Rembrandt (1999)
Directed by Charles Matton

Film Review

In common with Roger Planchon's Lautrec (1998), a film about Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec released the previous year, Charles Matton's lavish account of the life and work of the Dutch painter Rembrandt appropriates its subject's distinctive artistic style but singularly fails to shed much light on the great creative talent it features. It is a common failing of many biopics but you might have expected better of Matton who, among his other artistic accomplishments, is a successful professional painter and therefore better placed than most other filmmakers to understand the creative drive of the artist. Rembrandt is not entirely satisfactory, either as an informed biopic or as a piece of drama. The rambling narrative is cluttered with incident and numerous secondary characters and this prevents us from engaging with the remarkable individual whom the film is meant to be about. The attention to period detail is impressive and the film is, to its credit, powerfully evocative of Rembrandt's work, effectively imitating his trademark chiaroscuro. (The film won a César for its set design in 2000.) Attractively composed though the film is, it is somewhat lacking in substance and merely serves to pique one's interest in one of the great 17th century painters.

Film Synopsis

The great painter Rembrandt van Rijn looks back on his life with regret.  His talent and passion for art brought him fame and wealth.  He married and, for a while, he was as happy as any man could be.  How could he possibly imagine the ruin and hardship that future times would bring him…?