Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003, rated PG-13, 100 minutes) is historical fiction about Johannes Vermeer’s enigmatic portrait of an unknown young girl, circa 1665.
It’s a breathtaking, tantalizing love story…the master, Vermeer (Colin Firth), and his maid, Griet (Scarlett Johansson), explore the boundaries of passion, but without real hope.
This poem is my “Thumbs Up!” review:
in flagrante
So close, but they tremble alone,
shaken by knowledge,
they almost embrace their passion,
each moving to the boundary
without transgression,
but not without hurt.
The master, the worldly one,
the master in his house
filled with the baleful women
of his family,
tempted to the edge
of the precipice…
She, a maid with one name,
the child innocent,
heedless of her woman’s heat,
trespassing unaware
and ever nearer
to the mystery
that she barely understands.
She sits for him,
he moves his brush
but does not avert his gaze.
He beckons,
and she becomes
the girl with a pearl earring,
she feels the lush weight of it,
his fingertip sears her skin,
she inclines to his touch,
the gem at her ear,
and she trembles again
with a start of pain
that thrills but does not fulfill her.
He trembles in a long moment
with forgotten desire,
sees beyond his need
and steps back to his easel,
granting her more time
in the childhood she must learn to leave,
giving her a peace
that will be a bereavement,
a keening memory…
They look again at each other,
mute, apart, yet bound,
their bond unnamed,
without hope,
withering,
without joy…
Inspired by Girl with a Pearl Earring (1999) by Tracy Chevalier
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