National Gallery Behind the Scenes of a London Institution
Frederick Wiseman's NATIONAL GALLERY takes the audience behind the scenes of a London institution, on a journey to the heart of a museum inhabited by masterpieces of Western art from the Middle Ages to the 19th Century. NATIONAL GALLERY is the portrait of a place, its way of working and relations with the world, its staff and public, and its paintings. In a perpetual and dizzying game of mirrors, film watches painting watches film.
Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and the New York Film Festival. Nominated for Best Documentary Film at the Cesar Awards.
"Indeed, he's America's foremost practitioner of documentary-as-metaphor, building sweeping arguments of small details." -Ben Kenigsberg, RogerEbert.com
"This is one of Wiseman's richest and most thought-provoking films, and easily one of his best." -Budd Wilkins, Slant Magazine
Running Time
174 mins
Year
2014
Kanopy ID
3008550
Filmmakers
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Comments (4)
Just serves to deepen questions about the existence, history, & purpose of museums in today's world (& not in a flattering way), which I suspect was not the original intention of the project. An own goal, if you will.
Far too long. The same talking points are repeated by museum staff constantly and certain scenes are interminable. In the last hour or so, all Wiseman does is string one gallery/painting discussion after another, with no attempt to shape or contrast the different talks. And far too much ...Read more
Far too long. The same talking points are repeated by museum staff constantly and certain scenes are interminable. In the last hour or so, all Wiseman does is string one gallery/painting discussion after another, with no attempt to shape or contrast the different talks. And far too much emphasis is given to Old Masters, and I mean no disrespect by that remark. Near the end, he shows us some more modern, Impressionist work but it's too little, too late. The Louvre City (and even Francophonia) is a much better, similarly-styled documentary that doesn't try one's patience, and leaves one with more to think about than this.
Read lessBeautifully shot but dramtically inert, at three hours it's too much. Wiseman hasn't shaped the footage into a compelling narrative to justify its lenght.
very interesting. made me look and understand important paintings a second time around!