WORLD TOUR Day 38 - The Netherlands
BEFORE: From the world of classic literature to the world of art - and from one city known for its art to another. Linking actors tonight is simple, since Helena Bonham Carter from "A Room With a View" was also in "The King's Speech" with Colin Firth. Hmm, my third film with Mr. Firth this year, I'll class this blog up before I'm done.
Speaking of done, I've got just under a month left before I close up shop for the year. It turns out that 365 movies in a year is a bit too much for me, and 270 (the number I watched in 2011) is not enough - 300 seems just about right, and I wish I'd realized that three years ago. Oh, and I'll be taking a break for 4 days later this week to work at New York Comic Con.
THE PLOT: A young peasant maid working in the house of painter Johannes Vermeer becomes his talented assistant and the model for one of his most famous works.
AFTER: This seems at first like it would be a really simple story - girl gets job, girl poses for painting, painter paints painting, and there you go. But it's a bit more complicated than that. It gets into the relationship that one assumes the painter has with his subject, whether real or imagined, and the impact that has on the world, both in the smaller sense (jealous wife, embittered patron) and the larger (the people who view the art in museums).
It's fictionalized, of course - no one knows the exact relationship between Vermeer and his maid, or between Da Vinci and Ms. Mona Lisa, or Degas and all those ballet dancers. But there is a very cool examination here of the artistic process - both the technical aspects of it, and the personal. For example, it makes sense that Vermeer would have a large posable mannequin, since one wouldn't expect a human model to stand still for hours and hours, but I suppose I never really thought about it like that.
Underpainting, the use of the camera obscura, and the complicated process of mixing paints - this is some art history teacher's dream of a film, I just know it. And it's rare when a peek into the process of making something actually enhances its recognition - I still can't bring myself to watch DVD extras on the making of a film, because I usually don't want to spoil the illusion. I see enough "behind the scenes" material in the animation world just by doing my job.
Speaking of which, I've been in the film business for over 20 years now, and I've worked for several directors and producers, and I can confirm that mixing relationships with the filmmaking process is a complicated and messy undertaking. I started out working for a pair of directors who were also husband and wife, though they were separated and each dating another creative person associated with the company. (This will all be in my "roman a clef" memoirs someday.) I've run interference for people juggling several girlfriends - on one level, it's all part of the job.
I tell myself that highly creative people tend to make their own rules - pick any Hollywood couple or rock star relationship in the tabloids and I think you'll see what I mean. The artists of the 17th century were probably no exception.
I'm a little less interested in the process of the Vermeer family's laundry and other household chores, though. All of that seemed a little off-topic.
Also starring Scarlett Johansson (last seen in "The Avengers"), Tom Wilkinson (last seen in "Stage Beauty"), Cillian Murphy (last seen in "Tron: Legacy"), Essie Davis.
DISTANCE TRAVELED TODAY: 651 miles / 1,049 km (Florence, Italy to Delft, Netherlands)
DISTANCE TRAVELED SO FAR: 11,810 miles / 19,013 km
RATING: 5 out of 10 pigments
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