Set in 17th century Holland, “Girl with a Pearl Earring” tells the imagined, intriguing and highly seductive story behind one of Vermeer’s greatest and most enigmatic paintings. Griet (Johansson), a tilemaker’s daughter, is forced by tragedy to become a maid for the master painter (Firth).
Fascinated by his craft, she soon shows an aptitude for helping in his studio, where she finds herself drawn to the man and his world of color and light. As she becomes part of his work, their growing intimacy spreads disruption and jealousy within his ordered household and beyond, fuelling a scandal which threatens to ruin them all.
Delft, Holland, 1665. After her father, a tile painter, is blinded in a kiln explosion, seventeen year old Griet must work to support her family. She becomes a maid in the house of Johannes Vermeer and gradually attracts the master painter’s attention. Though worlds apart in upbringing, education and social standing, Vermeer recognizes Griet’s intuitive understanding of color and light and slowly draws her into the mysterious world of his paintings.
Vermeer is a perfectionist, often taking months to finish a painting. His shrewd mother-in-law, Maria Thins, struggles to maintain the family’s lavish lifestyle on the income from his painstaking meager output. Seeing that Griet inspires Vermeer, she takes the dangerous decision to allow their clandestine relationship to develop. Plunged into a chaotic Catholic household run by Vermeer’s volatile wife Catharina, surrounded by an ever-increasing brood of children, Griet is increasingly at risk of exposure or worse. Twelve-year-old Cornelia, a mischievous girl who sees more than she should, quickly grows jealous and suspicious of Griet and is determined to cause trouble.
Alone and unprotected, Griet also contends with the attention of Pieter, a local butcher boy, and Vermeer’s patron, the wealthy and lascivious Master van Ruijven, who is frustrated that his money does not buy him control over the artist. While Griet falls increasingly under Vermeer’s spell, she cannot be sure of his feelings for her.
The Machiavellian van Ruijven, sensing the intimacy between master and maid, gleefully contrives a comission for Vermeer to paint Griet alone. The result will be one of the greatest paintings ever created, but at what cost?
Read the Full Production Notes
Directed by: Peter Webber
Starring: Colin Firth, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Wilkinson, Essie Davis, Alakina Mann, Cillian Murphy, Judy Parfitt, Leslie Woodhall
Screenplay by: Olivia Hetreed
Cinematography by: Eduardo Serra
Film Editing by: Kate Evans
Music by: Alexandre Desplat
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content.
Studio: Lionsgate Films
Release Date: December 12, 2003
