Girl with a Pearl Earring

Peter Webber’s first feature nearly did not happen. Kate Hudson had the part of Griet and left in September 2001, 4 weeks before shooting. The backing collapsed with her, and the director Mike Newell and Ralph Fiennes, who was to play Vermeer, both walked away. Webber, who came from television, picked the job up while talking about a Vermeer poster in the producers’ office. He saw 150 girls for Griet before settling on Scarlett Johansson, then 17. She arrived straight from Lost in Translation, deliberately did not read the novel, and had her eyebrows bleached for the part. Tracy Chevalier, who wrote the book, set one condition on the adaptation: the two central characters were not to consummate the relationship. The painter’s house was built as a 3-storey set in Luxembourg, designed so that Griet always feels watched. The Mauritshuis supplied a high-resolution photograph of the painting. About a third of the story was cut. The film drew 3 Academy Award nominations and 10 BAFTA nominations without winning either, though Eduardo Serra took the European Film Award for cinematography. A good fit if you want a period film that works through glances, light and what goes unsaid. Not for viewers coming to learn about Vermeer; this fills in a painting we know very little about with invented story.