Charles Laughton's beautifully nuanced performance as Rembrandt plus excellent cinematography are the main reasons for watching this biopic. Unfortunately, while it's fairly interesting at first, the movie doesn't really go anywhere. And I was always skeptical of the "tortured artist painting for the love of it" take on Rembrandt. I don't know anything about Rembrandt, but painting was very much a business and a craft in those days and while I'm sure there were tortured artists trying to say something, I don't know that they were as common as they are today.
I was reinforced in my suspicions by wikipedia, which for example says Rembrandt was always popular as a painter and that the painting of the regiment was a tremendous success from the moment it was unveiled.
So I don't think I learned much about Rembrandt, but the movie beautifully captures the look of his paintings and Laughton is brilliant (and also looks remarkably like Rembrandt).
