Much has been written, but little is known about Johannes Vermeer, painter of iconic paintings and crowd pleasers such as The Milkmaid and Girl with a Pearl Earring. His small oeuvre is almost everything he left behind. Dicht bij Vermeer (Close to Vermeer) follows Gregor Weber, a globally renowned Vermeer expert and flamboyant curator at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. In the year before he retires, he works on his big dream: the largest Vermeer exhibition ever. Together with Weber, a number of Vermeer enthusiasts and experts go in search of what truly makes a Vermeer a Vermeer. Through new discoveries and by dissecting the work layer by layer, this film brings us closer to the painter to understand the decisions he made and the steps in his oeuvre.
In a world of "hot takes" and uninformed "takedowns," where expertise is increasingly de-valued across the board, the experts in "Close to Vermeer" are a comforting bunch. They know a lot, they share what they know, and they help us to not just look at a Vermeer, but to see. -RogerEbert.com
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