Inventor Tim Jenison seeks to understand the painting techniques used by Dutch master Johannes Vermeer in the Vernon Film Society’s next screening, Tim’s Vermeer, Monday.
For centuries, the paintings of Vermeer have left viewers awestruck with their almost photorealistic renderings of people and objects. The exact detail has sparked controversial theories from painter David Hockney (Secret Knowledge) and architecture professor Philip Steadman (Vermeer’s Camera), who suggest that Vermeer may have worked with a camera obscura to project an image onto a canvas.
In Tim’s Vermeer, famed magicians Penn & Teller, who have used their conjuring knowledge and expertise to expose the tricks of other people’s trades, follow their friend Tim Jenison, a successful inventor of computer graphics equipment, as he sets out to prove his own theory about Vermeer’s methods by endeavouring to paint an exact replica of Vermeer’s The Music Lesson using a complex array of lenses, lightboxes and mirrors.
Following Tim for over a year as he uses 17th-century technology to painstakingly recreate the materials and conditions of the painting’s hypothetical creation in his Texas garage, Tim’s Vermeer is “riveting … a mesmerizing film that offers both an intriguing insight into genius and a convincing analysis of the unity of art and science,” said Mark Kermode, with The Guardian.
Tim’s Vermeer screens at the Vernon Towne Cinema Monday at 5:15 and 7:45 p.m. Tickets are at the Towne and the Bean Scene for $7 one week before the screening.
Everyone is welcome – you do not need to be a member of the society to attend a film
The Vernon Film Society is celebrating its 30th anniversary and, as a thank you to loyal patrons, is offering passes for any five movies for $30. These passes will be available for purchase at regular movie nights and will expire at the end of December, 2014.
