Nocna straz [Nightwatching] (2007)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://www.film1.nl/)

The usual morbid Western obsession with sex & death (PDF) - as if they were somehow related - in a movie about a trivial matter blown up to near-mythical proportions by a director with too much time on his hands.

Yet this is an excellent review of the potency of the materially-powerful and their ability to escape punishment for their crimes. The subjugation of women is always in evidence - along with the emotionally-crippling Christianity used to justify it.

The image compositions match the paintings on show and the whole piece reflects the director’s (Peter Greenaway’s) usual preoccupation with theatrical staging and perversely-orificial sex talk. But more than just an analysis of a famous painting’s meaning, it reveals political facts about a time that is, in fact, not too different from today.

The characterizations are only vivid in the form of Rembrandt - who is played with bawdy gusto by Martin FREEMAN. This is essentially a political film that eschews characterization in favor of a Godardian essayist’s dream of sidestepping the need for dramaturgy to directly address the audience with his ideas.

The painting that Rembrandt finally produces (The Night Watch) becomes an allegorical j'accuse against those being represented - as murderers & hypocrites - for us to decode and see what the artist was really saying about his rich clients, behind the flattering portrayals of their physical appearance.

Copyright © 2012 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.