Review of Nightwatching (2007) by Nikolaos S — 25 Sep 2009

Enjoyable but odd. The story is presented in a strange conglomeration between a Shakespearean play, a movie, and a staged painting scene.

If you don't mind quirky, arty approaches to film making then you may enjoy it as much as I did.

The film is shot using subdued lighting which recreates the dark, velvety, mysterious qualities found in Rembrandts painting style.

A full complement of Shakespearean style characters play out the private life of Rembrandt giving insight to the mad, hurly burly of the gregarious Dutch renaissance painters existence and sets the scene for the famously audacious painting he made of the Amsterdam Musketeer Militia titled â??Night Watchingâ??.

The painting was meant to be a celebratory piece, showing the musketeers as heroic defenders of their homeland. Rembrandt felt the men who commissioned the work to be felonious high society toffs, masquerading as men of honour and valour and thus wholly undeserving of such favourable representation. Once he received confirmation of their underhanded and often despicably criminal activities, he took it upon himself to shame these men by crafting a painting that exposed each of the menâ??s follies.

The painting incriminated each villain by use of visual metaphors woven into the scene much to the extreme embarrassment and anger of its nefarious subjects.

Such an open attack on the reputation of the powerful men of Amsterdam could only end badly for Rembrandt. Revenge is planned and executed by these conspirators and Rembrandt arrives at the final stages of his life as a destitute and crippled pauper.

Actor Martin Freeman does a superb job of bringing the bold Rembrandt to life, showing us a captivating young man, living the rich lustiness of an artistâ??s life in the early 1600s.

I very much enjoyed this movie and would recommend it to viewers that enjoy historical recounts with a Shakespearean flavour and are accepting of the inevitably tragic ending.