GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING
UK, 2003, 114 minutes, Colour.
Colin Firth, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Wilkinson, Judy Parfitt, Cillian Murphy, Essie Davis.
Directed by Peter Webber.
If ever a film re-created its period in loving and lavish detail, it is Girl with a Pearl Earring. It is the story of the Dutch painter, Johannes Vermeer, his work, his family, the patronage for his portraits and his painting of the masterpiece, Girl with a Pearl Earring.
While the attention to the life of Vermeer in his particular time and place, Delft 1665, is based on historical fact, this story of his painting his household maid, Griet, is the invention of novelist, Tracy Chevalier. By the time the film is over, one believes that this is what really happened.
The film is a set designer's paradise. It is also beautifully lit. One reviewer remarked that each frame of the film could be taken separately and put in an art gallery the compositions are so elegant, the realism so real, it enhances reality, in fact it is a moving picture version of Vermeer paintings. The same reviewer, however, was not charmed by the film itself and felt that it was like watching paint, no matter how skilfully and beautifully applied, dry. Unfortunately, this might also be the response of an audience which has little patience with measured and slow-moving storytelling that gives the audience ample time to gaze, to appreciate and to reflect on what they are seeing.
While the film is a constant delight to the senses, it also has a great deal to communicate about art, artistic appreciation, the style of painting in the 17th century (with the help of the camera oscura). It is also a telling portrait of Dutch society at the time, a contrast between Calvinist rigor and Catholic colour and chaos, a hierarchical society where even middle-class snobs lorded it over their servants who were taught to know their place. It is especially revealing on how women in service were trapped by powerful men and treated as sex objects unless they had the strength and shrewdness to escape the continual pressure and snares.
Scarlett Johansson really does look like the girl in the painting and gives and extraordinary performance which is frequently wordless, intensely introverted but communicating by presence, glances and body language. Colin Firth portrays Vermeer as a conscientious craftsman who was a serious, even stolid personality. Tom Wilkinson is his arrogant and lascivious patron. Among the supporting cast, Judy Parfitt stands out as the stern but realistic matriarch of the family as does Essie Davis as Vermeer's continuously pregnant wife, insecure, jealous and irascible.
A fascinating way of communicating the genius and work of a painter in his times as well as bringing the story behind a painting (even if it is fiction) to life.
1. A work of cinema art? Bringing alive a classic painting with a dramatic
story?
2. The film as a fiction grounded in fact? The imagination of the novelist? Dramatising a novel on-screen, the painting, the story, life in Delft?
3. The classic painting of the Girl with a Pearl Earring, its beauty, mystery, the end and the long focus on it? The focus on Griet and the audience understanding the painting better?
4. Delft, Holland, 1665: the detail of the city itself, its streets and canals, homes and marketplaces, churches? The vivid exteriors? The detailed interiors? The painterly quality of the whole film? Its attention to minute detail, sense delight? Décor, costumes, light and dark?
5. Each frame as a pictorial composition that could be hung in a gallery? The whole film as a painting alive?
6. The techniques of the time, the nature of the paints, the substances, the mixtures, the camera oscura, the subjects posing? Johannes Vermeer and his talent, his age, his experience, his patron, his subjects, portraits, his painting Griet and not his wife? Patrons and the management of the career of a painter? His financial and social dependence?
7. The introduction to Griet, her menial work, the Calvinist household, her mother, her blind father and his artwork, her going to the Vermeer house? Her encountering the maid, Katherine, Katherine's mother, Vermeer? The interrogations, the demands? The whims of Katherine?
8. Servants in the 17th century, their tasks, hard work, getting water, the washing, setting tables, going to the market? Having to bow, not speaking unless spoken to, not reading? The place in the family, eating with the maids and the children? Griet and her going to the butcher, her demands on fresh meat? Her meeting with Pieter? His courting her - her future?
9. The Calvinist severity, the bigotry of Griet's mother, the contrast with the Catholic family and its colour and chaos?
10. Vermeer and his career, his craftsmanship, the quality of his painting, his patron, the unveiling of his painting with the dinner for the birth of his child? His continuing to need commissions, need for inspiration? The patron and his wife, group? Griet, cleaning the windows, seeing her in the light, his painting her, getting the pearl for her ear? The scene of his piercing her ear and the sexuality, the tension, Griet and her fears, subservience? The portrait of Griet for the patron? Vermeer as a character - a touch stolid?
11. The patron, his wealth, his wife, the pregnant servant in the painting, the launch of the painting and the banquet? Further commissions, Vermeer's mother-in-law and her skill in doing bargains? The group, the portrait of Griet? His coming to visit the house, his molesting her, Cornelia watching? Vermeer protecting her from the patron?
12. Vermeer's mother-in-law, her stern appearance, dressed in black? The headpiece and the severity of the face? Her control of the household, of Griet, her trying to control her daughter? Her conniving for commissions, bargaining with the patron, keeping the posing of Griet secret from Katherine?
13. Katherine, her moodiness, her love for her jewels, her continually being pregnant, the severity of the birth? Her whims, being a snob? Her subservience to the patron? Her continually wanting Vermeer with her, fearing she would lose him? His sitting daydreaming and her watching him, loosening her necklace for him to fix it? Her reaction to her pearls being taken? Her not going into the studio, her anger at seeing the painting, her demands to see it, wanting to destroy it? Her complete contempt for Griet? Her daughters, their antagonism towards Griet, trying to get her into trouble, stealing the comb and hiding it? Vermeer and his severity in finding the comb, the caning of Cornelia?
14. Griet, Scarlett Johansson’s resemblance to the painting? Her age, inexperience, illiterate, yet sensitive? The film's concentration on her face? Not seeing her hair - only the scene where she lets it down and is glimpsed by Vermeer? Modest, religious, going home to her parents, going to church? At the butcher's and her severity? With Pieter, going for the walk, allowing him to kiss her, her response? The sexual encounter after her being molested by the patron? Her motivation? Wanting him to propose, his proposal? Her parents being in favour of this marriage? Her daily work, its detail, setting the tables, the middle of the night and the emergencies, going to the shops, messages for Vermeer, getting his paints? Tidying the studio, cleaning the windows, sleeping there and locked in by Katherine? Her new awareness of painting, her sensitivity? Her posing, her fears? Katherine despising her? Her future - and Vermeer sending her the gift of the pearls?
15. The butcher, trying to cheat Griet, his admiration for her, giving her fresh meat? Introducing his son, the character of Pieter, his skill as a butcher, courting Griet, walking with her, going to the church? The sexual encounter and its aftermath? The proposal?
16. Tanka as the chief maid, her explaining to Griet (and to the audience) the situation in the Vermeer household, her explanations of duties, friendship, tensions, wanting to move to get better sleep, arranging for Griet to go upstairs? Her looking at Griet as she left?
17. The town of Delft, its detail - almost a character in the film?
18. The experience of a fictional story behind a painting, the work and inspiration of an artist, his skills, the art process?
