Rembrandt's J'Accuse
France,
2008
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86 min.
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Dir. Peter Greenaway
Greenaway throws just about every trick in the filmmaker’s book at this documentary/drama/historical art lecture. While exploring the many levels of Rembrandt’s painting “The Night Watch” (sometimes literally; the film displays x-rays of the painting to demonstrate the different revisions Rembrandt made as he painted), Greenaway employs reenactment, shots within shots, animation, and lots of big, floppy hats to make his point. He claims there are secrets hidden within the painting that ultimately led to Rembrandt’s fall from high society. Despite some annoying use of stringed instruments in the soundtrack, J’Accuse resembles no other film so much as Orson Welles’ great, underrated documentary F is for Fake.