Moonlight (2016)

Drama Directed by Barry Jenkins
← Inspired by 8 films

The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.

View Full Graph Trace Lineage Trace Influence Path

Films that influenced Moonlight

← Inspired By (8)

Sources

Influenced By

  1. The 400 Blows (1959)
    "Moonlight's closing freeze-frame on Chiron's face is a direct visual quotation of The 400 Blows' iconic final shot of Antoine Doinel — the freeze on a child caught between past harm and unknown future, a gesture Truffaut originated and Jenkins explicitly invokes." source
  2. In the Mood for Love (2000)
    "Jenkins's most-cited single influence. Moonlight cinematographer James Laxton kept a Dropbox of In the Mood for Love stills as reference. Visualization of memory, longing, and unspoken interior life directly modeled." source
  3. Happy Together (1997)
    "Jenkins explicitly cited Wong Kar-wai's queer love story as a Moonlight touchstone — color palette, intimate framing of male bodies, music as emotional architecture." source
  4. Days of Being Wild (1990)
    "Jenkins cited Wong's 1990 film as part of the Wong corpus that shaped Moonlight's tone — drifting young protagonists, urban loneliness, time as melancholic substance." source
  5. Chungking Express (1994)
    "Jenkins's Wong influence specifically cites Chungking Express's vignette structure and emotional register as part of Moonlight's lineage." source
  6. Three Times (2005)
    "Hou Hsiao-hsien's three-act portrait of one couple across time periods is a direct structural influence on Moonlight's three-chapter format." source
  7. Beau Travail (2000)
    "Jenkins explicitly cited Claire Denis's Beau Travail — male bodies in landscape, masculinity as choreography, restrained narration." source
  8. Ratcatcher (1999)
    "Jenkins cited Lynne Ramsay's Ratcatcher — child-as-protagonist in an indifferent urban environment, sensory cinematography, restraint about what to dramatize." source

Moonlight (2016), directed by Barry Jenkins, was inspired by 8 earlier films — including The 400 Blows, In the Mood for Love, and Happy Together. Check out the citations below.