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Renowned art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner and detective Harold Smith are just
two of the highly distinctive individuals profiled in Rebecca Dreyfus' promising but
uneven documentary about stolen masterpieces
two of the highly distinctive individuals profiled in Rebecca Dreyfus' promising but
uneven documentary about stolen masterpieces
Missing Masterpieces:
Stolen
7-7-06 "Knight Thoughts" web exclusive
By Richard Knight, Jr.
Stolen
7-7-06 "Knight Thoughts" web exclusive
By Richard Knight, Jr.
Stolen, which plays this week at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago, is Susan Dreyfus’ documentary about the theft of what is
thought to be the world’s most valuable painting, Vermeer’s “The Concert” and several other key works from the Isabella Stewart
Gardner museum in Boston.
As the film begins we are given the facts of the crime: in 1990 in the middle of the night thieves entered the Gardner Museum, with
its sensual Venetian influenced courtyard, and easily overpowered the guards. Then the thieves took their time helping themselves
to the priceless artworks. Years after the ensuing investigation, which gleaned few discernable results, a reporter from the Boston
Herald took up the case and found himself at one point in the presence – maybe – of one of the stolen paintings (a Rembrandt).
We flash forward to the present when detective Harold Smith, renowned for recovering stolen art, comes on the scene. Smith, finding
out that a documentary is being made about the unsolved crime, suggests that Dreyfus and her crew follow him as he attempts to
find the artwork. But though the polite, aging Smith – who cuts quite the figure with his bowler hat, prosthetic nose and the face of
someone who has for years battled skin cancer – is introduced as a big time expert on art theft, he doesn’t seem to do much
detecting of any great promise. Several times throughout the picture the camera crew follows Smith as he follows up old leads
conveniently provided by the reporter or police that come to nothing. Though we meet several eccentric characters (the Irish mob,
oddly, are thought to be the culprits) who also promise much, none of them delivers the goods either.
Smith’s travels are interspersed with ruminations on the importance of Vermeer by experts on the painter and “Girl with a Pearl
Earring” author Tracy Chevalier. We are also given a bio of the 19th century art collector Gardner and her correspondence with her
buyer Bernard Berenson regarding the acquisition of the missing paintings. These letters are read in voice over by Blythe Danner
and Campbell Scott. Gardner’s iron character and her stunningly evocative museum are the biggest lure of the film – emphasized by
the personal memories of museum gallery attendant Frank DiMaria who proclaims a lifelong passion for Gardner and her “palace.”
DiMaria’s heartfelt confession of his fealty to Mrs. Gardner and her collection, along with the sad, empty frames that still hang on the
museum walls, resonates as nothing else does in the movie and it is here that one feels the most palpable sense of loss.
www.siskelfilmcenter.com
thought to be the world’s most valuable painting, Vermeer’s “The Concert” and several other key works from the Isabella Stewart
Gardner museum in Boston.
As the film begins we are given the facts of the crime: in 1990 in the middle of the night thieves entered the Gardner Museum, with
its sensual Venetian influenced courtyard, and easily overpowered the guards. Then the thieves took their time helping themselves
to the priceless artworks. Years after the ensuing investigation, which gleaned few discernable results, a reporter from the Boston
Herald took up the case and found himself at one point in the presence – maybe – of one of the stolen paintings (a Rembrandt).
We flash forward to the present when detective Harold Smith, renowned for recovering stolen art, comes on the scene. Smith, finding
out that a documentary is being made about the unsolved crime, suggests that Dreyfus and her crew follow him as he attempts to
find the artwork. But though the polite, aging Smith – who cuts quite the figure with his bowler hat, prosthetic nose and the face of
someone who has for years battled skin cancer – is introduced as a big time expert on art theft, he doesn’t seem to do much
detecting of any great promise. Several times throughout the picture the camera crew follows Smith as he follows up old leads
conveniently provided by the reporter or police that come to nothing. Though we meet several eccentric characters (the Irish mob,
oddly, are thought to be the culprits) who also promise much, none of them delivers the goods either.
Smith’s travels are interspersed with ruminations on the importance of Vermeer by experts on the painter and “Girl with a Pearl
Earring” author Tracy Chevalier. We are also given a bio of the 19th century art collector Gardner and her correspondence with her
buyer Bernard Berenson regarding the acquisition of the missing paintings. These letters are read in voice over by Blythe Danner
and Campbell Scott. Gardner’s iron character and her stunningly evocative museum are the biggest lure of the film – emphasized by
the personal memories of museum gallery attendant Frank DiMaria who proclaims a lifelong passion for Gardner and her “palace.”
DiMaria’s heartfelt confession of his fealty to Mrs. Gardner and her collection, along with the sad, empty frames that still hang on the
museum walls, resonates as nothing else does in the movie and it is here that one feels the most palpable sense of loss.
www.siskelfilmcenter.com
