The Stories about Art Films: 42. Museum Hours (2012), ACJ Movie Academy

 

Basic Info

Title: Museum Hours

Genre: Drama

Country: Austria, United States

Language: German, English

Running time: 106 minutes

Release date: 8 August 2012 (Locarno International Film Festival), 28 June 2013 (United States), 6 September 2013 (United Kingdom)

Staff

Director: Jem Cohen

Produced by: Jem Cohen, Paolo Calamita, Gabriele Kranzelbinder, Guy Picciotto, Patti Smith

Screenplay: Jem Cohen

Music: Mary Margaret O'Hara

Cinematography: Jem Cohen, Peter Roehsler

Edited by: Jem Cohen, Marc Vives

Cast

Mary Margaret O'Hara as Anne

Bobby Sommer as Johann

Ela Piplits as Gerda Pachner

Summary

“Museum Hours” is a 2012 Austrian-American drama film written and directed by Jem Cohen. The film is set in and around the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria.

The Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria

Premiered at the 2012 Locarno International Film Festival, the film had its North American premiere at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival and screened at U.S. film festivals such as South by Southwest and Maryland Film Festival. This film was distributed to the United States by The Cinema Guild.

The (Great) Tower of Babel, Pieter Bruegel the Elder,
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (c.1563)

Plot

When a guard of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna become friends with an enigmatic visitor, the museum becomes a crossroads that sparks explorations of their lives, the city, and the ways art reflects and shapes the world.

The Hunters in the Snow, Pieter Bruegel the Elder,
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (1565)

One winter day, Johan, a guard at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, encounters Anne, who came to Vienna for the first time because of her cousin’s medical emergency. Never having been to Austria and with little money, she wanders the city, taking the museum as her refuge. Johann, initially wary, helps her and they are drawn into each other's world. (Continue).

The Peasant Wedding, Pieter Bruegel the Elder,
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (1567)

Movie Review

“Bonds us to a world of stillness”

“We Are All Subjects in a Painting by Pieter Bruegel”

“One of Those Movies That Help Us See Better And Think”

“Fascinating Meditation on the Relationship between Art and Life”

“A clean blend between fine arts and human emotions”

“Elegant Post-Modern Masterpiece”

“Something different”

“Like going to an art museum without leaving home”

Thank you.

Movie Trailer

Amazon Author Page

Lecture Program List

YouTube

Korean Blog

Naver TV

Remarks: The background music for YouTube video is not the soundtrack of the film, but randomly selected.

Interesting Art Stories: 37. The Harvesters, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, ACJ Art Academy

How are you?

On every Thursday, I am introducing the stories about various artists and their paintings with the title “Interesting Art Stories”.

The 37th story for this week is “The Harvesters” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

“The Harvesters” is an oil painting on wood completed by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1565, the most significant artist of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting. 

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

This painting is one in a series of six works, five of which are currently surviving, that depict different times of the year. This painting depicts the harvest time, in July and August, or late summer. It was commissioned by Nicolaes Jonghelinck, a merchant and art collector from Antwerp.

As in many of his paintings, this painting focuses on farmers and their work and does not have the religious themes which were common in landscape paintings of the time. Specifically, this painting depicts both the production and consumption of food, which some farmers are harvesting wheat while some are eating. In front of the woman sitting and eating bread and cheese, there are also pears on the white cloth. 

This painting shows many of activities representing the 16th-century’s European rural life. For example, on the far right, a person on the apple tree is shaking the tree, and people under the tree are picking up fallen apples. Behind the people eating food, there are some people tying up the harvested wheat sheaves. At the far in the center left of the painting, there are a group of people participating in cock throwing, a type of blood sports. 

This painting has been at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, USA since 1919. The Museum regards it as a “watershed in the history of Western art” and “the first modern landscape”.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City,
the United States

Of Bruegel's five surviving works in a series depicting different times of the year, the remaining four works are as follows, and including this one, all of them are oil on wood painting created in 1565.

1. The Gloomy Day

This painting is set in February and March, and portrayed by the cold atmosphere and leafless trees. The paper crown wrapped around the boy's head and a boy eating waffles suggest that the timing of this painting is the Carnival time prior to Lent. The sky, the ships crashing into the shoreline, and the children in the foreground suggest harsh weather is approaching. The painting is currently in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria.

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria

2. The Hay Harvest

This painting represents June and July and is the most important work of the Northern European Renaissance possessed by the Lobkowicz Palace in the Prague Castle in Prague, Czech Republic. This painting was hung in the dining room of the Antwerp merchant Nicolaes Jonghelinck.

Lobkowicz Palace, Prague, Czech Republic

3. The Hunters in the Snow

This painting is also called “The Return of the Hunters” and is set in the midwinter during December and January. The painting shows a wintry scene in which three tired-looking hunters are returning from hunting with their dogs. It seems that this hunting was not successful by the appearances of the hunters and the dogs also look very tired. Currently, this painting is in the possession of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria.

4. The Return of the Herd

This painting represents the autumn scenery of October and November from the trees colored with foliage. It is now in the possession of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria.

As described above, referencing the surviving five paintings, one lost work among the six paintings in a series is presumed to represent the late spring, April and May.

Thank you.

Amazon Author Page

Lecture Program List

YouTube

Korean Blog

Naver TV

Naver Post