IMDb reviews From IMDb
★ 6 / 10
If you can visit the National Gallery in
tmdb28039023
If you can visit the National Gallery in London personally, more power to you. For those of us who can’t, though, National Gallery is the next best thing. As…
If you can visit the National Gallery in London personally, more power to you. For those of us who can’t, though, National Gallery is the next best thing. As is par for the course in a Frederick Wiseman doc, we learn a lot about the subject matter, and we do it by smosis; not in scripted interviews, but like any other museum visitor; i.e., listening to the guides, whom Wiseman allows to go on at length to better recreate the real experience.
Additionally, as he is also wont to do, Wiseman peeks behind the scenes at the internal mechanism of the institution; in this case, the backstage look is not limited to the administrative inner workings, but also includes invaluable visits to the workshops where anonymous artists carry out the very important task of retouching, restoring, and preserving.
Specifically, the National Gallery is an art gallery — that is, a space destined exclusively for the exhibition of artistic works of a pictorial nature —, but this institution emphasizes the integration of the arts, and accordingly the museum halls welcome such artistic expressions as a piano recital or a ballet.
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★ 7 / 10
Was it heart and soul that was supposed
CinemaSerf
Was it heart and soul that was supposed to distinguish human beings from animals? Well perhaps here it ought to be more art and soul as we take three hours to…
Was it heart and soul that was supposed to distinguish human beings from animals? Well perhaps here it ought to be more art and soul as we take three hours to look into the workings of the UK’s National Gallery in London. Now I know, the thought of a three hour long documentary might be a bit off-putting, but this has been segmented quite sensibly into vignettes that illustrate the myriad of aspects of the work that goes on - and there is no narration. From exhibitions, conservation and restoration through to gala fund-raising, this proves to be an informative and not always flattering look at the operation and logistics behind administering and displaying this phenomenal collection of art. Some of the board meeting footage does make you wonder if these are the correct people to be running something this significant to the nation. Indeed, on a few occasions their conferences appear downright amateur and their attitudes to the broader public at times seem to suggest that we are little more than a necessary evil in "their" gallery. The painstaking work involved in hanging and lighting some of these fairly hefty and often intricate pieces of work is quite intimately presented as are their public tutorials that attempt to help the general public understand so much more about the works and their artists than might be immediately obvious to the untrained eye. It’s a charity and so, like many others, is always cost conscious as it tries to encompass the widest variety of British and European painting and though occassionally it does stray a little into the realms of elitism, it’s still an impressive illustration of a chronology of mankind expressed through the eyes of the rich, the religious, the powerful and sometimes even the horse-lover, and it does open eyes a little to the delights in a building that maybe suffers from an image of exclusive stuffiness filled with tourists. It’s the kind of film you can watch in chunks, so no need to binge - but if you do, you’ll probably find it quite a compelling feature.
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★ 6 / 10
For a 3 hour documentary about the National Gallery, this is oddly compelling.
garethcrook
For a 3 hour documentary about the National Gallery, this is oddly compelling. I'm really not sure how this got on my watch list, but I'm glad it did. I first…
For a 3 hour documentary about the National Gallery, this is oddly compelling. I'm really not sure how this got on my watch list, but I'm glad it did. I first visited the National Gallery in my mid-teens. It felt stuffy and I got bored quickly. The art didn't grab me the way things did at The Tate, but I can still recall the feeling of looking at some of those masters and although not thinking 'that looks ace', it was impressive. It's nice to see here that there's voices running the gallery that want to open the gallery to appeal more to the public. This of course being 'proper art' that everyone can think 'well that's good, I can't paint like that', as apposed to the opposite reaction levied at modern art. Not everyone wants that though, there's still the undercurrent of an elitist element present which is frustrating. Some of the nicest stuff in this is the viewers stood looking at the paintings, you experiencing their fascination through their fixation. Especially the packed crowds for the Da Vinci exhibition. The hushed walla through the rooms, people gawking and picking apart the paintings as people have done for hundreds of years. There's some really cool stuff, artwork transferred into almost Braille like pieces for the blind to enjoy, absolutely fabulous! As is the tour guide down on floor with a group of really young kids, telling them about the paintings around them, bustling with energy and enthusiasm. Not least this works simply for the explanation of the exhibits. The stories behind them bringing them to life. The restoration stuff is mind boggling too and sadly isn't covered enough, it's also ironically very much all surface with little explanation to the process... although the X-ray stuff on a Rembrandt is cool and the stuff that's not explained is still very relaxing to watch. Instead there's some behind the scenes stuff which is exceptionally dry. Unedited meetings about how they deal with the London Marathon finishing on their doorstep and how they deal with charitable requests. It's stuff like this that pushes the duration to the 3 hour mark and it's far from entertaining, but it seems the choice has been made to put it all out there for the viewer to muse over... much like the art on the walls. There's some delightful bits though, the art historian filming a piece to camera talking about a Turner, the lighting experts talking about compositions dictated by natural light before we had electricity and the bloke struggling to talk about carving ebony picture frames that reminded Anne* of Porky Pig. Depressingly in another meeting there's talk of budgets, caps on spending, staff reductions and palpable concern over what the future may bring. The figures mentioned are pretty epic, but then as art institutions go, this one is epic. It's been a while. I think I need to go back and visit again.
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