Girl With a Pearl Earring
|
List Price: Our Price: $5.59 You Save: $9.39 (63%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $2.09 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Girl With a Pearl Earring
Movie Review: A lonely spirit
Summary: 5 Stars
That's the big thing I respond to in this movie: Griet locked in a loneliness she can't even name, a visual senstivity that no one around her can share. You see that loneliness first in that opening scene, where she arranges the colors of beets, cabbage, and onion into a composition that only she can see. When her family falls into unfortunate times, she must leave to make her own way in the world. There, just a few minutes in, we see her standing in a compass rose and symbolically choosing her new direction.
That new direction leads her to Vermeer, and to a realization that she is not alone. She can converse with him - not always through talking - about light, color, and composition. And he responds. It's a chaste but intense kind of intimacy. Vermeer's wife is jealous, as if Griet is taking her place in some way. The jealousy is well founded but Griet's relationship to Vermeer is one that his wife can never fill, something that can only add bitterness to the jealousy. Partly though the spiteful viciousness of a daughter in the household, Griet is cast out. In the closing scene, she stands in the middle of the compass rose again, uncertain for a moment, then off in the direction of the next stage of her life.
The movie is beautifully filmed, even if Scarlett Johansson is not shown as an outwardly beautiful woman. If anything, she is shown as somewhat lumpish, as if to emphasize that her beauty is inward. And, despite her generally passive and obedient role, Griet does take charge of what she can. At one point, she realizes that her virginity will probably be taken by force. She is powerless against forcible attack, but discharges her virginity in the manner of her own choosing. Maybe she couldn't lose it to love, but should could save it from violence by giving it in affection. And no, she didn't give it to Vermeer. That relationship already had an intensity of a different order.
If you want absolute historical veracity, you won't find it here. According to "Vermeer's Camera," for example, the camera obscura was probably a whole closet rather than the box shown in this movie. So let it be fiction in a historical setting - it's a beautiful movie, and a depiction of a very real kind of loneliness. At least, it's real to me.
//wiredweird
Movie Review: "Disturb nothing, leave all just as it is"
Summary: 5 Stars
This year, 2003, will be remembered as the year in which Scarlett Johansson made her debut in the big screen with astounding success. Her roles in "Lost in Translation" and in this movie gained two nominations for the Golden Globes, and even though she did not win any of them, everyone recognized her talent. It is particularly enlightening to the Johansson playing two roles that are complete opposites, a married young woman in the twentieth century in Japan and an introverted young maid in seventeenth century Holland.Griet (Johansson) is an adolescent that has a blind father and is forced to leave her home and go work for a wealthy family when the economic situation warrants it. The master of the house is no other than the painter Johannes Vermeer, who lives there with his wife, several kids, his mother in-law and a myriad of servants. The madam of the house and her eldest daughter receive Griet in an unfriendly manner, but she receives the "gift" of being in charge of cleaning Vermeer's atelier. She is mesmerized by the paintings and treats everything with immense respect and reverence.
Vermeer takes his time with each painting, having to constantly fight with the pressure his wife and mother in-law put upon him when the funds become meager. Now he has received the news that his patron Peter van Ruijven will not pay for another painting right away, but will go with another painter instead. He then seeks to find a new source of inspiration and thus starts a peculiar relationship with Griet.
This film has various admirable attributes, like the impeccable settings, the uplifting music and the fascinating details presented about the life in Holland in the seventeenth century. Moreover, the description of how the colors and the paintings were created is extremely interesting. For those of you that are bothered by a movie with a slow pace, I have no other choice but to recommend you to stay away from this one, but everyone else should watch it. As a final recommendation, I would advise you to go online and look at Vermeer's paintings before watching the movie, especially "The Girl with a Pearl Earring" and "Young Woman with a Water Pitcher".
Movie Review: A Painter and a Girl, Inspiration and Romance;Just Beautiful
Summary: 5 Stars
If you don't know much about painting, or Verneer for that matter, you don't have to worry. 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' is not about the painting of the title itself; the film is rather a romance behind the (much fictional) account of the making of the painting, or the forbidden relation between a man and a girl. As such, it is stunning, so are the actors, especially Scarlet Johanssen.
The simple story begins with a girl Griet perfectly played by New-York-State born Johanssen. Living in Holland, 1665 (around the time the painting is supposed to be made), Griet now has to work at the painter Verneer's house as maid, and as you may expect, the menial jobs only make the life there very drab.
But the painter himself, rather strange, and laconic guy Verneer (Colin Firth, with long hair), is not a bad master. By the time she understands that, she actually becomes the only person who in turn understands the importance of his work in the entire household of his. And the painter, whose wife just don't understand, and who is surrounded by many (more than 10) kids, also finds a solace in her....
The film could be more melodramatic, and some part almost become so (the theatrical portrait of Tom Wilkinson's greedy patron nearly did it), but thanks largely to the subtle lighting of photographer Eduardo Serra (known for Patrice Leconte films) and very credible production designs by Ben Van Oz (known for Peter Greenaway films), the film itself becomes a Vermeer painting itself. The story, relying on less dialogues than other costume films, manages to be engaging and involving, with the superb acting from the two leads.
But the greatest thing happens at the ending, which is inspired by the original painting. How to end a film is one of the trickiest parts of the job, and 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' ends with a very clever, and also beautiful way. It still remains with me.
Some may call the film predictable, but that is a minor thing. As a costume drama this film is first-rate, but first and foremost it is a romance with a heart, the very universal theme.
Movie Review: A fascination more than romance - Sadly & Quietly captivating
Summary: 5 Stars
I was pleasantly surprised that this period piece fictionalized the "story behind a painting" without the typical need for overt sexual involvement. What I mean by that, is that this book-to-film was more about the understanding between house-maid and artist, not a sexual realtionship...... which was a welcome difference in fictional period films about muses and their masters.
It is a quietly developing film, neither tedious nor upbeat. The story of Vermeer stays financially and pictorially correct to history - down to the names, scenery, and the likeness of the characters depcited in his true paintings (which was refreshing). The drama of his financial need to stay afloat, while being supported by his mother inlaw, is historically accurate - as well as his patronige with one affluent buyer, keeping the truth of Vermeer's Dutch local fame true to life as well.
The fictional involvement of Johansson's house-maid character is the meat of the film - but as I said before - I found a serene beauty in her being Vermeer's muse, without either infidelity or even many words being spoken between she and the master painter. It was a fascination on both parts more than a romance. She understood his art; Through his fascination with her she learned/understood light, space and movement, the mixing of pigments and had an appreciation for his art that Vermeer's wife could not compete with or comprehend - causing the main dramas.
The film is subtlely endearing.... some may find it too slow, but I thought the many quiet moments and unspoken thoughts in this film added to artistic appreciation, instead of plot distraction and chaos. The nasty characters inflict just enough threat to make both painter and maid pitiable in their plight. But overall, you are left with a serenity and sadness for how the painting of the Pearl Earring came about and captivated with the purity of Vermeer's art.
Movie Review: House of Intrigue...
Summary: 5 Stars
2003's "Girl with a Pearl Earing" offers a detailed recreation of the Delft, Holland of 1665, and specifically, of the house of gifted painter Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth). The house is run by Vermeer's mother-in-law (Judy Parfit), who understands its survival depends on earning commissions from weathly art patrons, including the manipulative Master van Ruijven (Tom Wilkinson). Vermeer has just finished a painting, and is in need of inspiration.
Into the house comes a new young maid, Griet (Scarlett Johansson). Griet is poor, shy, and illiterate. She is also hardworking, curious, and, to the surprise of Vermeer, has an instinctive grasp of the essentials of color, light, and composition in painting. Her assistance to his work draws the jealousy of Vermeer's bitter wife Katrina (Essie Davis), the hatred of one of the children, and the mischief-making of Master van Ruijven, who demands she be the subject of Vermeer's next painting.
Griet's life becomes complicated. She is an object of courtship for the handsome butcher's boy Pieter (Cillian Murphy), of sensuous inspiration for Vermeer, and of a crude rape attempt by van Ruijven. A quiet conspiracy to complete the painting without Katrina's knowledge is betrayed, leading to a fateful confrontation over Griet's status in the house.
"Girl with a Pearl Earing" has a solid cast, outstanding production values, and a subtle but intense plot centering on the young Griet. As a servant forbidden to speak unless spoken to, Scarlett Johansson's Griet compellingly portrays her moods and emotions through gesture and expression. Unglamorous in servant's clothing, scrubbed white skin, and work-roughened hands, the innocent act of removing her cap and letting down her long red hair in the presence of Vermeer becomes an unconscious intimacy. Of such well-crafted moments is made an excellent, highly recommended period movie.