is a very slim line between freedom and loneliness. The painting is from a scene where Gail has invited Mr. Burnett to dinner along with her friend Lorna. Lorna is concerned about Gail’s stoicism and tells her that someday she will find out the startling fact that she is a human being, exclaiming “You have your own life to live.” Eventually, Gail rejects Bill’s first proposal of marriage, but wises up at the end and accepts his proposal after all, thanks to more help from the company window washer.

What's Going On?
flashe and acrylic on canvas
2009
47 x 95

from The Battle of Algiers, 1966
Director: Gillo Pontecorv
Cinematography: Marcello Gatti

Three Algerian women disguised as Europeans and given bombs to place within two cafes and an airport in the European section of a French occupied Algerian city. The bombs are to avenge the deaths of members of the National Liberation Front (FLN). The scene shows patrons of the second café who are soon be bombed viewing the scene of the explosion at the first café. Someone comments “What’s Going On?” and another says it was probably a tank explosion. They return inside to the café to also become victims of the FLN. The film demonstrates the danger and unnaturalness of colonization. French paratroops are equally violent to avenge the deaths of their military and police.

In 2003, Directorate for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict at The Pentagon in the U.S. offered a screening of the film to showcase wars against terrorism. According to a New York Times article written about the viewing, a flyer promoting the film at the Pentagon read:

“How to win a battle against terrorism and lose the war of ideas. Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range. Women plant bombs in cafes. Soon the entire Arab population builds to a mad fervor. Sound familiar? The French have a plan. It succeeds tactically, but fails strategically. To understand why, come to a rare showing of this film.”

1. Michael T. Kaufman’s “Film Studies”, The New York Times, 7 September 2003.

You Won't Think I'm Silly Will You?
flashe and acrylic on canvas
2009
35 x 41

from Father Of The Bride, 1950
Director: Vincent Minnelli
Cinematographer: John Alton

Daughter Kay (Elizabeth Taylor) accidentally meets her father Stanley Banks (Spencer Tracy) at the kitchen table the night before her wedding which has gotten out of control in the planning stages. She asks her father “You won’t think I’m silly, will you?”, after confiding in him that she’s scared of being nervous during her wedding. Her father endearingly responds “You don’t have to worry about a thing.”

Some Things are Hard to Swallow
flashe and acrylic on canvas
2009
32 x 42

Some Things are Hard to Swallow
from Diabolique, 1955
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Cinematographer: Armand Thirard

This scene is from the beginning of the film where the headmaster and teachers of a private school sit together having dinner. The scene shows the headmaster and his mistress at the same table with his wife and another teacher. The headmaster is sadistic and manipulative, and forces his wife who has a heart problem to eat sh that she does not want and thinks might be bad. The mistress is shown saying “some things are hard to swallow” followed by the mistress also adding “I’m not talking about the fish.” The mistress and wife then go on to plan the headmaster’s murder and, after dumping his body in the school pool to make it look like an accident, his body disappears.

Spread You Out
flashe and acrylic on canvas
2009
40 x 50 in

from I Want To Live!, 1958
Director: Robert Wise
Cinematographer: Walter Wanger

This is a semi-true story from 1950 of a small time crook Barbara, AKA the ‘Tiger Lady,’ who is eventually sent to the gas chamber. She lives a life of petty crimes working as a shill luring unsuspecting men into her thief friend Perkins’ gambling parlor. She eventually leaves this job to marry a man and swears o crime. After having a baby, the marriage goes sour when her husband becomes addicted to drugs. Barbara returns to work for Perkins who is wanted by the police for a murder. This scene shows Barbara in the interrogation after being arrested in a raid on Perkins and his associates. The police are pinning the murder on her. During her interrogation
one of the police declares in disgust “I’d like to spread you out and stamp you into the ground.” Even though in the film Barbara is not guilty of the murder, the jury convicts her and sends her to the gas chamber. Ultimately she pays for being a woman living an alternative lifestyle.

He Was Pushed
flashe and acrylic on canvas
2009
93 x 156

from Kiss Me Deadly, 1955
Director: Robert Aldrich
Cinematographer: Ernest Laszlo

Mike Hammer is a divorce detective and is caught up in a complex mystery when he picks up a hitchhiker late
one night. The woman is Christina Bailey, an escapee from an insane asylum who tells Hammer she is named
after a poet Christina Rossetti, and tells Hammer to remember her after she disappears. She asks to be dropped
o at the nearest bus station but on the way they are suddenly blocked by another car and the occupants knock
Hammer unconscious. They are brought to a house where Christina is tortured and killed and Hammer is
drugged and put back into their car that is then is pushed over a cli to make it look like an accident. Hammer
survives and quickly begins to investigate the murder he’s been caught up in. Hammer’s girlfriend Velda helps
him investigate, and tells Hammer a man named Ray Diker called while he was in the hospital. They nd out
Diker was a newspaper science editor who has since disappeared. Diker is located, and although nervous he
reveals to Velda more information and they learn that there were two other trac “accidents” where people
were killed to which Christina was connected. Hammer goes to the house of a man, Wallace, involved in one of
the ‘accidents.’ The painting shows Hammer and Wallace sitting at a dinner table discussing the accident.
Wallace nervously repeats he was driving over a bridge in the quiet evening and someone was pushed in front
of his truck, “pushed, more like he was pushed!” he repeats, still shaken from the incident. As the mystery
unfolds, Mike looks to the poet Christina was named after and finds a clue in a poem titled Remember, a cryptic
love sonnet by Christina Rossetti: (excerpt)

Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of a future which you plan
Only remember me, you’ll understand
But if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once we had.

Mike decodes the poem assuming that the ‘vestige’ referred to is something that Christina hid on herself before
being captured. Mike heads to the morgue, where he bribes the Medical Examiner to get the contents of
Christina’s stomach. This turns out to be a key, which unlocks a locker at a gym containing a box with loud,
glowing contents. Hammer leaves this behind after it burns him upon opening. It is soon learned this is nuclear
material and the story connects to the Cold War and fears about the Bomb.