Intermission: Director's feature-film debut works well on many levels

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.

Young actress Scarlett Johansson pulled off a one-two knockout punch with starring rolls in two great back-to-back films. First, there was Sofia Coppola's fantastic "Lost in Translation," in which Johansson held her own with seasoned comedic co-star Bill Murray. Now along comes "Girl With a Pearl Earring," the feature debut from documentary director Peter Webber, based on the novel by Tracy Chevalier.

This film works on so many levels it's hard to know where to begin. It's filled with great acting, possesses a depth of quiet, yet forceful emotion, and Webber's ability as a director is far better than the majority of first timers. Thanks to production designer Ben van Os and cinematographer Eduardo Serra, the film set in the 1660s in and around the home of famed Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer is a marvel to look at, as well. The look of the film is reminiscent of many grand Dutch paintings. When I view Federico Fellini's "Nights of Cabiria," I'm always struck by the thought that any given frame of the film could be made into an incredible photograph. While not every bit of "Girl With a Pearl Earring" is worthy of being an oil painting, many of the scenes, including exteriors and especially the interiors in Vermeer's studio, are evocative of the work of the great masters of that era.

Vermeer himself, now highly regarded, left only about three dozen paintings. These are now some of the most valuable pieces in the art world.

Johansson plays Griet, a maid (as in domestic servant, not merely maiden) who comes to work at the Vermeer house, which is run with an iron grip by the painter's mother-in-law, Maria Thins. Also on hand are Vermeer's wife, who seems to produce a baby a year which is the same pace as Vermeer's painfully slow output of paintings and a bevy of spoiled kids. In these days there was a great division of the classes, and the help were expected to know their station. Griet is treated no differently. Vermeer's wife is plain rude, and the kids seem to make great sport of causing trouble for the servants.

One day while she is cleaning in Vermeer's studio the master is struck by the young girl. There is more to her, he feels, than meets the eye, and what meets the eye is pleasing enough. Not that he, nor she for that matter, would ever consider any thing like a sexual liaison. But the emotional connection is palpable. Vermeer does arrange to have some of Griet's duties changed so she will be cleaning his studio regularly. One day he shows her a new painting he's working on, and she recognizes it as herself in the act of cleaning the windows of the studio. He also shows her a new technological marvel called the "camera obscura," a device with which he was able to capture the scene and use that image as a guide to his photo-realistic style of painting.

She begins to help Vermeer with the mixing of his paints and other more advanced tasks. He realizes (as the audience does, too) that Griet, if not for her lower class position, could probably be a painter herself. She even has the gumption to suggest a change in his current painting, which he accepts.

Two male love interests (one love, one lust) come into play in "Girl With a Pearl Earring." The first is a young man who's the local butcher's apprentice. He loves Griet truly and is a member of the same class. Secondly, there's the smarmy Van Ruijven. He's a rich patron of the arts and has commissioned paintings from Vermeer. Tom Wilkinson does a great job at being thoroughly unctuous and despicable in this role.

When Vermeer refuses to send Griet to work for the Van Ruijven household, the patron decides he'd settle for a painting of the young girl.

The mother-in-law, who realizes that if Vermeer doesn't get these commissions the household income will be in jeopardy, makes the deal. She must keep it secret from the rest of the family, as something of this nature would be unacceptable in their social circle.

What comes about is Vermeer's painting now known as "The Girl With a Pearl Earring" or "Girl With Turban." Because of the woman's beauty and the look on her face, some in the art world have nicknamed it "The Mona Lisa of the North."

While neither the film, nor the novel, make any pretense that the incidents depicted here are the way things happened there is no historical record of who the girl in the painting was this is a plausible account. More importantly for the reader or viewer is it works as a piece of drama as well.

"Girl With a Pearl Earring" is in limited release, but it is gathering enough critical praise that it can be expected to be distributed nationally in the very near future. If you're a fan of the better films made by the team of Merchant-Ivory, don't miss this "Pearl" of a movie.