The article investigates the continuity of expressive possibilities of fine art in cinema. The competent use of composition, color and lighting choices borrowed from painting contributes to the development of screen imagery in cinema as art.In the early 20th century the idea of the synthesis of arts has become increasingly popular, due to the development in cultural, social and political life of people as well as historical events in general. Although cinema is rightly considered an art that has absorbed the potential of literature, theater and music, the influence of fine arts, and painting in particular, seems to be the most obvious. Directors are often inspired by famous canvases, or choose to quote certain paintings – copy their composition, lighting and color peculiarities – and sometimes even reproduce entire plots in their films. In the history of cinema one can find a number of examples of collaboration between artists and filmmakers.The visuals of the film become the distinctive feature which lets the viewer identify the director’s style and specific aesthetics. This aesthetics can be influenced both by the experience of other directors and by certain trends in fine art, or by the impression of individual works of artists or even their artistic journey as a whole. To this or that extent the works of most highly recognized world-class directors show evidence that their authors turn their attention to the masterpieces of fine art or individual techniques used in them which testifies to the continuity of pictorial traditions in cinema in general. This approach does not only expand the expressive possibilities of cinema, but also contributes to the development of onscreen intertextuality as a whole. The adequate use in cinema of composition, color and lighting approaches borrowed from painting contributes to the development of imagery of cinema as art in general, and the study of the language of plastic arts in the context of the search for new visual ideas can enrich the range of cinematographic methods and technologies.