Meeting Persephone

Wow! Two weeks in a row! I must be improving my memory at least a little bit.

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Girl with a Pearl Earring - Starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth. Directed by Peter Weber and released in 2004.

Based on a novel by the same title written by Tracy Chevalier, Girl with a Pearl Earring attempts to tell a tale behind the creation of Johannes Vermeer's most famous work - so famous that it's become known as "The Mona Lisa of the North". The film is set in 17th century Netherlands (of course) and from the start is a vision to behold.

Johansson plays Griet, the daughter of a blind artist whose family can no longer afford to have her in their home and thus send her to be a maid in the home of painter, Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth). But we soon learn that the grass isn't always greener on the other side as the Vermeer family is struggling financially too. Relying on Vermeer's art for income and he being an excruciatingly slow painter leads to lack of coin at every turn. Dependent on a patron, Van Ruijven (Tom Wilkinson), a detestable human being despite his eye for true talent. He holds the welfare of the Vermeer family in his hands, knows it, and relishes in tormenting them because of it.

Vermeer is a phantom in his own life. He cares little about anything else but his work and wants to do it on his own terms - if there were no concerns about money and no pressure from his mother-in-law to churn out painting after painting, his might have been a satisfactory existence. The success of his family lies completely on his shoulders and with a new child coming, what seems like every 10 months, the weight of his obligation is ever increasing and more impossible. He finds in the new maid, Griet, someone who truly appreciates his art as it is rather than a for-profit endeavor and a mutual respect develops between them that seems to teeter on crossing those lines that shouldn't be crossed. So Vermeer turns to his long suffering and jealous wife even more frequently, increasing his own burden as a result. Griet turns to the butcher's son, Pieter (Cillian Murphy). And Van Ruijven looms in the shadows setting traps and causing pain and mayhem as suits him.

Van Ruijven has turned his eye to Griet much to the dismay of Vermeer and Griet. He abuses her and finally demands that he will have her one way or another. And so the painting comes into being and we reach the acme of passion in these impossibly beautiful scenes.

I'll be honest, I don't have a particular love for the acting in this movie (other than Tanneke, the cook, played by Joanna Scanlan and Tom Wilkinson as Van Ruijven) and the dialogue is less than stellar but the undercurrents are palpable and your heart races as the tension builds in each scene. And, as I'd mentioned in my first edition of Friday Flicks, the smaller the budget the bigger the ideas necessary to pull of the plot. This movie is filmed and lighted spectacularly! Passion conveyed through color both as it heats up as well as cools down - when the lights change from fire and passion to the next sated scene, you feel the calm as well as see it. Masterfully played by the director, cameraman, and lighting director.

The end of the movie shows the completed painting by Vermeer and I cannot help but pause on the piece just to drool. The incredible talent of Johannes Vermeer is something that can be identified even by those who have no interest in art whatsoever but appreciated ten-fold by those who do. This particular work is exquisite!

It's definitely worth the watch - and I watch it quite often! I hope you enjoy it if you decide to see it yourself.

The Trash Heap has spoken!