Night Watching (2007)

Directed by: Peter Greenaway | 134 minutes | drama | Actors: Martin Freeman, Emily Holmes, Michael Teigen, Anna Antonowicz, Eva Birthistle, Christopher Britton, Agata Buzek, Michael Culkin, Harry Ferrier, Jonathan Holmes, Toby Jones, Kacper Kasiecki, Adam Kotz, Adrian Lukis, Maciej Marczewski, Jodhi May, Richard McCabe, Kevin McNulty, Rafal Mohr, Fiona O’Shaughnessy, Krzysztof Pieczynski, Gerard Plunkett, Nathalie Press, Andrzej Seweryn, Jochum ten Haaf, Hugh Thomas, Matthew Walker, Jonathan Young, Maciej Zakoscielny, Robert Zalecki

‘Nightwatching’ is both an interpretation of the painting The Night Watch and a biography of Rembrandt at the height of his fame. It has become a typical Greenaway, with a theatrical approach, occasional theatrical readings, a wealth of images and stories, a celebration of sensuality and a sneer at Calvinist bourgeois morality.

The grandeur of his subject matter even leads Greenaway to suggest in his film that the story behind De Nachtwacht and its creator is more English than Dutch, because concepts such as revenge and retribution have no place in the complacent and staid Republic of the Netherlands, do they? Isn’t that the point of adapting or leaving?

Apparent tolerance was therefore already one of the props of the Dutchman in the seventeenth century, Greenaway seems to want to say. It doesn’t have to be that anachronistic navel-gazing in an international production, but the British director has also lived in the Netherlands for years, has a Dutch producer – Kees Kasander – and not only knows who Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh were, he also knows Rita. Verdonk appeared from his introductory speech during the Dutch premiere on the NFF.

‘Nightwatching’ makes it clear that Greenaway is an excellent observer of Dutch culture through the ages and not just in the form of sneering; what predominates in the film is his love for the grandmaster’s chiaroscuro. The story about the murder of one of the gunmen to be portrayed – which, together with Rembrandt’s love life, has to carry the film – is not fascinating for nine quarters of an hour, but is presented with great bravura and visual class. An important element in this is the portrayal of Martin Freeman (‘The Office’), an actor who at first sight appears more comical than dramatic, but in Greenaway’s exuberant world this is by no means a problem. Freeman plays understated enough to earn the viewer’s authority, yet shows himself to be a fiery Rembrandt; of his female lovers in love – successively Saskia, Geertje and Hendrickje – especially Eva Birthistle (‘Ae Fond Kiss’) convinces as the first.

The film as a whole is primarily a baroque performed history lesson, at least: Peter Greenaway’s interpretation of that history. Occasionally theatrical and therefore somewhat on the surface, but always entertaining and a feast for the eyes. As Rembrandt – portrayed by Greenaway as a pure soul in a depraved Amsterdam – puts it in the film when he thinks he has gone blind: in the darkness you can occasionally see a glimmer of light if you’re lucky; that also explains the concept of nightwatching. Peter Greenaway likes to point out to the cheese heads that Rembrandt’s most famous work is too special to leave to themselves.