Film: Nightwatching
Release date: 26th April 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 134 mins
Director: Peter Greenaway
Starring: Martin Freeman, Emily Holmes, Eva Birthistle, Jodhi May, Toby Jones
Genre: Drama/History/Mystery
Studio: Axiom
Format: DVD
Country: Netherlands/Canada/UK/France/Poland
This is an English-Language release.
The Nightwatch by Rembrandt Van Rijn is the fourth most famous painting in the world behind The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and the ceiling of The Sistine Chapel. It is a scene instantly familiar to most, but British director Peter Greenaway suggests that there may be secrets disguised behind the image everyone knows. In his 2007 dramatisation Nightwatching, and its companion critical essay Rembrandt’s J’accuse (2008), Greenaway posits the idea that Rembrandt has in fact hidden within the painting detailed clues towards a murder conspiracy for whoever is able read them.
In Nightwatching, Martin Freeman plays the famous Dutch painter Rembrandt Van Rijn, who – his fortunes fading - agrees at the behest of his pregnant wife Saskia to paint an assembly of the Amsterdam militia. Through his associations with the militia – a group of self-trained local merchants playing at being soldiers largely for their own political advantages – Rembrandt stumbles across a murder plot within its ranks.
Instead of painting the group in the typical staid style of the day, Rembrandt sets out to expose the conspirators by meticulously staging the painting and using subtle allegory to tell a static play, spelling out the details of the murder. The painting is released to general shocked controversy, and Rembrandt’s personal life suffers as a consequence.
In the accompanying film, Rembrandt’s J’accuse, Greenaway takes a critical look at the painting itself, focusing on each of the 34 characters in turn (including the painter himself, or at least his solitary peering eye), and analysing their motives, background, and their place in the conspiracy…
Martin Freeman may seem a peculiar choice to play the famous Dutch painter, but his performance is passionate and committed from the off, and as the film progresses, he breathes a depth of humanity into the character which is completely believable. In the best way, we start to re-evaluate what we thought we knew of the famous historical icon, and furthermore, one glance back at Rembrandt’s self portraits reveals Freeman to be not unlike the painter in physical appearance either. That he makes no attempt at an accent is probably for the best, when listening to what his equestrian English makes of the few Dutch words he does attempt. Eva Birthistle also deserves credit for a layered, intelligent performance as Rembrandt’s wife Saskia.
Greenaway’s primary visual technique is to frame each scene and light it as a period painting, and to film from a static distance. The result is initially jarring, but as the technique warms in, it becomes less distancing and more effective, somewhat reminiscent of Lars Von Trier’s Dogville. A limitation of the static camera is that Greenaway sacrifices much of the basic language of filmmaking, and it is left to an exhaustively busy screenplay to pick up the slack and fill in the details. The cast can take little blame as they all put in gutsy, committed performances, but as they chew their way through the wordy dialogue whilst over-gesticulating to a distant camera, it can give the whole thing the air of a school play. A further technical frustration is frequent poor sound quality, with the dialogue often muffled and unclear. Where the intelligent script like this needs close attention, this quickly becomes irritating.
That Greenaway felt the need to further expand on the implications of The Nightwatch a year later would suggest he had not made all of his salient points in the initial dramatisation. It is a clever idea to present two angles this way, and – one would think – immensely liberating for the director, but it feels as if the two works are sadly not aware of each other. Rather than focusing purely on the dramatic aspects of the story in Nightwatching, it feels as if Greenaway is at time bogged down with the needs to convey facts, rather than leaving them to the accompanying piece. The Nightwatching screenplay feels as though it has been packed with line after line of dense expository dialogue, intent on covering acres of unseen political detail. It’s often just too much to take in, and inevitably, the drama suffers.
Fairing far better is Rembrandt’s J’accuse. Tackling the subject as a straight critical essay, and with a powerful, driving narration from Greenaway himself, the film mines plenty of drama through its musings over the evidence. Most interesting is the exploration of a ‘dead language’: visual literacy, the interpretation of hidden meanings within paintings that turn them into more static plays than definite images. By focusing on the thirty-four figures featured within the painting, and dealing with each in turn, Rembrandt’s J’accuse is a focused, fast-paced and fascinating documentary.
Peter Greenaway presents two pieces which take dramatically different angles on one intriguing story, exploring the hidden mysteries behind one of the most famous paintings in history. Both have their merits, but if you only have time to see one, make it Rembrandt’s J’accuse. LOZ
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