... His paintings all have a luminosity about them which brings their subjects to life but this one, Girl With A Pearl Earring, has an especial magic about it which draws people to it. For, not only did it attract me enough to place it on my desktop, it also caused Tracy Chevalier to write a ... Read review
You wouldn't think a movie could look like a Vermeer painting, butGirl with a Pearl ... more
Earringis filmed with an amazing range of luminous glows that evoke the Dutch artist's masterworks. Of course, it helps that much of the movie focuses on Scarlett Johan...
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You wouldn't think a movie could look like a Vermeer painting, butGirl with a Pearl ... more
Earringis filmed with an amazing range of luminous glows that evoke the Dutch artist's masterworks. Of course, it helps that much of the movie focuses on Scarlett Johan...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
In order to support her family, seventeen-year-old Griet becomes a maid in the house of ... more
Johannes Vermeer and soon attracts the master painter's attention. Although worlds apart in upbringing and social standing, Vermeer recognises her intuitive underst...
PUBLISHED 3/10/05 When Griet becomes a maid in the household of Johannes Vermeer, she ... more
thinks she knows her role: housework, laundry and the care of his six children. But as she becomes part of his world and his work, their growing intimacy spreads tension and deception in the ordered household and, as the scandal seeps out, into the town beyond.
Postage & Packaging:refer to website Availability:in stock
A sumptuous new look for Tracy Chevalier's bestselling novel. Griet the young daughter of ... more
a tilemaker in seventeenth century Holland obtains her first job as a servant in Vermeer's household. Tracy Chevalier shows us through Griet's eyes the complicated family the society of the small town of Delft and life with an obsessive genius. Griet loves being drawn into his artistic life and leaving her former drudgery but the cost to her own survival may be high.
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Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Production Year: 1995 - Drama - Director: Pat O'Connor - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over, 15 years and over - Starring: Geraldine O'Rawe, Colin Firth, Saffron Burrows, Minnie Driver, Chris O'Donnell
Drama - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Shelagh Fraser, Barbara Flynn, Keith Drinkel, Felicity Kendal, Pam Ferris, Colin Douglas
Advantages: A film to savour, a visual feast Disadvantages: For some there may be too little action
...to life but this one, Girl With A Pearl Earring, has an especial magic about it which draws people to it. For, not only did it attract me enough to place it on my desktop, it also caused Tracy Chevalier to write a novel based around it, a fictitious speculation as to who this girl could have been and the circumstances that led to Vermeer painting her in what was for the time a startlingly original fashion.
I found the book on a shelf ... ...same title.
Girl With A Pearl Earring appealed to me at once. For a start, it didn’t shout at me as so many films do nowadays. It had music that was at once appealing and unobtrusive, not trying to be pastiche Seventeenth Century but enhancing the film with something that sounded appropriate – gentle and delicately scored music by Andre Desplats (a new name to me).
The story as told in the film is pared down to its basics, ... more
Three years ago, tired of the Windows 98 background on my computer desktop, I chose my favourite painting to keep me company instead: a breathtakingly beautiful portrait of a young girl, frozen in time at the point of turning back to look at the artist as if he’d taken her by surprise, as spontaneous as an impulsively-taken photograph. She wears a turban and a pearl earring that catches the light and reflects it gently onto the side of her head and neck. She gazes at the viewer with a wide-eyed innocence, lips moist and slightly parted.
It is obvious as one looks at this picture that the artist saw something special in this face – a fragile beauty which he somehow transferred to the canvas and which makes its impact just as powerfully today as it did in the 1660s when the paint was still wet.
The artist was Jan Vermeer, Vermeer of Delft as he has come to be known, after the town in which he lived. His paintings all have a luminosity about them which brings their subjects to life but this one, Girl With A Pearl Earring, has an especial magic about it which draws people to it. For, not only did it attract me enough to place it on my desktop, it also caused Tracy Chevalier to write a novel based around it, a fictitious speculation as to who this girl could have been and the circumstances that led to Vermeer painting her in what was for the time a startlingly original fashion.
I found the book on a shelf in Sainsbury’s one day and, although not my regular fare (I’m more of a sci-fi addict) I bought it because the cover was adorned with the painting that had already cast its spell on me. And I read it and was entranced by the way it brought the whole period so vividly to life.
Film director Peter Webber was obviously taken with the book, enough to make it into a film under the same title.
Girl With A Pearl Earring appealed to me at once. For a start, it didn’t shout at me as so many films do nowadays. It had music that was at once appealing and unobtrusive, not trying to be pastiche Seventeenth Century but enhancing the film with something that sounded appropriate – gentle and delicately scored music by Andre Desplats (a new name to me).
The story as told in the film is pared down to its basics, with the slightest of subplots. Seventeen-year-old Griet leaves her family home in Delft, Holland, when her family fall on hard times, and goes to live and work as a servant at the home of artist Jan Vermeer. Vermeer’s wife and eldest daughter display feelings of jealousy towards her, while Vermeer’s Patron, the rich and lecherous Van Rijven, sees her as a very desirable sex-object. Because Vermeer is a perfectionist, and therefore not a prolific painter, his family is very much dependent on Van Rijven’s patronage. When he talks the artist into making Griet the sole subject of his next painting, Vermeer feels obliged to comply in spite of his wife’s feelings about Griet and in spite of the objections of Griet herself. Vermeer’s mother-in-law colludes in keeping the work secret from her daughter and the secret is made all the worse when Vermeer persuades Griet to pierce her ears and wear his wife’s pearl earrings for the portrait.
What happens when his wife discovers the deception you will have to find out for yourself…
As told above, it’s not much of a story. And indeed, some critics have derided the film for this reason. But the joy of the film lies not in its basically simple plot but in its atmosphere, its underlying tensions and above all in its visual impact. The period setting never seems contrived. The director has used relatively few screen locations so that the budget has gone into making the few places portrayed as convincing as possible. There are no huge outdoor panoramas and enormous crowd scenes – even the market scenes are shown close–up rather than as a broad sweep. The canal scenes are almost Venetian and I was surprised to find that the film was largely shot in Luxembourg. The indoor settings, particularly Vermeer’s studio, feel just right. In fact, looking at some of his paintings afterwards (on website http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/~roy/vermeer/) I was struck by the number of his paintings that clearly portray this same location, in particular one corner of the studio. There are many background references to the paintings in the film: objects “carelessly” left around to remind those who know Vermeer’s work of several of his paintings, the tile pattern on the floor, the shape of the windows...
The costumes are magnificently realised, never seeming contrived. And the acting is almost beyond reproach. The leading actress, playing Griet, is Scarlett Johanssen. She portrays Griet’s naïve innocence to perfection, while Colin Firth, as Jan Vermeer, has an unsmiling intensity and tension about him that helps build up the sense of unease pervading the film. Tom Wilkinson, as Van Rijven, is perhaps a little two-dimensionally lecherous: one gets the impression that for him, the portrait of Griet will be a form of pornography rather than a work of great beauty and it becomes hard to see him as a lover of art and therefore as its patron. Perhaps this is due in part to the fact that his role is not developed within the film’s storyline. To compensate, Judy Parfitt, as Vermeer’s mother-in-law, has an almost overwhelming presence while Essie Davis as his wife makes her neurotic and self-obsessed presence painfully felt.
As to the barely-developed subplot, Griet’s barely-willing romance with Pieter, son of the butcher in the market is as sketchily portrayed as is necessary to give it passing reference; rather more of it is made in Chevalier’s novel, as is Griet’s relationship with her family.
The high point of the film is made very obvious by its slow, lingering view of Griet as she stands before Vermeer in the pose to which generations of art-lovers have become accustomed and a breathtaking moment it is, too.
Dialogue is kept to the bare minimum and becomes all the more powerful for it. This adds to the brooding atmosphere and the steady build-up of tension. Meanwhile, the attention to detail, such as the day-to-day lives of the servants in seventeenth-century Holland, is given loving attention.
If you enjoy loud, action-packed films (I hate them!) you will probably be bored to tears by this one. If, on the other hand, you enjoy seeing history come to life, albeit a fictional type of history, this could be just your film. I shall buy the DVD when it becomes available and enjoy it all over again.
It’s a sad reflection of public taste that on the Saturday night we went to see it, there were probably no more than fifty people in the auditorium. The other film-goers were probably watching something noisy and violent.
Advantages: The cinematography and film direction, Strong performance by Johansson Disadvantages: Excessive editing, Some characters under-developed
Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)
Genre: Biography/Drama
Certificate: 12 (UK), PG 13 (USA)
Running time: 100 minutes
Director: Peter Webber
Main Cast:
Colin Firth - Johannes Vermeer
Scarlett Johansson - Griet
Tom Wilkinson - Van Ruijven
Judy Parfitt - Maria Thins
Essie Davis - Catharina Vermeer
Cillian Murphy - Pieter
It is said that every picture tells a story, and this is essentially what "Girl with a Pearl Earring" sets out to do; to ... ...same name. Based on the highly successful novel by Tracy Chevalier, this is a vision of how the enigmatic portrait might have come to be created. This is, of course, a fictionalised account (although based on Chevalier's meticulous historical research of both artist and period), as so much is still unknown about this painting - including who the sitter actually was. Taking this mystery as a starting point, Chevalier developed an intriguing and believable ...
Collingwood21 04.11.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Girl With A Pearl Earring (DVD)
Advantages: Wonderful cinematography evocing the painter's work and Johannson's outstanding performance Disadvantages: Some may regard it as a bit slow and you may only be interested if you like the premise or art
If you have ever looked at a painting and wondered what could have so inspired an artist that he would want to spend hours, days, even months, painting a single moment, then 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' may well be a film that interests you. The film is an adaptation of Tracy Chevalier's novel, which explores the possible muse for Johannes Vermeer's painting of the same name. Beautifully evocative of 17th century Holland, the film is a credit to first ... ...young Protestant woman, Griet (Scarlett Johansson), is forced to work as a servant in order to support herself and her family when her father's injuries prevent him from working as a tile painter. She begins to work for the Catholic family of the Vermeer's. Vermeer's wife, Catharina (Essie Davis) would prefer that Griet blended into the background, but soon her husband (Colin Firth) becomes captivated by her and her interest in light, dark and colour. ...
ickkate 30.05.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Girl With A Pearl Earring (DVD)
Advantages: so many colours Disadvantages: dull story from 17. century
“Girl with a Pearl Earring” is kind-a film for Oscar, if we neglect the fact that history of art films are nothing new for cinematography and production design. However, I am pleased to see, that first-time director Peter Webber and his team have *channeled the look of Vermeer into a celluloid replica. “Girl with a Pearl Earring” is the first feature picture for director Peter Webber. Everything else in the film is a very ... ...lived. No matter how this is exciting and interesting to see, on the end, this is all you get: a re-perspective of the society and life in Holland of 1665. The movie implies the story behind the creation of Vermeer's 1665 painting, called "Girl with a Pearl Earring." Since historical records are sketches, most of the screenplay (based on Tracy Chevalier's book) is speculative. Which gives lots of space for a compelling love story, as the film is ...
barefoot777 07.06.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Girl With A Pearl Earring (DVD)
...potential, is about the servant girl in Vermeer's famous painting’s relationship with the artist and his jealous wife. While I’ve heard that Chevalier’s novel is wonderful*, the adapted screenplay by Olivia Hetreed feels incomplete. Many of the characters are so flat that they might as well have been made of canvas. Financial troubles force young Griet’s family to send her away to be a maid at the home of Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth). ... ...father seems to have been a painter before going blind. Griet’s mother warns her not to participate in the Vermeer family’s Catholic prayers. (I’m sure that the novel explains all of this background information more fully. People who have read the book seem to enjoy the film more, based on my informal research.) Griet is devoutly religious and keeps her hair covered at all times. She is obedient to her boss at all times except when he asks her to ...
OKkaraoke 10.03.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Girl With A Pearl Earring (DVD)
Advantages: Wonderful sets and costumes, superb acting Disadvantages: Little dialogue, may not have wide appeal
Scarlett Johansson certainly seems to be flavour of the month at the cinema right now. Hot on the heels of the widely acclaimed "Lost in Translation", "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is another opportunity to see her at work and she impresses even more than in the previous film (see my review for "Lost in Translation").
This film is adapted from the novel by Tracy Chevalier which, while it deals with real characters - the 17th century Dutch painter, ... ...imagined account of how the artist came to paint his masterpiece, "Girl with a Pearl Earring".
Little is known about Vermeer (1632-1675) so the story is romanticised but it does, however, seem credible because the story does use known facts about the way that paintings were commissioned and how people lived at the time. The story opens as Griet (Johansson) a young woman from a good but impoverished family has to leave home to work as a maid for ...
fizzytom 17.02.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Girl With A Pearl Earring (DVD)
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Advantages: Scarlett Johansson Disadvantages: Colin Firth
's relationship with Griet continue because it suited her own purposes. She wore very heavy white make-up (I presume this was this the fashion of the times), which was very effective against her dark hair.
Other less significant roles in the film are Vermeer's patron Van Ruijven, played by Tom Wilkinson; his wife, played by Essie Davis and the housekeeper, Tanneke, played by Joanna Scanlon. Tom Wilkinson and Essie Davis were suitably obnoxious, but I particularly liked Joanna Scanlon, who took on her role with gusto. A mention must also be given to Cillian Murphy, who played Griet's boyfriend, Pieter; although his role was small, he did it well and he is gorgeous to boot.
Technical bits
Classification: 12
Length of film: 95 minutes
Extras:
(1) The Making of Girl with a PearlEarring. I found this documentary very interesting; it provided ...
Based on the novel by Tracy Chevalier, this is the tale of Griet who takes a position as a maid for Johannes Vermeer. Griet and Vermeer develop a bond and she soon becomes the inspiration for his work.
Release details
DVD Region
DVD
Studio(s)
PATHE DISTRIBUTION; 20TH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Release date
31/05/2004
No of Discs
1
Catalogue No
P 9138 DVD
Barcode
5060002831885
Director of Photography
Eduardo Serra
Languages
Main Language
English
Hearing Impaired Language
English
Technical information
Special Features
Directors Commentary, Writers Commentary, Making Of Featurette, Deleted Scenes, Anatomy Of A Scene, UK Theatrical Trailer
Aspect Ratio
2.35 Wide Screen, 16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Sound
Dolby Digital 5.1
Dubbing Sound
Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Professional reviews
Review
"...Gripping, compelling, you really feel the hearts pumping..." (Heat, )
"...Stunning... Hauntingly beautiful..." (The Guardian, )
DVD Description
Set in 17th-century Holland, GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING follows the life of Griet (Scarlett Johansson), a young woman who must work as a maid to help her family make ends meet. Seeking employment at the home of renowned painter Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth), Griet finds most of the household, including Vermeer's ever-pregnant wife (Essie Davis) and stern mother-in-law (Judy Parfitt), to be difficult and even hostile. However, she does form a unique bond with Vermeer himself, but this connection threatens to cause grief for both Griet and Vermeer. Complicating matters even further is attention from both Vermeer's wealthy patron Van Ruijven (Tom Wilkinson) and the charming local butcher's son (Cillian Murphy). Adapted from the book by Tracy Chevalier and helmed by first-time director Peter Webber, GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING creates a back story for Vermeer's famous painting of the same name. Johansson is excellent in her quiet, understated role, while Firth is suitably moody and enigmatic. However, the visuals are the true highlights of this remarkably photographed movie; Webber and, most notably, cinematographer Eduardo Serra establish a beautifully historic look and film every scene as if it were a series of gorgeous paintings in the style of that era. As a portrait of the life behind a portrait, GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING is an intriguing study of both art and desire.
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