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Peter Greenaway, hoping to enrich our ability to see not just look, takes us through the intricacies of Rembrandt's masterpiece The Night Watch. He lays out elements tied to all 34 people depicted and gives us the history and motives that led to their original leader being shot through the eye and killed at rifle practice one afternoon.
Having only seen The Night Watch in art books, and spending little time actually looking at it, I was amazed at what all was going on in the painting. The fact that it is called "Night Watch" is not even relevant to the actual militia depicted. At the time of the painting militias were not much more than social clubs for the elite. The 12 families of Amsterdam represented were not pleased with it though it was displayed immediately after being finished. It is the most viewed of the 50 or so militia paintings created in Amsterdam on the strength of its immediate public display.
Greenaway appears as our narrator and prosecutor as every element is highlighted and dramatized. The film is a visual feast and interesting from the standpoint of the history revealed from Rembrandt's era. As Greenaway points out, The Night Watch was the beginning of the end for him. The 12 families made sure no one of importance ever commissioned him again! From there he lost most of his assets and ended his life nearly broke.
If you are ready to don your academic cap and gown or tin foil cap with a stiff upper lip by all means stream this from Netflix.
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its immediate public display."
I don't know what that means. The painting is much more than the most viewed MILITIA painting. It is the most revered Rembrandt of all at the major Dutch museum, the Rijksberg, in Amsterdam and generally considered one of the two or three most famous and critically acclaimed paintings in the world. "Mona" and that Velasquez trompe l'oeuil "Las Meninas" being the others.
Finally, "Nightwatch" spelled the end for... Greenway?
2008 is not all that long ago. Film is one only one of Greenaway's mediums, not necessarily his main interest.
He does other things - operas, multi-media installations, paintings, film shorts, books etc. He's not a conventional filmmaker.
Greenaway has the second film in his "Dutch masters series" filming now in the Netherlands. This one is about artist/engraver Hendrik Goltzius, an important figure in Dutch/Flemish art and quite the fascinating character in his own right. Goltzius as a supreme example of Dutch mannerism - with his love for artifice, eroticsm and drama - should dovetail nicely with Greenaway's own obsessions.
A feature film about Sergei Eisenstein's ill fated trip to the US and Mexico is in preproduction and scheduled for a 2012-13 shoot (but not holding my breath on that, as badly as I would like to see it happen soon).
We Greenaway fans have learned to be patient. This is actually a lot of film output for Mr. G.
in meeting halls and homes and buildings not open to the public. The Night Watch was placed in a window facing a canal where anyone walking by could stop and look at it.
"J'accuse" explains all this history and clearly there is a true story that Rembrandt became knowledgeable of and then proceeded to drop hints and accusations in the painting itself. The 12 families represented were the cream of the crop in Amsterdam at that particular time. They were not amused and used their influence to freeze Rembrandt out of the "upmarket" patron.
Greenaway's "Night Watching" is the story of Rembrandt actually painting the picture and discovering the juicy bits of the back story.
I've scoured the Half.com and eBay for "J'accuse" but it doesn't seem to be available yet. Getting Greenaway on DVD has always been tedious.
Rembrandthuis in Amsterdam. A great place to visit even if you've been to a smoke bar beforehand.
Also at Netflix.
I think this film, or perhaps "The Cook, the Thief..." was the one that prompted my wife to insist "No more Greenaway films".
But I did find it fascinating and intellectually stimulating. Greenaway is one of a kind, and his films are definitely not for everyone. He knows what he wants to do, and does exactly that. Got to admire him.
BTW, for some reason my wife liked "The Draughtsman's Contract", so I rented more, but none of his other films did a thing for her.
and first got interested in his work when Ebert& Siskel named The Cook The Thief as the most controversial film of the 80's.
Mostly he is over my head but his imagery and imagination is fascinating. I find his earlier stuff more palatable then the most recent until this Rembrandt jag: Night Watching and Rembrandt J'accuse.
"Belly" is probably the most conventional of what I've seen to far, but still not conventional... (-:
When I see his film, I too feel like I must be missing a lot of what he is saying. Have you seen "A Zed and two Noughts"? It's jam packed with cryptic stuff!
I've seen it at least three times and don't get it. After "Drowning By Numbers" I started being more hesitant in seeing his latest films. I liked "Drowning" with the three Sissy's because it had the feel of his "early" work as compared to "Pillow Book" and "8 1/2 Women".
oddly compelling...
Phil
They both share a love for a non-narrative, inner consciousnes, subjective kind of filmmaking.
Greenaway is famously uninterested in other directors...especially of the commercial stripe...but he acknowledged an appreciation for Lynch's Blue Velvet.
He said it was so good he wished he had made it.
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