La jeune fille à la perle

Young woman in Holland circa 1665, innocent and wide-eyed but hard working, leaves home for job as scullery maid to a painter named Vermeer and his family; soon, she becomes the artist's secret assistant and muse, eventually posing for Vermeer's famous title-named portrait. Stunning art direction, lively pacing and an absorbing narrative all make up for a few key performances which seem too modern, and minor instances where the editing isn't as sharp as one might hope. The maid's many entrances and exits are repetitive, but Scarlett Johansson proves to be an intuitive actress who excels in a role with very little dialogue. Quite good overall, and with a finale that smartly leaves the breathless viewer wondering...asking...wanting more. *** from ****

I can't imagine a lot of people, especially anyone under 40, sitting through this extremely slow film....but I thought it was excellent. However, I am biased because I love great cinematography and stories about famous painters. Sometimes the cameras stay on subject longer than normal, affording the viewer time to really soak it up.

If you can stay awake, this film offers some of the prettiest images I've ever seen on film. Scene after scene looks like a classic painting come to life. Scarlet Johannson says very little but is fascinating to watch. For the first-time viewer, there a tension that builds throughout the film leaving wondering what bad thing is about to happen. The story is not an upbeat one, yet not depressing either.

One time, I watched this film very early in the morning, something I rarely do, and with the subtitles on. It wasn't a bad way to watch it - a quiet film in the quiet of the pre-dawn hours . The film offers another demonstration of why doesn't have to shed all their clothes to be erotic. This inspired me to read the book, and I enjoyed that, too.

Is this an incredibly dull movie about a single painting - or is it a mesmerising and penetrating insight into art and a particular 17th century Dutch artist? It probably depends on your point of view.

Griet is a poor young girl who goes to work for the great Vermeer as a humble servant. She is pushed around emotionally by his overwrought and jealous wife, mischievous children and all-powerful lustful patron. Yet the biggest force in her life, gradually teasing out her own artistic sensibilities, is the Master himself. Griet becomes the subject of his most famous painting, lured by a mixture of dread and fascination.

For Vermeer the artist, his work is all-consuming. Every part of his world – the welfare of his family, his eccentricities, his whole energy and purpose in life, is concentrated into his work. That is not to say he lacks morals but simply that his work is his higher calling. To justify such a character, we could look to the role of art and its importance. Art can be worshipped for its own sake, like some wicked effigy, and used to excuse all manner of moral turpitude in its creator; or it can be seen as the entrance by which light can enter our soul, illuminate thought and our world in a way that cold logic alone would deny us, move us beyond the bounds of our immediate impressions and let us see the world about us in a new way, inspired and informed.

Griet carries this seed, to see beauty where others see only common place things, and it is a seed that the Master nourishes. There are times when Vermeer protects Griet from the people around he,r to whom she is so vulnerable, but is his concern towards her concern for her welfare, secret desire, or just a tool, an exquisite tool, of his trade?

Cinema is also being part of this artistic spectrum, if we allow it to be, affecting us in ways that let the viewer grow rather than just be entertained. Girl With a Pearl Earring certainly has sufficient integrity to do that, but if one just wanted to be entertained then it probably falls short. The art direction beautifully recreates Holland of the period and Scarlett Johansson gives a very well-tempered performance as young Griet. Costumes, music and overall cinematography are accomplished and haunting without loss of subtlety, producing a memorable film for lovers of art and cinema; but if paintings don't do anything for you, this film might not either.

"Girl with a Pearl Earring" tells a fictional tale about how the title painting by 17th century Dutch painter Vermeer might have come to be. Outwardly, the film is a story about the painter and a household maid who becomes the subject of the painting. Inwardly, the film is about the unspoken but palpable feelings between two people of very different stature and station which may or may not be forever cast in the crazed pigments of the masterpiece. Those who can tap into the subtle human emotional undercurrents will find this film far more satisfying than those who cannot. Regardless, all will find "Girl with a Pearl Earring" a masterpiece of filmmaking. (A-)

I have just seen "Girl with a pearl earring" and I am already willing to see it again. The feeling is very much the same as wanting another tour in a gallery of paintings of old Dutch masters, to enjoy repeatedly the beauty of light and shadow and colours. Scarlett Johansson is both very pretty and talented and the camera lovingly moves around her, searching for her beautiful eyes and puffy lustful lips, very much reminding me of Bertolucci's love for the beauty of Liv Tyler in "Stealing beauty". Colin Firth is again producing a most powerful impact by his tall dominating figure, deep beautiful voice and reserved yet sensual and passionate attitude. A strikingly good picture in the ocean of mediocre productions.