Schalcken the Painter

Intriguing, uncanny and multilayered reflection on the perpetual temptation to reduce the incalculability of desire, whether aesthetic or sexual, to the calculations of commercial exchange, and the hauntings produced by such reductions. Perhaps there is still something not quite worked out in the script, but the recreations of Vermeer et al. are very effective, and the narration is amusingly deadpan in the best British style. A little reminiscent of THE IMMORTAL STORY.

This is a modest film - relatively short running time, small cast, a few simple sets - but one which is surprisingly rich and rewarding in its simplicity. Drawing on Le Fanu's short story, as well as some of Schalken's actual paintings and some Schalken-like pantings, Megahey very effectively uses natural light along with doorways and darkly humorous yet informative narration to frame romantic and ghostly scenes. The approaches of Peter Watkins, Walerian Borowczyk and John Berger are evident.

I have to admit - I saw this 6 months ago and it still has not left my head. The film's lyricism and unease are one and the same, letting its slow-boil plot to rise to a dead-heat before you know it. Its primary framing device, using art appreciation as both a pretense and a way to build the horror, is as cold and calculating and disturbing as Schalcken himself, the poor rich bastard.

Omnibus book-end to the Christmas Ghost Stories (just as Whistle and I'll Come to You was the first book-end). It's quite beautiful - there's some downright majestic lighting, and it all has the look of a classical painting. It's a bit too slow a burn, but it's easy enough to get lost in the images.