Venice. Nightwatching.

"There are said to be 51 mysteries in Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn's masterpiece The Night Watch and British writer and director Peter Greenaway sets out to explain all of them in his richly detailed but lumbering and theatrical drama Nightwatching," writes Ray Bennett in the Hollywood Reporter.

"In look and tone Nightwatching reps a return to the Peter Greenaway style of old, though whether it's a return to form is another matter," writes Jay Weissberg in Variety. "Revolutionary in how it presents a group of men (and two incongruous girls, or dwarves) not as bold, static nobles but in a cacophony of poses and movement, the painting lends itself to historical leaps of imagination, and Greenaway plunges right in."

Updated through 9/10.

Update, 9/10: "[Y]ou need an IQ of 200 to retain the names and understand the intrigues, explained here, mostly in thick Dutch accents," writes Nigel Andrews in the Financial Times. "But a flicker of good acting can start a blaze. The film catches fire in scenes between [Martin] Freeman and Jodhi May (Geertje). Greenaway's dialogue begins to turn its laundry lists of historical and art-philosophical item-checking into burning tapers of passion."

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Covering the coverage: Venice 07. Index.

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Posted by dwhudson at September 8, 2007 4:29 AM