"Beauty inspires obsession"

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With thanks to Jesslala

Summary: 

Girl with a Pearl Earring tells the story of Griet, a 16-year-old Dutch girl who becomes a maid in the house of the painter Johannes Vermeer. Her calm and perceptive manner not only helps her in her household duties, but also attracts the painter's attention. Though different in upbringing, education and social standing, they have a similar way of looking at things. Vermeer slowly draws her into the world of his paintings - the still, luminous images of solitary women in domestic settings. In contrast to her work in her master's studio, Griet must carve a place for herself in a chaotic Catholic household run by Vermeer's volatile wife Catharina, his shrewd mother-in-law Maria Thins, and their fiercely loyal maid Tanneke. Six children (and counting) fill out the household, dominated by six-year-old Cornelia, a mischievous girl who sees more than she should.

On the verge of womanhood, Griet also contends with the growing attentions both from a local butcher and from Vermeer's patron, the wealthy van Ruijven. And she has to find her way through this new and strange life outside the loving Protestant family she grew up in, now fragmented by accident and death. As Griet becomes part of her master's work, their growing intimacy spreads disruption and jealousy within the ordered household and even - as the scandal seeps out - ripples in the world beyond.

Filmed winter 2002/2003 in Luxembourg.

(Movie)

"I used to paint a bit when I was younger but you could give me a lifetime of lessons and I'd still never be able to produce a Vermeer. Luckily, I just have to look like I can hold a brush and that's about it."

Memorable Quotes from "Girl With A Pearl Earring":

Griet: [to Vermeer, after seeing her own portrait for the first time]

Griet: You looked inside me

Tanneke: His by-blow was dry before the paint was!

Catharina: Why don't you paint me?

Vermeer: Because you don't understand.

	Above. Party at Vermeer's.  Colin Firth seated at far right stars as the realistic painter, and Scarlett Johansson, standing at the far left (with director Peter Webber), plays his famous subject.

Colin Firth and Scarlet Johanson

Click image to enlarge

"His paintings are all over the world. Hitler even had one. It's in Vienna and it's still got

the Nazi swastika stamped on the back. Chilling."

Full credits here

Runtime: 100 min

Country: UK / Luxembourg

Language: English

Color: Color

Sound Mix: DTS / Dolby Digital / SDDS

Certification: Australia:PG / Brazil:12 / Finland:K-7 / Germany:6 / Hong Kong:IIA / Italy:T / Netherlands:AL / Norway:11 / Philippines:PG-13 / Singapore:PG / Spain:7 / Sweden:7 / Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) / Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) / UK:12A / USA:PG-13

MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested (for sexual content and language): some material may not suitable for children).

	Very little is known about Vermeer's life, and his methods of working. He had no students or apprentices, and he left no records. Vermeer only produced about thirty paintings during his lifetime. Today he is regarded as one of the greatest artists that ever lived. Vermeer was born in 1632 in the city of Delft in The Netherlands. His father was a silk weaver and an art dealer, and was probably the one who introduced the art of painting to the young Johannes. After his death Jan Vermeer inherited his father's bussiness. In 1653 Vermeer joined the Guild of Saint Luke as a master painter - an important step in his career as a painter, it meant he had completed his apprenticeship and was ready to work professionally as an artist.In 1662 he was elected head of the Guilde. Vermeer painted mostly domestic interiors, often of a woman alone - pouring milk, weighing jewels, reading a letter, playing a lute. In most of the paintings the women sit or stand in the same corner, with the light source from the left. It is not known who any of the models were. He did not make a living from his paintings, however, possibly because he painted so few - just 35 are known to exist, and he produced only two or three a year. He quite likely had a patron, perhaps Pieter van Ruijven, who bequeathed several Vermeers to his daughter. Vermeer was also an art dealer, but his primary source of income was his mother-in-law. When Vermeer died in 1675, he left his wife Catherina and their eleven children with very little money. Catharina described her husband's sudden decline thus: "As a result and owing to the very great burden of his children, having no means of his own, he had lapsed into such decay and decadence, which he had so taken to heart that, as if he had fallen into a frenzy, in a day or day and a half he had gone from being healthy to being dead." The famous Dutch microscopist, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, who also lived and worked in Delft was appointed trustee for the estate in 1676. It is assumed that many of Vermeer's paintings were lost after his death. Click image to enlarge (wallpaper)

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The Onet.pl Film photogallery of "Girl With A Pearl Earring" (101 photos)

Tracy Chevalier (author):

Colin became a complete Vermeer egghead. He travelled all over Europe to see Vermeer's paintings. He took painting lessons and learned how to make his own brushes and grind his own paint. He was very engaged in the script."

Very little is known of Vermeer, who died at 43, bankrupt, and leaving behind a wife, 11 children and 35 paintings.

Chevalier says Firth, 42, read everything he could lay his hands on about the artist. "And I thought, yes!" Because he became obsessive in a way that I believe Vermeer would have been obsessive about his paintings.

Cast: 

Some information courtesy of The Internet Movie Database.

Also with thanks te Colin Firth Career Timeline