Girl with the Pearl Earring (2003)
Have you ever seen that PBS show
where the middle-aged British nun goes through a museum,
points out paintings and explains them to you? Her
name is Sister Wendy. Anyway, I used to think that
if someone had to explain a piece of art to you, it
wasn't any good. I've kinda changed my views on that,
especially after watching the insightful nun make
old, uninteresting paintings come to life. I mention
this because "Girl with the Pearl Earring" is based
on a painting by 17th century Dutch artist Johannes
Vermeer. Tracy Chevalier imagined an entire novel
based on the painting and that novel became this film.
After seeing the film, I kinda wish Sister Wendy was
around to explain a lot more about the film to me.
Constricted, pressurized and boiling
just under the surface, the sexual tension in "Girl
with the Pearl Earring" is palpable throughout the
film. Wisely, it is a tension that is rarely exposed,
only flinchingly allowed to surface on two rather
different, rather pointed moments that act as the
only two spikes in a film that insists on keeping
everything leveled and almost anything disquieting
simmering under the surface.
The picturesque Scarlett Johansson
(is she not the most beautiful young woman in film
right now?) steals the show with a performance that
is as nuanced and as demure as one would generally
only expect from an actress more than twice her age.
Johansson plays Griet, a young middle class girl who
must begin work at a somewhat renowned painter's estate
as a servant. The setting seems to be Venice, but
is not, and the time is the mid 1600's. Repressed
desires abound and Griet soon finds herself a somewhat
willing pawn in a game of sexual politics that involves
the painter, his wife, their children, her mother
and a wealthy patron. Meanwhile, Griet also finds
herself having feelings for a hottie young butcher
named Pieter (Cillian Murphy) from whom she buys the
household food.
As Griet, whose father was also
an artist, becomes more and more important in the
household, she finds herself an artistic soul mate
to the painter and he utilizes her fresh imput to
not only help him mix paints but to inspire him and,
eventually, act as his model. This, of course, becomes
more and more problematic as the relationship becomes
more and more apparent to the others in the artist's
household.
While the film moves slowly and
much is left unsaid and not acted upon, the lethargic
pace and unwavering narrative thread ultimately wind
tighter and tighter making the film more and more
engrossing. And while many questions seem left unanswered
in the film, one thing is ultimately clear at its
end: Johansson is one of the most talented, most beautiful
and most underrated young actors working in film today.
This film makes a wonderful companion piece to "Lost
in Translation," released just a few short months
prior to this work, as both films show us just how
amazing, talented and beautiful Johansson truly is.
I am not alone in anxiously awaiting what she does
next.
Notes:
Also with Colin Firth and Tom Wilkinson.
Directed by Peter Webber. Cinematography
by Eduardo Serra and score by Alexandre Desplat. The
Nick Drake who produced the film is obviously not
the musical performer who died of an overdose in 1974.
Filmed in Belgium, Netherlands and
Luxembourg.
Viewed at the Dobie in February
2004 with my friend Johnny Oh! and my roomie Amanda.
