Archive of films Girl with a Pearl Earring / Girl with a Pearl Earring

United Kingdom / Luxembourg
2003, 95 min

Section: Horizons
Year: 2004

Delft, Holland. 1665. Seventeen-year-old Griet enters the services of Johannes Vermeer as a maid. A fragile relationship develops between Griet and the artist who is increasingly fascinated by the girl´s beauty. This atmosphere, however, gives rise to one of the most admired and most mysterious portraits in the world.

Synopsis

Delft, Holland, 1665. After her father loses his sight, 17-year-old Griet must go to work to support the family. Once in the city, she seeks a job as a maid in the home of painter Johannes Vermeer. The lonely artist soon discovers that the shy servant girl not only has an eye for colour and composition but is able to understand his complex interior world as well. Hours spent together in the painter´s studio transform into precious moments filled with quiet harmony. The artist becomes ever more fascinated by the girl´s beauty, and a delicate relationship grows between them which the painter´s family - and particularly his jealous, possessive and ever-pregnant wife, Catharina - cannot help but notice. Griet captivates as well Vermeer´s rich, scheming patron, Van Ruijven, who presses the artist to paint her. Thus was conceived one of the most admired and mysterious paintings in the world...

About the director

Peter Webber is a self-taught filmmaker who gained a name in movies with the short The Zebra Man. He first found work as an editor on Anand Tucker´s feature debut, a bio of Little Prince author Antoine de Saint-Exupery entitled Saint-Ex (1996). Then followed a number of noteworthy made-for-TV movies: The Temptation of Franz Schubert (1997), Underground (1999), Men Only (2001) and The Stretford Wives (2002). His adaptation of Tracy Chevalier´s popular novel Girl with a Pearl Earring is the director´s feature debut. For this film cameraman Eduardo Serra won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Cinematography and the same honour at San Sebastian; Peter Webber took the C.I.C.A.E. Award at San Sebastian.

Contacts

Pathé International UK
6 Ramillies St., W1F 7TY, London
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 207 323 5151, +44 207 462 4429
Fax: +44 207 436 7891
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.pathe.co.uk

Bontonfilm, a.s.
Na Poříčí 1047/26, 110 00, Praha 1
Czech Republic
Tel: +420 257 415 111
Fax: +420 257 415 113
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.bontonfilm.cz

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About the film

Color, 35 mm

Section:	Horizons

Director:	Peter Webber
Screenplay:	Olivia Hetreed podle románu/based on a novel by Tracy Chevalier
Dir. of Photography:	Eduardo Serra
Music:	Alexandre Desplat
Editor:	Kate Evans
Producer:	Anand Tucker, Andy Paterson
Production:	Archer Street Ltd., koprodukce / co-production: Delux Productions
Cast:	Colin Firth, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Wilkinson, Judy Parfitt, Essie Davis
Contact:	Pathé International UK, Bontonfilm, a.s.

www:	www.girlwithapearlearringmovie.com

Guests

Aleš Danielis

Distributor

Marek Jeníček

Distributor, Producer