>> Click here to return to the DUTCH LUCHT Site <<     The myth, the reality, the film: There’s an ancient myth that the light in Holland is different from anywhere else, but it has never been put to the test. It’s the legendary light we see in paintings. The German artist Joseph Beuys, however, says that it lost its unique radiance in the ..     Synopsis: Joseph Beuys postulated his theory in the late 1970s. He said that the light for which Holland was famous had lost its unique radiance, thereby acknowledging not only that it had disappeared, but that it had actually existed in the first place. The idea....     Joseph Beuys and the myth: Joseph Beuys postulated his theory in the late 1970s. He said that the light for which Holland was famous had lost its unique radiance, thereby acknowledging not only that it had disappeared, but that it had actually existed in the first place. The idea....     The origins of the myth: The myth about Dutch light started circulating in the 19th century. In the 1850s, the Netherlands became popular with painters and writers. Monet, Manet, Liebermann, Whistler, Boudin, Fromentin, Mirbeau and the Goncourt brothers all came to see .....     Landscape, light, art: The myth also inspired the emerging Hague School, the painters responsible for the rediscovery of landscapes and light and their revival in art. ‘Light and sky, the great magicians,’ Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch was to say. ‘We have to direct our...     The makers of the film : Pieter-Rim and Maarten de Kroon describe Dutch Light as being purely about light and observation. ‘While researching the project we realised that the film was mainly about a certain way of looking. When Joseph Beuys said that the only faculty the ....     The experience of looking : Dutch Light gives us time to contemplate what we see. We’ve grown accustomed to shifting our attention from one thing to the next, never pausing to examine things properly. No sooner is the television on than we anticipate what we might see on ....     Technology : The technology used in making a film should be appropriate to the subject. For Dutch Light we used the latest, high-quality lenses, filters and lens coatings to obtain sharp, panoramic images of vast overcast skies, often against the light. The film...     Svetlana Alpers: Professor emerita of art history at Berkeley University and a specialist in 17th-century Dutch art. Professor Alpers has published in Art History and other journals. She is the author of Rembrandt’s Enterprise and the authoritative but controversial Art and....     Jan Andriesse: Painter of light, space and light reflections on water. A gifted observer with a fascination for light effects. Jan Andriesse spends hours in his houseboat contemplating the sparkle of light on water. His large, abstract canvases capture the changing .....     Jan Dibbets: An avant-garde and influential Dutch artist with an international reputation, whose oeuvre centres on light, observation, perspective and space. Dibbets’s works have found their way into numerous collections, including those of the ...     Vincent Icke: Professor of theoretical astronomy at Leiden University and professor of cosmology in Amsterdam. Vincent Icke is currently working on three research projects. One is a study of the formation of structure in the universe and aims to explain the....     Günther Können: Physicist and head of the climate analysis department of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute. Like Vincent Icke, Dr Können was also impressed by Marcel Minnaert’s Nature of Light and Colour in the Open Air, notably the second volume, ...     James Turrell: A key figure in the Los Angeles-based Light and Space Movement. Turrell’s work is an exploration of space, light and observation. The aim of his projects is to make people focus on the act of observing. He has created outdoor installations in several .....     Ernst v/d Wetering: Professor of art history at the University of Amsterdam, one of the initiators of the Rembrandt Research Project, and a connoisseur of 17th-century painting. Van der Wetering is the voice of dissent when it comes to the significance of Dutch....     Robert Zandvliet: A promising young artist who lives and works in Rotterdam. His first major retrospective was held at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 2002. Zandvliet (b. 1970) is a ‘true painter’, who finds inspiration in painting and the countryside. His art....     Maarten de Kroon A script is a starting point, it’s not carved in stone. This kind of documentary has to evolve along the way, both before and during the shoot. We might decide to use different images because of something that happens, or something someone says...     Pieter-Rim de Kroon Director Pieter-Rim de Kroon has spent the past eighteen months turning the idea into a film. ‘Cinema obviously imposes its own limitations, so we had to keep rethinking the concept. A lot of ideas are simply not feasible and we had to find alternative...     Paul van den Bos The subject and visual style of the 1.85 widescreen 35mm documentary Dutch Light call for a highly accurate medium, capable of recording details, subtle shades of light, and the vastness and colourfulness of the countryside. The latest lenses, ...     Flip Bleekrode What else can I say about this project: It’s a fascinating subject and a pity that it had to come to an end.......     Gerrit Willems Art historian and journalist. Willems was a conservator at the Stedelijke Musea Gouda for many years and has been director of the Dordrecht Visual Arts Centre for the past few years. Together with Maarten de Kroon, he developed the idea for Dutch Light,...     Govard-Jan de Jong Productie, begeleiding van postproductie en multimedia zijn de gebieden waar Govard-Jan voor het project Hollands Licht zich heeft ingezet. Samen met Pieter-Rim de Kroon heeft hij vanaf 1995 samengewerkt aan tal van audiovisuele projecten......       Aerial footage over the Zuyder Zee and vicinity Joseph Beuys described the Zuyder Zee as a vast mirror of light, the eye of Holland. Seeing is believing.     Marken – Monnickendam Our baseline. Throughout the making of the film, the crew returned to this location day after day to film the scene at different times, from sunrise to sunset, and in weather conditions ranging from ten degrees below freezing in a force 7 gale to .....       The Amstel River The film includes footage of the Amstel River – Jan Andriesse’s source of inspiration – and an interview with the artist....       Nieuwkoop Jan Andriesse regards The Village of Noorden near Nieuwkoop as one of Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch’s most beautiful paintings. It marks a turning point, he says: ‘You still see Vermeer on the left, but Mondriaan’s diamonds are starting to sparkle ....     De Bilt Holland sometimes has four seasons in one day, remarked the 18th-century writer and philosopher Diderot. The weather and atmospheric conditions obviously affect the quality of the light, so the film also includes scenes shot at the Royal...       Scheveningen The dunes and the sea at Scheveningen, with the grey light that the Hague School painters loved so much, the light....       The Hague We filmed work by Mondriaan and the Hague School painters in the Gemeentemuseum, Hendrik Willem Mesdag’s seascapes in Panorama Mesdag, and views of the Hofvijver and the Mauritshuis.....       Voorburg This is where the makers of Dutch Light spent their childhood and where both Constantijn and Christiaan Huygens once lived. We filmed our interview with Vincent Icke in Museum Hofwijck.....     France Following in Vincent van Gogh’s footsteps, we went to the South of France, to Provence, Arles, St Rémy and the Mediterranean to see whether the light there was any different from that in Holland. Vincent van Gogh wrote the following lines in a ....     America Dutch Light contrasts the arid atmosphere of the Painted Desert in Arizona with the humidity of Holland. We were given a unique opportunity to film in and around Roden Crater, the light observatory that the American artist James Turrell has been ....     Hofwijck Museum Former residence and country home in Voorburg, designed and commissioned in 1642 by the architect, poet, art connoisseur, and composer Constantijn Huygens. His son Christiaan lived in the house until his death in 1695. Christiaan Huygens....     Mauritshuis Arguably the best museum in the Netherlands for paintings of Dutch light, with one of the finest collections of 17th-century art. The Mauritshuis was built in 1640 for Johan Maurits, Count of Nassau-Siegen, after a design by the two most famous Dutch ....     De Pont Museum The outstanding collection of modern art at the De Pont Museum in Tilburg includes work by the American James Turrell. Besides a more or less permanent exhibition of art from its own holdings, the museum organises three large and several smaller ...     Rijksmuseum The treasure chest of the Netherlands, with the country’s largest collection of 17th-century paintings. Dutch Light shows some of the highlights of the collection and visits the museum’s repositories.     Teylers Museum Teylers Museum was named after Pieter Teyler van der Hulst (1702-1778), a prosperous cloth and silk merchant in Haarlem, and a sponsor of the arts and sciences at the time of the Enlightenment. Inspired by the belief that knowledge was the key to...       general Joseph Beuys argued that the light in Holland lost its unique brightness as a result of land reclamation in the Zuyder Zee in the 1950s. The makers of Dutch Light established a baseline on the dike linking the villages of Marken and Monnickendam,....       Series of photographs       Videos       Golden Calf       AUDIENCE AWARD - Dutch Light       'Dutch Light' runs for 2005 INTERNATIONAL EMMY AWARDS COMPETITION       Ducth Academy Award       SPECIAL MENTIONS       Golden Calf in the category 'the best long film documentary'       Poetry International       BEST DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY       third price       AUDIENCE AWARD       Cinemas The 90-minute cinema version of Dutch Light will be shown at international film festivals and released for general distribution. Dates and further details will be posted on the website.....       DVD The international DVD is now available. This DVD box contains: - A PAL and a NTSC DVD disc. - 53 minutes Dolby Digital 2.0 version English, French, German, Spanish and Dutch. - 91 minutes Dolby Digital 5.1 version English and Dutch Region: All Picture format: Anamorphic 16:9       series of miscellaneous photographs       series of landscape photographs       photographs of France       photographs of America       photographs of the crew       desktops       screensavers pc       videos     Panoramic Photograpy       address       credits design/html/flash: Govard-Jan de Jong scripting: Sitan van Sluis panoramic photography: Govard-Jan de Jong / Anticipate equipment: Leo Burnett