Rent The Great Museum (2014)

Missed opportunity - The Great Museum review by MA

This is an odd film. It has no obvious plot and no commentary. There are no explanations of who the people are, what they are doing, or why they are doing it, or why the excerpt has been included. Each scene is quite short and appears not to be connected to the one before or after.

Because of all this I persevered for about 30 minutes because I know the museum but then gave up.

Shame

Much less interesting than it should have been - The Great Museum review by CH

I share the previous reviewer's disappointment. The KHM is a wonderful museum and the scenes of art restoration were interesting for a while, but the whole film seemed to ignore the basic question of human beings looking at and marvelling at things of beauty from earlier ages. The discussion was all about money and market profile, and the power of the Hapsburg name to pull the crowds. Perhaps this was a deliberate irony- I found myself wondering if the shots, at beginning and end, of the Tower of Babel, were an objective correlative. The sight of Neil Magregor, exclaiming delightedly at the artistry of an elaborate gilded clockwork ship, was a moment to be treasured. Here was someone just regarding a beautiful object with love.