Peter Greenaway, famously known for his film THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE, AND HER LOVER has a new film at the Film Forum this week – REMBRANDT’S J’ACCUSE. The pseudo-documentary follows Greenaway, acting as a kind of art history forensic expert, as he dissects Rembrandt’s painting “The Night Watch.” He catalogues 33 mysteries of the painting, unearthing evidence that Rembrandt intended for it to be an accusation of murder and that this act in fact provoked Rembrandt’s ultimate downfall and death. Greenaway’s “talking head” appears in a little box within the frame, speaking with a Hitchcock-like authoritarian tone and uses facts, supposition, and a little false logic to make his case. In his precise and slight absurdist way, he rebukes both mainstream cinema and the history of art, and one can’t help but get the impression that Greenaway is just having so much fun…
