✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Germany, Finland, Netherlands · 2008
1h 26m
Director Peter Greenaway
Starring Peter Greenaway, Martin Freeman, Eva Birthistle, Jodhi May
Genre Documentary, Mystery
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J'accuse is an 'essay-istic' documentary in which Greenaway's fierce criticism of today's visual illiteracy is argued by means of a forensic search of Rembrandt's Nightwatch. Greenaway explains the background, the context, the conspiracy, the murder and the motives of all its 34 painted characters who have conspired to kill for their combined self-advantage.
Greenaway is first and foremost a deft storyteller and filmmaker -- and a cheeky art historian. An appreciation of art isn't necessary to enjoy Rembrandt's J'Accuse, and Greenaway goes to great lengths to draw the artistically illiterate into the story.
Part alt–art-history lesson and part pilot for CSI: The Louvre, Peter Greenaway’s deconstruction of Rembrandt’s 1642 painting The Night Watch contends that the work is--after the Mona Lisa, Da Vinci’s The Last Supper and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel--the fourth best-known artwork in the world.
The filmmaker uncovers a foul, lurid, corrupt, and perversely compelling conspiracy--which is to say, he successfully turns The Night Watch into a Peter Greenaway film.
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
Generally absorbing if sometimes fog-inducing.
It's only a state of mind.
An assassin takes a young orphan girl under his wing and helps her get revenge.
When humans invade a distant planet, a man sent to study the indigenous aliens struggles to choose sides.
The rigid principles of a devout Catholic man are challenged during one night with a divorced woman.
Every moment matters.
A young mother raises her 5-year-old son in captivity and struggles to answer his mounting questions.
A faded television actor and his stunt double strive to achieve fame in the final years of Hollywood's Golden Age.
A failed stand-up comedian is driven insane, turning to a life of crime in chaos in Gotham City.
A poor family lies and schemes their way into the employ of a wealthy household — successfully, but with great consequences.
The last seven days of Stefano Cucchi