05/09/2006

UK veteran director Peter Greenaway started shooting his latest creation yesterday, Nightwatching [+see also:
trailer
film profile], in which he brings to life celebrated Dutch painter Rembrandt and many of his closest family members and friends, depicted in his most famous painting "The Night Watch". The Dutch/UK co-production will coincide with the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the Dutch master’s birthday.

The film, starring Martin Freeman (Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy) as Rembrandt, will explore how and why the painter’s largest work came to be and the mystery surrounding each of the characters of “The Night Watch”, including Rembrandt’s wife Saskia (Eva Birthistle, Breakfast On Pluto [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and his two lovers Geertje (Jodhi May, House of Mirth) and Hendrickje (Emily Holmes, Snakes on a Plane). Natalie Press (Summer of Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean-Paul Rougier
interview: Pawel Pawlikowski
interview: Tanya Seghatchian
film profile]) also stars.

The film follows hot on the heels of the filmmaker’s installation at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum this summer, which used sound, light and moving images to show the world-famous painting in an entirely new light.

Nightwatching is being produced by Greenaway’s long time Dutch collaborator Kees Kasander (The Kasander Film Company), in co-production with Carlo Dusi of the UK (Aria Films). Paul Trijbits, head of the UK Film Council’s New Cinema Fund, who supported the project with a £300,000 award, said: "Nightwatching is a stunning project which imbues classic art with passion, drama, and intrigue, making it particularly relevant for a contemporary audience. Peter Greenaway was trained and exhibited as a painter and, like Rembrandt, creates the illusion of accuracy and atmosphere, which delivers a strong emotional reaction for the viewer... The New Cinema Fund and the UK Film Council are particularly proud to lend their support to a project of such calibre and innovation."

The film, which will shoot on location in Poland and in Wales, is sold being internationally by Content Film International.