National Gallery

I wonder if a certain personal interest in the subjects Wiseman covers helps make his monolithic documentaries more palatable. I found half of this film dull and half of it fascinating. Watching the scholars talk to museum-goers is a little boring, but the more technical stuff - restoration, marketing, how to light a painting - is quite valuable. The ending ballet sequence is stunning.

While Wiseman brings his usual keen eye and ear, his well known 'bullshit meter' is off the mark as the entirety of the National Gallery seems to be a charade of an institution. An illegitimate institution and thus not an institution at all. People staring hopefully - desperate to interpret meaning - at wall after wall of paintings presented ex situ, made possible by an army of people who seem devoid of sincerity and integrity.

Eccentrics in a bubble slowly -very slowly- revealed to have an immense depth of knowledge. Through the most tenuous of connections I had a Uni thing here once, turned up late (and a little tipsy), got 'asked' to leave halfway for having my camera with me. An Italian girl followed me out and we walked to one of my favourite pubs and got drunk discussing pre-revolution Iran, Esperanto, architecture and the occult history of places we'd passed. There's one law for Frederick Wiseman...

A very interesting piece that does little to create a particular narrative but displays vignettes of many intereting characters and situations. I know next to nothing about art, but seeing the inner guts of a massive, working museum was quite something.

Typical Wiseman fly-on-the-wall documentary in which he shows the various aspects that go on in the National Gallery. I would have liked some more scenes of just the public browsing the gallery and a bit less long explanations about the restorations. The long run time allows me to get in a peaceful, tranquil state of mind that suits the subject.

More than once, the docents here use film to describe painting; so it is refreshing to turn it around and have painting describe film. At around 3 hours, Wiseman's rather subdued portrait of the National Gallery has a shockingly exacting, meticulous structure - light and form from darkness, to faith like a child, to finances and lighting and space, to high theory, before finding solace in the joy of art in all its permutations. Yes, even film.

Frederick Wiseman turns his eye to London's National Gallery. Over the film's 3 hour run time, we see tour guides giving lectures on paintings, art restoration talks, budget meetings, life painting classes, discussions about how to hang particular works in appropriate light ... basically the entire inner workings of the institution. I was utterly enthralled. A wonderful and inspiring film that could have lasted another 3 hours and I would have been fine with it.

I find this to be one of the mellower documentaries I've seen from Frederick Wiseman, who often has an underlying harshness despite his highly transparent fly-on-the-wall approach. You might call this film a masterful "portrait" of a major museum; an attentive realistic description of its subject, also very layered and deep-cutting, as Wiseman explores visitor guidance, analysis of classic paintings, conservation and retouching, curation, sketching classes, finance, marketing and more.