A young, shirtless artist runs frantically around a barren room, seeking a door where there is only a mirror. His only companion is a statue of his own creation – a beautiful woman without arms. Standing in front of the mirror, the artist commands her, “Open it for me.” With eerie composure, she replies, “There is only one way left. You must go into the mirror and explore.”

This scene from avant-garde French director Jean Cocteau’s “Blood of a Poet” examines artistic identity and creation – two themes that will be explored this weekend by the J. Paul Getty Museum’s upcoming film series, “Dream a Little Dream: Artists in Film.”

Offered as a complement to one of the museum’s current exhibitions, “Images of the Artist,” the series will feature five films to be screened over Saturday and Sunday.

Cocteau’s “Blood of a Poet” and “Testament of Orpheus,” along with Alan Rudolph’s “The Moderns” will be shown on Saturday, while Peter Greenaway’s “The Draughtsman’s Contract” and Derek Jarman’s “Caravaggio” will screen on Sunday.

The title of the film series comes from the 1931 song “Dream a Little Dream of Me,” but it also refers to a moment in Cocteau’s “Testament of Orpheus” when Cocteau invites the viewer to dream with him as he meets the characters at Orpheus.

“It’s about the dream state one can go into when seeing a film,” said Andrea Alsberg, the curator of the series.

The films span from “Caravaggio’s” 17th century to Cocteau’s 1960s, covering a few hundred years and showing how perceptions of artists – and how artists perceive themselves – have changed over time. While the Renaissance artists were expected to be well-mannered and engage with the kings and queens who patronized their work, the Romantic artists of the modern period were seen as misunderstood, tormented individuals isolated from society.

According to Edouard Kopp, assistant curator of drawings at the Getty, the idea of the “Images of the Artist” exhibition was to bring together works produced over the course of five centuries that examine what it means to be an artist. These include portraits of artists, self-portraits, depictions of the artist’s studio and, less obviously, artistic allegories. “Images of the Artist” is comprised of 41 carefully chosen objects ranging from drawings and photographs to paintings and sculptures.

“The idea was to really think about how artists go about representing themselves and their lives, and how they can use art as a way of introspection,” Kopp said.

With the exception of “The Moderns,” all of the films in the series were directed by men who were also artists. Greenaway and Jarman were painters. Cocteau was a poet and illustrator.

“Not only do these films talk about … the joys and pains of being an artist, but most of the directors we chose have a kind of painter’s look to directing films,” Kopp said.

He said that Greenaway, for example, pays particular attention to how the characters are posed and how they relate to their surroundings. In “Blood of a Poet,” Cocteau seems to draw from his literary experiences, translating them into a moving image.

All the films will be screened in 35mm, which is a rare opportunity since most of the films are not widely available, according to Sarah McCarthy, senior project coordinator for performing arts at the Getty.

She said the goal for curating the series was to select films that both complemented the still exhibition, but also could stand on their own as pieces of art.

While the series and exhibition ask the same questions about the figure of “the artist,” the films concentrate on the experience, Alsberg said.

“With a gallery you might be walking through with a friend, but it’s still an individual take on an exhibition. When you go to a movie, you have a truly collective experience. You’re sitting there with a group of people all experiencing one thing,” Alsberg said.

“When you go out and look at the exhibition, you have a greater sense of what an artist thinks about when he or she creates a portrait of himself or herself.”