Tim's Vermeer
"Oh, my aching back!" - Ralph Kramden, The Honeymooners.
Be careful what you start, especially if you're a stickler for detailed completionism. Even my back hurt for Tim Jenison, as he continually bent over at a certain angle while painting minutia month after month. I get the draw of wanting to test out a theory that is so compelling, the findings could change the very nature of what it means to call Vermeer a genius artist. But, obsession for answers can come at a dear cost. For Tim, it's not just vast amounts of time, continual setbacks and seemingly endless need for innovation, it's unrelenting tedium, severe, chronic pain and even possibly slipping sanity. Without the support and expectations of others, he might not have finished the quest. But, he did and it was documented and he now has a "Vermeer" of his own making above his mantlepiece.
Some art critics were "sour grapes" about what Tim did and what his experiment illuminated, but they missed the point entirely. Using newly understood science to enhance art doesn't make one less genius, it makes one more impressive. As Teller said, “Sometimes magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect.” I agree. Magic/genius is more about effort than innate unearned skill.
This was in response to 1SO watching
Room 237 but I find that it applies to this film just as much:
Stupid as some ideas may be, I think there’s value in following through. There’s no rhyme or reason why playing the movie backwards and forwards, one over the other, should reveal anything. But in following through on the exercise things may come up which open a line of thinking which you may never have reached before. It’s two hours spent focusing on a movie in a unique way, and may yield some unique thoughts. There’s no substitute for time sometimes.
I think about the moment when Tim discovers that a certain aspect of the painting has a slight curve and what that reveals about the methods. It's something that he never would have come across without following through. I mean sure he basically proved the concept after a few hours, but in carrying on that's when the discoveries unlooked for reveal themselves. I imagine everyone here has experienced this sort of thing in writing about movies to some degree. You know in a general way if you enjoyed a movie or not and a star rating would suffice to express your reaction, but by choosing to follow through and attempting to document that enjoyment and spending more time thinking about it, perhaps revisiting a scene or two in the process, an idea or insight may be generated. Or a revelation.
I think about the marathons people undertake here, the lists, the polls, and other mad experiments (1SO's chapter by chapter reviews for example)... all fantastic things that cause a person to spend more time thinking about a film, or seeing a film in a certain way. Even following through on something as simple as assembling a top 5 such-and-such films, while it may seem like a trivial exercise, anyone who has tried will know that it caused them to look at the films in a different way. Maybe a new way. Like Tim's Vermeer, the discoveries are quite rare and only come after much toil. But who would argue that it wasn't worth it? And even if it wasn't, that in itself would be a discovery. So either way there's value in the doing.
The other aspect I appreciate about the film is that it's quite calming to watch. There's a lot you can sit and contemplate while observing Tim's labour. Or just zone out. I've heard painting can be quite calming, but watching someone else do it is perhaps even more calming.
There's also an irreverence in the act that I enjoy. Bucking the idea that some things are best left to the experts. The non-painter creating a masterpiece. There's a lesson build into this exercise that I feel a person can extrapolate to many areas. How many jobs are based primarily upon tools? Is Tim an artist... well, when he has the tools, he's at least 95% the artist that Vermeer was. What's a plumber but a person with costly equipment that a ordinary person can't justify purchasing for a one-time job? The knowledge is easily accessible for a person with the desire to do the job correctly (a coin flip when you hire someone). And like Tim you can achieve 95% of the skill after a few hours. In every job or art there will exist a Michael Jordon (of welding, of cooking, of accounting...), but very few tasks in any job require an such a high level of artistry to be done effectively. More often it is will, and time, and tools. I dislike these gatekeepers that make things sound more complicated than they necessarily are. There's a scene I enjoy in the film
A Walk in the Woods where Robert Redford's character (Bill Bryson) is trekking the Appelachian Trail, and at one of the rest areas a fellow trekker, a gear nut, asks him why he chose the SuperTrax550 backpack... Bill simply responds that he thought it would be easier than carrying everything in his hands.
I'm basically just reiterating what you already said in your review, but I wanted to say more than "I completely agree".
So glad you got to see this one, Sandy!