Girl With a Pearl Earring is a fictional exploration of the world of Dutch master Johannes Vermeer and the painting of his most enigmatic and beloved portrait, Girl With a Pearl Earring. The movie takes us deep into the intimate realms of artistic inspiration. Based on Tracy Chevalier's best-selling novel, Olivia Hetreed's screenplay has imaginative fun, speculating on who that girl in the painting is and why she looks both amused and sad. The film, the directorial debut by television director Peter Webber, also offers lively lessons in the techniques and methodology of 17th century painting. This is an art film in spades.
Boasting inspired performances by Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson -- the queen so far of this year's Toronto film festival, based on her work in Lost in Translation and this film -- Girl is not likely to move beyond the art house, but the film does succeed where few others have in penetrating the life of a painter and the source of his art.
Cinematographer Eduardo Serra and designer Ben van Os make every frame of this picture a living tribute to Vermeer, utilizing his composition and lighting to capture the look of 1665 Holland. They use the famed "northern lighting" that catches faces and objects in a warm half light that opens up common domestic scenes to the beauties of color and form. The film bathes its actors, furniture and open spaces in a glorious incandescence.
Griet (Johansson), still a teenager, must leave her Protestant home to enter Vermeer's tumultuous, Catholic household in Delft when her father, a tile painter, becomes blind. The place is run by stern women. Vermeer's penny-pinching mother-in-law, Maria (Judy Parfitt), keeps a close eye on her emotional daughter Catharina (Essie Davis) -- perennially pregnant with another child to feed -- her mischievous granddaughter and a pair of gossipy female servants. On the floor above, in his studio, Vermeer (Firth) labors painstakingly but in peace on his paintings. He is not prolific, taking months to complete a commission, thus straining the household's finances.
In the new maid, the daughter of an artist, Vermeer senses an appreciation of his work no one else in the family shows. He teaches her to buy and mix his paints. He notices her response to his experiments with light and space. And as her husband's interest in this fresh-faced lass grows, so does his wife's jealousy.
The young beauty attracts the attention of two other men: the wealthy Master van Ruijven (Tom Wilkerson), Vermeer's lustful patron, and Pieter (Cillian Murphy), a butcher's son who shyly courts her. Sensing the tensions within Vermeer's household and desiring Griet himself, the cunning van Ruijven dangles a tempting commission before Vermeer. He asks the artist to paint Griet alone, behind his wife's back. Money-hungry Maria allows the commission -- and Vermeer's relationship with Griet -- to proceed.
The film keenly observes the psychological warfare within the household even as it takes the measure to the teeming township outside its door, where animals roam the streets and garbage lies in the canals. All this, the movie seems to say, goes into the painting of one masterpiece, all these tensions, hardships and schemes as well as the life of the times.
Johansson's brave and intelligent innocence is nicely balanced by Firth's worldly, compassionate admiration of his painting's subject. In another time and place, these two would be lovers. But here, distinctions in class, religion and education make this impossible; here, their passion remains cerebral and platonic, though sexual tensions abound.
High marks belong to the film's entire crew, including Alexandre Desplat's elegant score and Dien van Straalen's costumes modeled after Vermeer's work.
GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING
Lions Gate Films
Lions Gate and Pathe in association with U.K. Film Council present an Archer Street/Delux production
Credits: Director: Peter Webber
Screenwriter: Olivia Hetreed
Based on the novel by: Tracy Chevalier
Producers: Andy Paterson, Anand Tucker
Executive producers: Francois Ivernel, Cameron McCracken, Duncan Reid, Tom Ortenberg, Peter Block, Nick Drake, Philip Erdoes, Daria Jovivic
Director of photography: Eduardo Serra
Production designer: Ben van Os
Music: Alexandre Desplat
Costume designer: Dien van Straalen
Editor: Kate Evans
Cast: Vermeer: Colin Firth
Griet: Scarlett Johansson
Van Ruijven: Tom Wilkerson
Maria Thins: Judy Parfitt
Pieter: Cillian Murphy
Catharina: Essie Davis
Running time -- 99 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Boasting inspired performances by Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson -- the queen so far of this year's Toronto film festival, based on her work in Lost in Translation and this film -- Girl is not likely to move beyond the art house, but the film does succeed where few others have in penetrating the life of a painter and the source of his art.
Cinematographer Eduardo Serra and designer Ben van Os make every frame of this picture a living tribute to Vermeer, utilizing his composition and lighting to capture the look of 1665 Holland. They use the famed "northern lighting" that catches faces and objects in a warm half light that opens up common domestic scenes to the beauties of color and form. The film bathes its actors, furniture and open spaces in a glorious incandescence.
Griet (Johansson), still a teenager, must leave her Protestant home to enter Vermeer's tumultuous, Catholic household in Delft when her father, a tile painter, becomes blind. The place is run by stern women. Vermeer's penny-pinching mother-in-law, Maria (Judy Parfitt), keeps a close eye on her emotional daughter Catharina (Essie Davis) -- perennially pregnant with another child to feed -- her mischievous granddaughter and a pair of gossipy female servants. On the floor above, in his studio, Vermeer (Firth) labors painstakingly but in peace on his paintings. He is not prolific, taking months to complete a commission, thus straining the household's finances.
In the new maid, the daughter of an artist, Vermeer senses an appreciation of his work no one else in the family shows. He teaches her to buy and mix his paints. He notices her response to his experiments with light and space. And as her husband's interest in this fresh-faced lass grows, so does his wife's jealousy.
The young beauty attracts the attention of two other men: the wealthy Master van Ruijven (Tom Wilkerson), Vermeer's lustful patron, and Pieter (Cillian Murphy), a butcher's son who shyly courts her. Sensing the tensions within Vermeer's household and desiring Griet himself, the cunning van Ruijven dangles a tempting commission before Vermeer. He asks the artist to paint Griet alone, behind his wife's back. Money-hungry Maria allows the commission -- and Vermeer's relationship with Griet -- to proceed.
The film keenly observes the psychological warfare within the household even as it takes the measure to the teeming township outside its door, where animals roam the streets and garbage lies in the canals. All this, the movie seems to say, goes into the painting of one masterpiece, all these tensions, hardships and schemes as well as the life of the times.
Johansson's brave and intelligent innocence is nicely balanced by Firth's worldly, compassionate admiration of his painting's subject. In another time and place, these two would be lovers. But here, distinctions in class, religion and education make this impossible; here, their passion remains cerebral and platonic, though sexual tensions abound.
High marks belong to the film's entire crew, including Alexandre Desplat's elegant score and Dien van Straalen's costumes modeled after Vermeer's work.
GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING
Lions Gate Films
Lions Gate and Pathe in association with U.K. Film Council present an Archer Street/Delux production
Credits: Director: Peter Webber
Screenwriter: Olivia Hetreed
Based on the novel by: Tracy Chevalier
Producers: Andy Paterson, Anand Tucker
Executive producers: Francois Ivernel, Cameron McCracken, Duncan Reid, Tom Ortenberg, Peter Block, Nick Drake, Philip Erdoes, Daria Jovivic
Director of photography: Eduardo Serra
Production designer: Ben van Os
Music: Alexandre Desplat
Costume designer: Dien van Straalen
Editor: Kate Evans
Cast: Vermeer: Colin Firth
Griet: Scarlett Johansson
Van Ruijven: Tom Wilkerson
Maria Thins: Judy Parfitt
Pieter: Cillian Murphy
Catharina: Essie Davis
Running time -- 99 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 12/26/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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