The Flemish Master
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The Flemish Master |
| Original title | The Dutch Master |
| Country of production |
USA Germany |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1993 |
| length | 28 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Susan Seidelman |
| script |
Jonathan Brett Susan Seidelman |
| production |
Jonathan Brett Regina Ziegler |
| music | Wendy Blackstone |
| camera | Maryse Alberti |
| cut | Mona Davis |
| occupation | |
| |
The Flemish Masters is a US-German short film directed by Susan Seidelman from 1993.
action
Dental assistant Teresa is about to marry cop Joey, which will take place in three weeks. She actually spends her lunch break with her friends Kim and Dorothy on the steps of a museum. One day, however, she goes to the museum. She stops in front of a Flemish painting that fascinates her. According to the museum guide, it shows a drunk woman who is being poured alcohol again by a man. The side door to the bedroom is open and the action is being watched by another man with a pipe and an elderly housemaid. Teresa stays in the museum for an unusually long time and clearly overshoots her lunch break. In the years that followed, she kept coming back to the museum and looking at the picture. At work she seems absent and also her parents think in retrospect that Teresa was no longer “her girl”. Joey, on the other hand, reacts irritated when Teresa asks him to let his hair grow long as in the old pictures.
Teresa takes Kim and Dorothy to the museum, but both get bored and leave. Shortly afterwards, the picture seems to come to life, the drunk woman falls from the chair and is picked up by the man. When a wheelchair user appears in the museum, the magic fades. On another visit, Teresa manages to get into the living image. The people in the picture do not seem to notice them. The man disappears into the bedroom with the drunk woman, while Teresa follows the man with a pipe into the bathroom and watches him bathe. Through a hole in the wall she watches the other man and woman making love. She wakes up from her daydream shortly before the museum closes. At work she now appears in traditional Dutch clothes. One evening she locks herself in the museum toilet and comes back into the picture dressed as a Dutch woman. Now she rushes into the bedroom in front of the couple, which she now sees from the other perspective while making love. Again neither of them perceive her, but Teresa sees the man with a pipe watching her through the hole in the wall, which is hidden in the bedroom by a painting hanging in front of it. When the couple touched her on the bed, she passed out. She wakes up in the museum where a security officer finds her.
Their wedding takes place the next day. However, Teresa does not appear. Joey says he's already started a manhunt for her. It turns out that Teresa is again hidden from everyone else in the painting. She lies in her wedding lingerie on the couple's bed, watched through the peephole in the wall by the man with the pipe.
production
The Flemish master was inspired by Pieter de Hooch's painting The Drinker , which painting in the film shows a painting similar to de Hooch's. The costumes were created by Ellen Lutter , the film construction was done by Lester Cohen . The film was made as the first part of the short film series Erotic Tales , which was realized in co-production with the German Ziegler Film.
The Flemish master premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in September 1993 . At the Cannes International Film Festival in May 1994, the film was out of competition. The German film premiere was on June 25, 1994 at the Munich Film Festival .
Leading actress Mira Sorvino does not speak a word in the film.
Awards
The Flemish champion was nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Short Film in 1994.