Dutch Beauty
Girl With a Pearl Earring is universally recognized as one of Johannes Vermeer's greatest paintings. It features a beautiful, young girl - wearing a pearl earring - looking over her shoulder. The look on her face isn't quite clear; is she happy, sad? For centuries, art historians worldwide have debated as to the identity of that girl and how she came to be painted by Vermeer.
Tracy Chevalier's best-selling novel of the same name is a fictional attempt to unravel that mystery. The artistic vision and sensual awakening of the main character Griet is told through Griet's eyes. Bringing those thoughts - not to mention capturing the awe-inspiring beauty of the painting - to the big screen would seem daunting. But, Screenwriter Olivia Hetreed's words and Director Peter Webber's vision successfully breathes cinematic life into the 'Girl'.
Seventeen year old Griet (Johansson) takes up a job as a maid in Vermeer's (Firth) house. Very quickly Vermeer realises that Griet has an appreciation for his work; an appreciation lacking in Vermeer's wife, the forever-pregnant and jealous Catharina (Davis). So, Vermeer arranges clandestine meetings with Griet so that she can assist him.
Vermeer's mother-in-law Maria Thins (Parfitt) spots the growing closeness between the two. However she turns a blind eye as she realises that Vermeer - not known for his speed in producing bankable work - inspired by Griet starts working more diligently. Both Griet and Vermeer feel strongly attracted to each other, but keep a professional distance. This however does not stop the gossips; that there is something more sexual between them.
Matters are made more complicated when Vermeer's lecherous patron Van Ruijven (Wilkinson) commissions Vermeer to paint Griet for Van Ruijven's own private collection. Griet and Vermeer struggle to keep control of their feelings resulting with them having to confront the jealousies of those closest to them; and Vermeer creating a painting that will fascinate for centuries to come.
Firth's Vermeer is a tortured soul who believes that a great work takes time to produce. The same could be said of the making of the film. It's had a pretty tortuous history spanning over four years. Hetreed and her husband (and one of the producers of the film) Andy Paterson had read the manuscript a few months before the book itself was published. Both believed strongly in the film, got the rights and came up with a treatment. Chevalier was concerned that the script did not descend into the Hollywood school of adaptation; that Griet and Vermeer didn't get naked with each other. Hetreed and Paterson fully understood that this was paramount to preserving the erotic power of the story.
The book is not a sprawling epic but it's very descriptive. "The voice of the novel is in Griet's head," says Hetreed. "I didn't want to use a voiceover; it felt too modern, too self-conscious, so the challenge was to find a way to bring that inner voice to the screen." That task was made easier when Chevalier gave Hetreed creative license to do what she needed, to capture the essence of Griet. Hetreed was able to bring unique insights into how Griet's self discovery could be demonstrated on film - insight's that the author herself says she wished she'd thought of! "There are things that are only suggested so you have to find another way of showing that," explains Hetreed. "I wanted to explore the excitement that Griet feels when she begins to understand about light and how it works. So I devised the scene where she is outside polishing a silver bowl and she starts to play with the reflection on the wall."
Hetreed's screenplay was ready to roll, but the following three years was a filmmaker's nightmare; always getting that close to shooting only for it to all to collapse. Then, Webber happened to be in Paterson's office one day, spots the 'Girl' photo on the wall, and in good old art history grad fashion, starts babbling about the picture. Paterson had found his director!
Webber admits that initially he may not have been thought of as the right person for the job. For years he'd worked for Paterson and fellow producer Anand Tucker as an editor and documentary director. His first dramas included the controversial Men Only for Channel Four; a gritty tale that focused on a lads' night out, fuelled by an excess amount of drink and drugs resulting in a horrific gang-rape of a woman. And when he wandered into the office that day, he was working on another gritty drama. Webber hadn't read Chevalier's book but he knew the painting and that period of art intimately.
It shows. This is the most gorgeous film visually you're likely to see this year. Every single frame is beautifully crafted with light and colour that captures the atmosphere and mood of the Vermeer paintings themselves. For Webber, this was more by design, than accident. He had a clear idea of how he wanted the film to look, but was aware that he didn't want to reproduce a sanitized, period piece; he wanted a grittier feel, especially in the exterior shots. Webber had seen production designer Ben Van Os's work for Peter Greenaway. His sets in The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, Her Lover and Baby of Macon are highly stylised. Webber wanted the same level of bizarreness without it becoming too distracting. "I wanted our world to look dirtier than the Dutch oil paintings - for example that sense in the market that you could smell the blood."
A lot of the scenes take place in Vermeer's house and although the interiors are dark, the lighting allows the colours and textures to appear visibly rich, adding a strong, tactile quality. Such attention to detail required a master cinematographer so Webber enlisted Eduardo Serra (The Wings of the Dove; What Dreams May Come). "He's a genius who has been doing this his whole life; it takes a lifetime to learn how to light like that," smiles Webber. "So often in filmmaking how we want it to look and how effective is that look for the story is half the problem. The great thing about Eduardo is that he's always interested in the story than anything."
It could be argued that cinematically there isn't much of a story. The dialogue is sparse. "This was a concern, but it was the case that more we pared it back - not just the dialogue, but also the number of extraneous characters, the number of scenes - the stronger the film got," says Webber. "It seemed to get more singular; to become emotionally, a much purer piece."
Webber teases his audiences with the imposed silences and no more so than in the scenes between Griet and Vermeer. The grinding of the paint; Vermeer asking her to lick her lips; the piercing of Griet's ear are all highly erotic. The chemistry between the artist and his muse begs you to scream: "Snog her Vermeer!!!", and leaves you totally frustrated when he doesn't. The audience might want a sweaty, writhing consummation on the studio floor. Webber opts for purity. And it works brilliantly.
Finding the right cast, especially Griet, was always going to be a problem but Hetreed had a philosophical approach to this. "At the point of casting Scarlett wasn't a huge star, and that presented other difficulties in that the pressure was always to find a name," she says. "But it seemed to me that the nature of the story desperately demanded someone who you'd not seen in other roles. What you'd want to be is in a position to discover her in the way Chevalier's story discovers her. So that by the end you feel you really know her. Conversely with Vermeer, when you see him, he is quintessentially a star, you know he's 'the man'."
Webber sits back in his chair and happily munches away on a breadstick. He looks tired, but through it, you can see that this is one very happy man; his first feature film has just been nominated for two Golden Globes and a clutch of BAFTA's! Last year Webber attended the Globes, and could only imagine what it would be like to have that sort of accolade - not to mention the adulation of the press - heaped upon oneself. "Anand and I had managed to get into one of the star-studded parties. I remember peering over the balcony looking at all the famous people down below and said to Anand that they all look like ants," says Webber. 'It's very funny to think that two years later I'm one of those ants, albeit a minor one - a worker ant!' he grins.
Sandi Chaitram
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