Rembrandt

The film takes Rembrandt at the height of his fame and follows the decline that begins with the death of his wife Saskia. After that date the painter stops delivering commissioned portraits the way his sitters expect; patrons who dislike the work fall away, debts pile up, his house and his collection are sold. The only person who stays is Hendrickje, who works in his household. The account is not a success story but a demonstration of what it costs a man to insist on working the way he knows. Alexander Korda's London production rests entirely on Charles Laughton, who presents the man as neither genius nor victim, only stubborn and alone. Elsa Lanchester, Laughton's wife in life, plays Hendrickje. The cinematographer Georges Périnal built the interior lighting to resemble the light in Rembrandt's own paintings directly, and that is what the film is most remembered for. It was an expensive and ambitious production for British studio cinema of the period.