Reading through many comments here, I see only warnings to all film producers: don't do artistic films like that! This posting, is to encourage such kind of films.
I don't know, where to start, to prize the qualities of this film! This is the most wonderful film, which I saw for years.
First of all: On this board many people complained about the acting. For me the performance of Scarlett Johansson (as Griet) was just breathtaking. I never saw an actress playing so deeply and true speechless shyness, fright, uncertainty and submission. But same time she shows intelligence, although if she plays an illiterate girl.
This film reflects paintings. That means, the characters are static and have not to be developed, as many are claiming here. The other side of this film in painting style is the symbolic of the scenery: An apple in Vermeers paintings is sufficient, to evoke for the educated people of this time (early baroque era), the whole story of Adam and Eve, sin and cognition. A lady sitting at a spinet, with other words a "virginal", was a symbol for chastity, only because of the second name of this instrument. If you don't understand the iconography of the Netherlands painting school, don't watch this film and bother this board with: "I am so bored!" or "the pace of this film is so slow!" If you never felt tears coming into your ears, watching old masters in an art gallery, this is not your film either. In this film are plenty of symbolic hints and allusions. The characters, static as they are, are sufficient, to build up slowly an erotic tension between the model and the painter, and to the other side jealousy to the family Vermeer.
The most moving moment of this film was for me the following scene: finally the painter succeeded to convince his model, of putting on the pearl earring for the portrait. This earring is a symbol of wealthiness and noblesse, which are not due to a maid. The turban was fashion in these times, remembering the battles against the Turkish armies. The painter has to pierce a hole. This scene is a symbolic defloration. He pierces, she is bleeding, and than he is putting the pearl earring in the new hole. We see the face of Griet and a tear drop is running down her cheek. Thank you, Scarlett for this great moment! So moving, so tender, so sad! There are plenty of details, you would never see in a historic Hollywood film: the weals of Griet, her hands are worn up, from her daily labour. The marks on her neck, after the patron tried to violate her. The dirt on the market, on the clothes. The clothes are hand- woven, hand-sewed, hand-washed, I bet with everybody here. I never saw such a detailed staging. Vermeer was famous for his genre paintings, which is reflected in this film: we see the maid washing, preparing dinner, cleaning the steps of the door, merging colours for the master ... One detail again: the season is changing from winter to spring. I rarely saw a film, where you really see the breath in the cold air from all actors! Nevertheless the whole film is only a fictional story, that means a "historic fiction", how this painting of Vermeer could have been created. But for me very credible and inspiring.
Only thing, I would expect from a "historic" film: historic music! Unfortunately the film music is modern and romanticising. I am dreaming of a historic film with real dialects of the epoch and film music of the epoch. Is there not enough fascinating music in these times? Contemporary composers from Jan Vermeer (1632-1675) are for example: Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck: 1562-1621, Joachim van den Hove: 1567-1620, Claudio Monteverdi: 1567- 1643, Heinrich Schütz: 1585-1672, Girolamo Frescobaldi: 1583-1643, Constantijn Huygens: 1596-1687, Carel Hacquart: 1640-1701, Jacob van Eyck: 1590-1657, Jan Baptist Verrijt: 1600-1650, Jean-Baptiste Lully: 1632-1687, Dietrich Buxtehude: 1637-1707, David Petersen: 1650-1737, Arcangelo Corelli: 1653-1713, Henry Purcell: 1659-1695.
The film music of Alexandre Desplat is not bad, I don't want to be mistaken, but it is like ketchup on a steamed whitefish. Only two films are coming into my mind, where the music is historic (both music films) : "Tous les matins du monde", (Alain Corneau, 1991) and "Farinelli", (Gérard Corbiau, 1994). About the historic language two films again: "The Passion of the Christ", (Mel Gibson, 2004 - don't know this film, but Jesus is said to speaking Aramaic), "Apocalypto", (Mel Gibson, 2006). When producers and directors will have the courage, to really make an "Elizabeth I" in historical language and with historical music? The answer is here on this board: "I am so bored!", "This film is too difficult!"
I don't know, where to start, to prize the qualities of this film! This is the most wonderful film, which I saw for years.
First of all: On this board many people complained about the acting. For me the performance of Scarlett Johansson (as Griet) was just breathtaking. I never saw an actress playing so deeply and true speechless shyness, fright, uncertainty and submission. But same time she shows intelligence, although if she plays an illiterate girl.
This film reflects paintings. That means, the characters are static and have not to be developed, as many are claiming here. The other side of this film in painting style is the symbolic of the scenery: An apple in Vermeers paintings is sufficient, to evoke for the educated people of this time (early baroque era), the whole story of Adam and Eve, sin and cognition. A lady sitting at a spinet, with other words a "virginal", was a symbol for chastity, only because of the second name of this instrument. If you don't understand the iconography of the Netherlands painting school, don't watch this film and bother this board with: "I am so bored!" or "the pace of this film is so slow!" If you never felt tears coming into your ears, watching old masters in an art gallery, this is not your film either. In this film are plenty of symbolic hints and allusions. The characters, static as they are, are sufficient, to build up slowly an erotic tension between the model and the painter, and to the other side jealousy to the family Vermeer.
The most moving moment of this film was for me the following scene: finally the painter succeeded to convince his model, of putting on the pearl earring for the portrait. This earring is a symbol of wealthiness and noblesse, which are not due to a maid. The turban was fashion in these times, remembering the battles against the Turkish armies. The painter has to pierce a hole. This scene is a symbolic defloration. He pierces, she is bleeding, and than he is putting the pearl earring in the new hole. We see the face of Griet and a tear drop is running down her cheek. Thank you, Scarlett for this great moment! So moving, so tender, so sad! There are plenty of details, you would never see in a historic Hollywood film: the weals of Griet, her hands are worn up, from her daily labour. The marks on her neck, after the patron tried to violate her. The dirt on the market, on the clothes. The clothes are hand- woven, hand-sewed, hand-washed, I bet with everybody here. I never saw such a detailed staging. Vermeer was famous for his genre paintings, which is reflected in this film: we see the maid washing, preparing dinner, cleaning the steps of the door, merging colours for the master ... One detail again: the season is changing from winter to spring. I rarely saw a film, where you really see the breath in the cold air from all actors! Nevertheless the whole film is only a fictional story, that means a "historic fiction", how this painting of Vermeer could have been created. But for me very credible and inspiring.
Only thing, I would expect from a "historic" film: historic music! Unfortunately the film music is modern and romanticising. I am dreaming of a historic film with real dialects of the epoch and film music of the epoch. Is there not enough fascinating music in these times? Contemporary composers from Jan Vermeer (1632-1675) are for example: Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck: 1562-1621, Joachim van den Hove: 1567-1620, Claudio Monteverdi: 1567- 1643, Heinrich Schütz: 1585-1672, Girolamo Frescobaldi: 1583-1643, Constantijn Huygens: 1596-1687, Carel Hacquart: 1640-1701, Jacob van Eyck: 1590-1657, Jan Baptist Verrijt: 1600-1650, Jean-Baptiste Lully: 1632-1687, Dietrich Buxtehude: 1637-1707, David Petersen: 1650-1737, Arcangelo Corelli: 1653-1713, Henry Purcell: 1659-1695.
The film music of Alexandre Desplat is not bad, I don't want to be mistaken, but it is like ketchup on a steamed whitefish. Only two films are coming into my mind, where the music is historic (both music films) : "Tous les matins du monde", (Alain Corneau, 1991) and "Farinelli", (Gérard Corbiau, 1994). About the historic language two films again: "The Passion of the Christ", (Mel Gibson, 2004 - don't know this film, but Jesus is said to speaking Aramaic), "Apocalypto", (Mel Gibson, 2006). When producers and directors will have the courage, to really make an "Elizabeth I" in historical language and with historical music? The answer is here on this board: "I am so bored!", "This film is too difficult!"