Girl With a Pearl Earring
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Actor: Cillian Murphy, Colin Firth, Judy Parfitt, Scarlett Johansson, Tom WilkinsonBrand: LION'S GATE ENTERTAINMENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 100 minutes
Published: 2004-05-01
DVD Release Date: 2004-05-04
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Lions Gate
Product features:
- Actors: Colin Firth, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Wilkinson, Judy Parfitt, Cillian Murphy.
- Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC.
- Language: English. Subtitles: Spanish.
- Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only).
- Rated PG-13. Run Time: 100 minutes.
DVD Reviews of Girl With a Pearl Earring
DVD Review: Exquisitely beautiful adaptation of the novel
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the things that Tracy Chevalier wanted to do in the novel was to make the relationship between Griet and Johannas Vermeer nonsexual. Olivia Hetreed's script and the direction by Peter Webber adhere to this ideal. In her imaginings of what the girl with the pearl earring was like and what her life was like, I believe Chevalier thought it would be romantic in an artistic sense to have Vermeer's interest in her be artistic and not carnal. It is obvious from the exquisite beauty of the painting (actual title: "Girl in a Turban") that he very much admired her. It is difficult for me to believe that in that admiration he did not also feel some desire for her.
Be that as it may--and I certainly respect Chevalier's interpretation and in fact think it makes for a more interesting story than if there had been some sexual involvement--Vermeer's wife, Catharina, sees in the painting beauty that she herself does not possess. She also cannot help but wonder just what it is that her husband and the pretty young girl do during all those hours upstairs. Yet, the emphasis is on Catharina's jealousy of Griet's beauty and not on any imagined infidelity. I think this is consistent with Chevalier's interpretation of what the relationship between the maid and the great artist might have been.
This movie surprised me in how beautiful it is and how carefully Peter Webber, whose previous credits are in television, reconstructed 17th century Delft, Holland. If you go to the IMDb you will see that there were some goofs and anachronisms, such as a person in the background in one scene riding a bicycle. However, the Holland of 340 years ago seemed authentic and graphically atmospheric, including all the chores Griet had to do and the errands she had to run--note her red and bruised hands. (They used lye in soap in those days.)
Still the open air market could have used a few more flies (ha!) and the butcher boy (Cillian Murphy) was entirely too pretty (ha!), but Vermeer's studio seemed magical and I love the mixing of the colors and the way the light came through the windows. There are at least three Vermeer paintings in which we see the same light from the same window: the title painting; the painting he was working on without the chair in the foreground that Griet removed called, "Young Woman with a Water Jug"; and "The Painter's Studio." If I made a list of the most beautiful films I have ever seen, Girl with a Pearl Earring would make the list, along with, e.g., Zhang Yimou's Raise the Red Lantern (1992) and Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1975) and maybe a dozen more.
As for Scarlett Johansson who had the title role I must say she won me over. At first I thought she was a bit too voluptuous for the part. (It is interesting to compare the reconstruction of the painting with Johansson with the original shown at the end of the movie. The real girl was a bit more delicate and of course not as sensual as Johansson.) Johansson won me over because of the subtly of her interpretation and because of the hard work she obviously put into the part. She is an actress we will see a lot of in the future. If you want to see her in less severe garb, catch her in Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation (2003) where her sensual beauty is more fully presented.
Colin Firth very much caught the intensity of the artist and seemed to do so almost without effort. His eyes beheld Griet and indeed all the world not in a carnal way, but in the penetrating way of the artist who wants to see the world as it really is, not as our needs demand. We see this in the scene in which he insists that Griet see the real colors in the clouds, not just the white that we think we see. Note too (continuing Chevalier's theme) that it would be inopportune, careless and threatening to his artistic career for Vermeer to have an affair with the maid since with his mother-in-law in the house (her house, her money), and his wife and some nosy, tattling children, he would have been caught. Vermeer only completed about 40 paintings in his lifetime. His wife (or most especially his mother-in-law) was indeed his most important "patron." An artist without a patron sleeps in the streets, especially in such a mercantile world as a small town in 17th century Holland.
Catharina Vermeer (Essie Davis in an underappreciated role) provided exactly the right counterpoint with her vile, snake-in-the-garden-of-artistic-eden presence and her purely burgher mentality and her oppressive jealousy and her high-handed treatment of her servants. Without Davis's excruciatingly vivid performance this movie would have been flat and lacking in tension.
As for the ending and for the inevitable comparison with the novel, let's say the ending here (and the question of Griet's future life with the "butcher boy") is more open to interpretation than in the book where more is explained. (See my review, or better yet read the novel.) The strength of the book is in how deeply we can go into the mind of Griet and into the artistic intimacy of her relationship with Vermeer, whereas in the movie we can more fully appreciate the atmosphere and the beauty of the artist's vision.
By the way, in the novel it is clear that Griet does indeed desire Vermeer but realizes that his station is too much above hers, and his circumstances with five children and a sixth on the way leave no room for her. Also clear in both mediums is the fact that Vermeer's exquisite portrait is, in effect, his way of making love to her.
Description of Girl With a Pearl Earring
Delft Holland 1665. seventeen-year-old Griet must work to support her family and becomes a maid in the house of Johannes Vermeer where she gradually attracts the master painter s attention. Johannes and Griet must hide their inspiration of each other from his volatile wife Catharine. The wealthy and troublemaking Master van Ruijven senses the intimacy between the artist and his maid and contrives a paintings ever created but at what cost?System Requirements: Running Time 100 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: PG-13 UPC: 012236155225 Manufacturer No: 15522You wouldn't think a movie could look like a Vermeer painting, but Girl with a Pearl Earring is filmed with an amazing range of luminous glows that evoke the Dutch artist's masterworks. Of course, it helps that much of the movie centers on Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation, Ghost World), whose creamy skin and full lips have a luminosity of their own. Johansson plays Griet, a maid in the household of Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth, Bridget Jones' Diary, Fever Pitch), who finds herself in a web of jealousy, artistic inspiration, and social machinations. Though the pace is slow, Girl with a Pearl Earring genuinely conveys some sense of an artist's process, as well as offering many chaste yet sensual moments between Firth and Johansson. Also featuring Essie Davis as Vermeer's bitter wife and Tom Wilkinson (In the Bedroom) as a wealthy patron with eyes for Griet. --Bret Fetzer
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