Le monde dans un tableau: Le chapeau de Vermeer
- Episode aired Jan 17, 2022
- 1h 16m
IMDb RATING
7.7/10
24
YOUR RATING
Storyline
Featured review
well-crafted documentary about the birth of the modern world
Once the Dutch painter Vermeer painted a small scene, which shows an officer talking to a smiling young woman. (It's not entirely clear whether she's laughing with or at her companion.) The officer is wearing a verrry large and verrry expensive hat. The documentary uses the hat as a starting point for a discussion of a number of topics such as the fur trade, the hunger for luxury products and the emergence of the Netherlands as an economic powerhouse. Gradually it becomes clear that the documentary is laying bare the foundations of our current Western economical and financial system.
In the meantime "Le monde dans un tableau" also discusses the art of the Dutch golden period, complete with codes and hidden meanings. For instance, it turns out that quiet domestic interiors, which to our modern eyes seem serene and innocuous, can represent saucy tales of sex and seduction.
Much about this documentary feels pleasantly playful and capricious, like a walk through a maze behind a castle. Some of the topics are funny, such as the Dutch "tulipomania", the frenzied trade in expensive tulip bulbs. Other topics, however, are quite dark and get darker the more one thinks about them. It turns out that the kind of people who think nothing of endangering or eradicating an animal species such as the beaver, tend to be the same kind of people who think nothing of endangering or eradicating entire human populations...
Well worth a watch.
In the meantime "Le monde dans un tableau" also discusses the art of the Dutch golden period, complete with codes and hidden meanings. For instance, it turns out that quiet domestic interiors, which to our modern eyes seem serene and innocuous, can represent saucy tales of sex and seduction.
Much about this documentary feels pleasantly playful and capricious, like a walk through a maze behind a castle. Some of the topics are funny, such as the Dutch "tulipomania", the frenzied trade in expensive tulip bulbs. Other topics, however, are quite dark and get darker the more one thinks about them. It turns out that the kind of people who think nothing of endangering or eradicating an animal species such as the beaver, tend to be the same kind of people who think nothing of endangering or eradicating entire human populations...
Well worth a watch.
helpful•00
- myriamlenys
- May 18, 2021
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- The World in a Painting, or Vermeer's Hat
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 16 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 16 : 9
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Top Gap
What is the broadcast (satellite or terrestrial TV) release date of Le monde dans un tableau: Le chapeau de Vermeer (2020) in Australia?
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