Nightwatching (2007)

Note des utilisateurs:

6.7/10   

Réalisateur:

Peter Greenaway

Scénariste:

Peter Greenaway (writer)

Release Date:

2 novembre 2007 (Poland)

Genre:

Biographie | Drame | History | Mystery

Plot:

An extravagant, exotic and moving look at Rembrandt's romantic and professional life, and the controversy he created by the identification of a murderer in the painting THE NIGHT WATCH

Plot Keywords:

Rembrandt | Dutch | Painter | Night Watch | Group

Awards:

6 wins & 4 nominations

Avis des utilisateurs:

Fails to do anything but make me sleep and write this comment.

Ensemble

Martin Freeman	...	Rembrandt van Rijn
Emily Holmes	...	Hendrickje
Eva Birthistle	...	Saskia
Jodhi May	...	Geertje
Toby Jones	...	Gerard Dou
Jonathan Holmes	...	Ferdinand Bol
Michael Teigen	...	Carel Fabritius
Kevin McNulty	...	Engelen
Agata Buzek	...	Titia Uylenburgh
Natalie Press	...	Marieke
Fiona O'Shaughnessy	...	Marita
Reimer van Beek	...	Titus - newborn
Robert Zalecki	...	Titus - 4 months old
Kacper Kasiecki	...	Titus - toddler
Anna Antonowicz	...	Catharina

Autre(s) titre(s):

La ronde de nuit (France)
Nocna straz (Poland)

Durée:

134 min | Canada:141 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Pays:

Netherlands | Canada | UK | France | Poland

Langue:

Anglais

Couleur:

Couleur

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Son:

Dolby Digital

Classification:

Canada:18A (Ontario) | Japan:R-15 | Czech Republic:15 | USA:Not Rated

Emplacements De Pelliculage:

Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands

Company:

ContentFilm International

Fails to do anything but make me sleep and write this comment.

I don't know anything about Peter Greenaway and I don't pretend to be a cinema zealot, but I am very open minded when it comes to movies. I love stories in general and cinema really has a great way to convey stories upon people without having to spell it all out. As the saying goes, an image can say more than a thousand words. On top of this I am an avid Rembrandt fan. Not to say that he's better than anyone else, but as everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion; I will state for myself that I like him better than most other painters. Considering his work is still around, there has to be a good reason for this.

Still... I did not like this movie. Not because I was disappointed by the director or the actors, I'm sure they all tried very hard to make this movie work. Sadly though for me, it didn't. I never fall asleep during a movie, but for this one, I closed my eyes several times. I noticed myself wanting it to be over so I could say I took it to the last minute.

I don't want to label it, but then why would I be posting anything? So I'm going to continue with committing the worst kind of sin:

'Nightwatching' failed to be accurately informative. So it was not a documentary. It also failed to make me laugh or cry or feel any emotion in between, except apathy maybe. So it was not a comedy, nor a drama nor anything in between. There was no action in it, no suspense and no horror and worst of all and contradictory to what you might expect from a movie about a painter; there was barely any art in it either. No scenes with Rembrandt painting or any of his work shown in detail. In over 2 hours of movie, we were treated with 1 analysis of his work during an obscure and darkly lit scene lasting barely 2 minutes.

Besides all this, the title "Nightwatch" is not the original name of the painting. The fact that the painting is called "De Nachtwacht" is because it turned dark over the years. This is an inherent quality of the paint that was used in those days. If you watch this movie with that in mind, some scenes will become obsolete to the point of being annoying.

The fact that Rembrandt cusses with the same 3 words throughout most of his dialogue makes him seem like a defenseless wimp who is powerless to come up with anything else. Therefore removing the option that the entire movie is a tribute to Rembrandt or his work.

If this movie tries to be a shocker, then the makers should realize that nudity has failed to shock ever since it became common in the seventies... Except maybe for an adolescent audience. But then the rest of the movie would undoubtedly turn this crowd away.

As a conclusion I did not tag the 'spoiler' box, because there seems to be no plot to this flick.

Avoidable to say the least. Check it out at your local library if you must, but otherwise don't spend any money on this. You will regret it.

(I don't want to offend anyone that really like this movie. If you like it go ahead! Nor do I want to insult the people that put a lot of effort into it; Next time though, try to make sure your effort joins with a little more sense. So other people can enjoy the fruits of it as well... after all that's what you're doing it for, right?)