(no subject)
I read Tracy Chevalier's Girl With a Pearl Earring all in one sitting tonight. It was very good, and obviously I couldn't put it down. I also couldn't help contrasting it with the movie, because I also loved the movie, and yet the two are very sides of the same coin. The book obviously has more backstory, and because of that, character interactions have more layers of complexity. The book is told through Griet, so you can hear all of her thoughts and motivations. She is a very believeable character, and very sympathetic, and I felt a great deal for her. And yet, I can't help thinking that the movie was just as well crafted as the book, if not better in some ways. The plot had to be simplified and time condensed; characters were combined. The eldest daughter, Maertge, is Griet's only friend in the household in the book, her only refuge from Tenneke, the head maid, and Catharina, Vermeer's wife. In the movie, Tenneke is a much more intelligent and fair person, while the only child that stands out in the mix is Cornelia, the one who torments her for fun. Cornelia is simplified to almost pure evil in the movie. A subplot with Griet's brother is dropped entirely. All of these details add richness to the book, and yet the film didn't feel simple to me when I watched it. There were no voiceovers, and the plot was not carried by many words. Appropriately for a movie about paintings, the most important character interactions were through look and getsure, not speech. Part of the appeal of the movie was figuring out what everyone was thinking about everyone else. The book did not leave that mystery. You know what Griet was thinking, and she's too smart not to figure out the others. There is also the matter of the ending. I like the way the movie was open ended. There is no clue as to what Griet chose after leaving the Vermeer's household. Merely that Tenneke was able to find her and give her the earrings. And there was also no clue as to what Griet would do with them. I wish the book had ended with her choosing her path, and not saying what it was. I realize that the author chose the most realistic ending, but it was very disappointing to know that Griet had her mind opened to the possibilities of art, and then became nothing more than the butcher's wife. I didn't expect her to run away with Vermeer, that would have disgusted me more than the actual ending. But what she had to give up hurt me, and to know that the earrings went to a pawnshop was also painful, that she couldn't even keep that much of her time with him in the studio. In the end, the movie focused on Griet's awakening to seeing the possibilities of the world around her, while the book focused the limitations. Maybe I just don't want to be reminded of the limitations anymore.