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Vermeer is a perfectionist, often taking months to finish a painting. His shrewd mother-in-law, Maria Thins, struggles to maintain the family's lavish lifestyle on the income from his painstakingly meager output. Seeing that Griet inspires Vermeer, she takes the dangerous decision to allow their clandestine relationship to develop.

Plunged into a chaotic Catholic household run by Vermeer's volatile wife Catharina, surrounded by an ever-increasing brood of children, Griet is increasingly at risk of exposure or worse. Twelve-year-old Cornelia, a mischievous girl who sees more than she should, quickly grows jealous and suspicious of Griet and is determined to cause trouble.

Alone and unprotected, Griet also contends with the attentions of Pieter, a local butcher boy, and Vermeer's patron, the wealthy and lascivious Master van Ruijven, who is frustrated that his money does not buy him control over the artist. While Griet falls increasingly under Vermeer's spell, she cannot be sure of his feelings for her.

The Machiavellian van Ruijven, sensing the intimacy between master and maid, gleefully contrives a commission for Vermeer to paint Griet alone. The result will be one of the greatest paintings ever created, but at what cost?

PRODUCTION NOTES

From Page to Screen

Producer Andy Paterson and his wife, screenwriter Olivia Hetreed, read Girl With A Pearl Earring in manuscript a few months before its initial publication. "It was a rare treat. I read it in one sitting, almost without breathing" says Hetreed. "I fell in love with Griet; her quiet certainty, her determination to be free in a world where that was almost impossible for a girl from her background" adds Paterson. "The domestic setting is deceptive. I saw it as a cinematic thriller from the start. And I loved the way Tracy had taken the few known facts about Vermeer and created a perfect story about the girl who inspired the painting."

Paterson and his producing partner Anand Tucker (director of Archer Street's Oscar ® nominated Hilary and Jackie) set about persuading author Tracy Chevalier to sell them the film rights. Though no one could have predicted what a worldwide success it was about to become, there were already other producers interested. "They were a good double act" Hetreed recalls, "They convinced me they would be true to the spirit of the book."

"Tracy was concerned that a film might turn out to be a Hollywood melodrama, Paterson continues, "but we were able to assure her that we wanted to capture the story she had written. And specifically that Griet and Vermeer would not end up in carnal bliss - we knew the erotic power of the story lay in the fact that there could be no consummation."

Hetreed worked with the producers on a treatment for the film. "The book is so visual, so cinematic, a story all about seeing and painting, appearances and reality, yet the voice of the novel is in Griet's head," says Hetreed. "I didn't want to use voiceover; it felt too modern, too self-conscious, so the challenge was to find a different way to bring that inner voice to the screen. "Hetreed and Tracy Chevalier got on well from the start. "We became electronic pen-pals" says Hetreed. "For me Tracy is the ideal author; sharing research, positive about the transformation wrought on her work and yet able to step back and allow me a free hand." For Chevalier, "Olivia understood it all so well and was able to develop themes further than I had taken them. She did some things I wish I had done myself in the novel." The relationship became so strong that during the film's post-production the two traveled to the Banff Television Festival to present a Master class on adaptation. Both writers felt as though they had been "inside each other's heads".

The Inspiration

The painting, Girl With A Pearl Earring, hangs permanently in the Mauritshuis, in The Hague, in Holland. It is believed to have been painted in 1665/6, but the true identity of its subject is unknown. Tracy Chevalier had a poster of it on her bedroom wall since she was nineteen. "I was lying in bed one morning, contemplating the girl's face, when suddenly I thought, `What did Vermeer do to her to make her look like that, happy and sad at the same time?' Within three days I had the whole story worked out. It was effortless; I could see, it all in her face. Vermeer had done all my work for me."

Says Paterson, "The story Tracy created perfectly fits the few known facts of Vermeer's world; his family and financial woes, his dependence on a patron, a fascination with the camera obscura. A lovely example of how she used her research is the sequence where Griet moves the chair. X-Rays reveal that there was indeed a chair in the painting Woman With A Water Jug, but Vermeer painted it out. Tracy took that idea and used it to drive Griet's character and build her relationship with Vermeer. So the novel is a fantasy, but it feels so authentic. I have had conversations with heavyweight art experts who now talk of Griet as if she really existed - that's the ultimate tribute to Tracy's work. When we approached the Mauritshuis, the owners of the painting, they were supportive of the project, and of course thrilled that in Scarlett we had an actress who embodied the girl in the painting."

The Director

The producers asked Peter Webber to direct the film. Paterson explains "although this is Peter's feature film debut, we had already worked with him for several years, first as an editor (he edited Anand Tucker's first drama Saint-Ex) and then as a documentary director - covering a diverse range of subjects from Crash Test Dummies to Wagner." His first dramas included the controversial "Men Only" for Channel Four, charting a five-a-side football team's decline into debauchery and sexual violence. "Peter was always going to make movies," says Paterson. "His knowledge of cinema is enviable, and it took no time at all for actors of the caliber of Colin Firth, Scarlett Johansson and Tom Wilkinson to decide they wanted to work with him. Peter, Olivia and I all started out in the cutting room and we share a fascination with the nature of story telling on film. "

For Webber, who had studied art history and was already fascinated by Vermeer, the story has the essential elements for drama, money, sex and power. He says, 'Vermeer lived in a household full of noise and chaos. He was under huge financial pressure to paint more and faster, to feed his family. Yet his paintings achieve such tranquility. I was thrilled by how Tracy's story reflected his work, how the intimate, the understated, somehow becomes epic. Griet's predicament is heartbreaking. The repressed romantic obsession that builds between Griet and Vermeer inspires him to paint her - but the perfection of that painting will lead to her downfall. She knows he will be ruthless, understands that their relationship must be sacrificed if the choice is between her and a truly great work. That understanding is, after all, what drew him to her in the first place. The legacy of her time with Vermeer is one of the greatest pictures ever painted."

Griet - Scarlett Johansson

Casting the role of Griet, a seventeen-year-old girl from a sheltered home in 17th Century Holland was always going to be a challenge. Says Paterson, "it was clear this was an extraordinary role for a young girl and we had a huge amount of interest. The first time we met Scarlett she was a New York City teenager on her way to a basketball game. Second time round, she had become Griet."

"Scarlett has been working in this business longer than I have," says Webber, "and although she is young in years she has an old soul. She has a force of character and a face that you don't often see on screen these days - she is hypnotic to watch, like a silent movie star."

Scarlett Johansson found the script immediately absorbing and beautifully written. She explains, "It is so rare that you read anything that is worth the time it takes to get through it. This stood out - it was glinting. Every actor dreams of the chance to play a role like Griet - a character with such repression that you are using your face and not your words to convey emotions." Johansson took the opportunity while filming in Delft to visit the Mauritshuis Museum to see the real painting, Girl With A Pearl Earring. "She is strange and intriguing. I felt she was just about to do something which would tell us more about her and her life," she says. Playing Griet, Johansson was able to empathize with her hardships. "A servant's life was hard labor, and Griet was also trying to cope with new raw emotions. We first see her at home, which she doesn't want to leave, but she has to and is immediately out of her element. She has no privacy - Vermeer's wife Catharina is vicious and unrelenting; the other maid is resentful; Maria Thins is always watching her; and Vermeer lurks in his studio, refusing to engage with the rest of the household. At the same time her relationship with her home is changing - she is torn between two lives." But Vermeer senses a connection with Griet. He realizes she sees physical things the way he does, and gradually allows her to become involved in his work. "Their relationship becomes tender, through their mutual involvement in his paintings," explains Johansson. "At the same time she is becoming involved with Pieter, the son of the market butcher. He is a tradesman, goes to Church every Sunday and offers an enticingly simple way of life that is familiar to her. He offers a mutual courtship that she could so easily slip into, if she had not met Vermeer. With the painter she tastes a kind of passion that is beyond her comprehension, and casts a shadow on her previous life."

Johansson hopes that GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING will send the cinema audience away with some kind of bittersweet feeling of hope, while recognizing that some of the most romantic feelings you have in your life come to nothing. She says, "The raw emotion of a girl who is in love and not able to express it is universal, because very often you can't have what you love."

Vermeer - Colin Firth

Colin Firth had not read the book when Paterson and Webber approached him to play the artist Johannes Vermeer, but read the script and quickly accepted the role. He says, "It felt refreshing. It takes itself seriously, which is not a popular position in most films - it is safer to have your tongue in cheek these days." He regarded the role as an acting challenge. "Not a lot of big things happen on the surface; the action is minimal, finely focused drama, which must be made interesting by the characters." He adds. "This has a parallel with the work of Vermeer."

Firth was intrigued by the man himself. "Not a lot is known about him. He painted what modern critics could regard as clichés - images reflecting the conventions of the time. But there is an even-handed moral kindness in those paintings, showing humanity in equal terms to one another, whether milk-maid or mistress. Of the 35 paintings known today, about 20 were painted in the same corner of the same room. He lived in a lively household - eleven of his children survived, but he painted serenity in his first floor studio. In 17th Century Delft artists were craftsmen who took their civic duties seriously - they served apprenticeships, and had a union to protect their economic rights. Long before the cult of the tortured rebellious artist took over, it was perfectly possible to be a good citizen and husband and also be a great artist."

In the film, Vermeer's studio is a quiet retreat from a noisy household. Says Firth, "He is resigned to being surrounded by people who don't understand what he does, and keeps his world separate. When he does allow someone in for the first time he is intrigued that Griet has an eye for color and composition and forms a mysterious bond across a vast barrier of class and age. He is sometimes pleased with what she has done, and sometimes rejects it. He attempts to distance himself from intimacy - it is too complicated for him. He doesn't allow himself to focus on the foreground of paintings or feelings for long, and so he doesn't find the same level of engagement each time they meet. So the relationship becomes torturous for both of them."

Firth found Peter Webber keen to explore the effect of different nuances on scenes. "Where a script is so affected by tone, a change of emphasis can completely change the direction of a scene." The actor points out parallels between filming, and the work of Vermeer. "If you look at x-rays of his paintings, you can see that he was prepared to begin with one idea and then throw that away. This can happen on a film set. Working with a crew is a huge collaborative effort. Everyone arrives in the morning and the challenge of the day is to give life to the written word, but you have to be prepared to change the ideas you brought with you that morning, in order to keep the energy and carry the room. If you are in tune, you can feel that moment. It's palpable."

Firth emphasizes that the film is not an art lesson. "It's an exploration of how powerful a relationship can be - like the intimacy between artist and model. A painting is unveiled and disrupts a family."
Pieter - Cillian Murphy

Irish actor Cillian Murphy takes the role of Pieter, the butcher's son who courts Griet. "He is a simple soul," explains Murphy," and spends much of the film trying to catch and hold Griet's attention. He represents the life she would have expected to have, until she meets Vermeer. An alliance between Pieter and Griet would be ordinary, whereas one between Vermeer and Griet would be considered extraordinary. These people are trapped in the lives set out for them." Murphy was attracted to the idea of playing the foil to Vermeer's world, to show the audience the world that Griet is reacting against. As research he spent time in a slaughterhouse, learning to hack meat convincingly, and had to practice carrying an eviscerated pig. "At that time, painting was a craft and butchery a trade. Although there is a class distinction, mainly because the painter earns more than the butcher, both are professions, carried out with passion and belief. Pieter believes in what he does, and he is good at it, so he is happy with himself, and recognizes that Griet may settle for that." he says.

GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING is Cillian Murphy's first period film and he praises Peter Webber's approach to the genre. "He sees right to the core of the piece, and deals with the emotions and contradictions of the characters. I had been worried that I would get bogged down in historical details, but the production's commitment to getting things right was a huge help to providing the feeling of the period, so that you can concentrate on the role. The script is so complex and deeply layered - a page turner where you can't guess what happens to her."

Re-creating Vermeer's World - Design and Cinematography

"The scene is a familiar room, nearly always the same, its unseen door is closed to the restless movement of the household, the window open to the light. Here a domestic world is refined to purity."
Lawrence Gowing: "Vermeer. "

"The look of the period is, of course, very well documented in the extraordinary paintings of the Golden Age of 17th century Holland," says production designer Ben van Os. "We conceived Vermeer's house to give us that sense of frames within frames so familiar from the paintings; a passageway leading from the canal side into the courtyard and the ground floor rooms connected by open doorways, leading the eye through the house to give a feeling of space - and lack of privacy. Griet should always feel watched."

"Peter (Webber) and I also felt that many of the paintings gave an idealized view. We took the decision to introduce a gritty reality, particularly to the exterior scenes - filling the streets with livestock and mud."

The interiors were divided into three distinct worlds. Griet's family home is a monochrome ordered Calvinistic abode in the poorer quarter; the Vermeer family lives in lurid Catholic chaos with lots of paintings on the walls (Vermeer was also a dealer who sold the work of others) and the vivid colors of popery; his rich patron Van Ruijven's world is opulent, with curiosities from around the world. This is where the real power lies.

"I wanted the Vermeer house to be chaotic - downstairs," says Webber. "The house was full of children and noise. It looked out onto a canal, which must have been very smelly. The main square with its taverns and markets was just half a block away. Yet Vermeer created paintings, which seem to define tranquility and perfection. So we were determined that the studio, the room that contained that familiar, almost holy corner represented in so many of the great paintings, should be the magical space. Up there is Vermeer's private world - a world which he gradually allows Griet to share because she alone understands why it is special. Ben built gorgeous sets, but he is also a great set dresser, making the world believable, lived in and totally convincing."

Cinematographer Eduardo Serra used different film stocks for the different worlds, capturing the rich dark colours of the downstairs of Vermeer's house and saving something for the painter's studio. "The shooting schedule worked in such a way that we saved Vermeer's studio for last" remembers Paterson "One day I was watching the stunning footage from elsewhere in the Vermeer house and reminded Eduardo of the earlier discussions about saving such beauty for the studio. He nodded that he hadn't forgotten. And when I saw what he did in the studio, it was breathtaking. He took it to another level altogether." "Eduardo's work was quite extraordinary" adds Webber. "He had decided how he wanted every frame to be lit and seemed able to achieve it almost instantly."

Serra adds, "I was happy we could shoot widescreen. It allows 'in depth' frame composition - frames within frames - as well as wide shots linking light and shadow. Vermeer reproduced with obsessive accuracy the northern light coming through his windows. To evoke the light of his paintings I didn't do anything unusual, I just built a big skylight outside the windows and tried as much as possible to use it as the unique light source - I would have done the same on a contemporary film".

Dien van Straalen's costumes were the final element in creating an authentic world. "Most of the time you should hardly be noticing the costumes," says Webber. "Great costume designers make clothes that actors feel comfortable in, and it helps create the feeling that you are inhabiting a real world. Catharina's costumes are exquisite and showy because that's who she is, but even she has to wear the same dress on a number of occasions to reflect the financial burdens of the family. Dien's triumph was to create costumes that subconsciously help in the telling of the story."

In Conclusion.....

The filmmakers never underestimated the challenges of bringing a much-loved novel to the screen. "Reading a book is a private pleasure. Film is a different medium, but we hoped that the millions of fans of the novel would get something more out of the film, something that would reflect their imagination. We wanted to make the film because it is a wonderful, mysterious, romantic story, set in the 17th Century, but accessible to anyone today. Tracy's story cried out to be brought to life - and we couldn't have dreamed of a more creative, talented, passionate team of people both in front of and behind the camera to help us realize it."

INSPIRED BY THE VERMEER PAINTING
"GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING"

JOHANNES VERMEER-(Painter) -1632-1675
The few known facts about the life of Johannes Vermeer come from legal documents - marriage and birth certificates; sales notes and letters of debts; the will of his patron.

Born in Delft in 1632, he was the son of innkeepers and spent all his life in this town of 25,000 people. In 1653 he converted to Catholicism and married Catharina Bolnes, a Catholic from a bourgeois family. They had eleven surviving children, and lived in the house of Maria Thins, Catharina's mother. Vermeer joined the Guild of St Luke as a master painter, having completed an apprenticeship and now able to work professionally as a painter. He was also a dealer, selling the paintings of other Delft artists.

Vermeer's studio was on the first floor of his mother-in-law's house and it is likely that most of his work was done here.

Vermeer's death in 1675, at the age of 43, was probably from a stroke or a heart attack, brought on by stress. His family was falling further and further into debt as the war between France and The Netherlands caused the collapse of the art market when the generous bourgeois patrons lost their own wealth, and the rent from Maria Thins' properties dried up.

Only 35 paintings attributed to Vermeer remain.