elegant, luminous and beautifully written

"After my father's accident, we had learned to place things where he always knew to find them. It was one thing to do this for a blind man, though, quite another for a man with a painter's eyes."

 
书是最近看完的，电影是一年前。对白，脉络，场景都根据原著而来，除了删除了Griet妹妹死去的情节；加深了Griet和Cornelia的矛盾；最终由Vermeer扎下Griet的耳洞；以及删除了10年后的续——这是我喜欢的地方。因为缺乏背景知识的了解，直到看书才知道，Griet的头发对她来说有多重要。所以Vermeer看到Griet的头发的一刻，他们的关系微妙的转变了。"I turned round, my hands still in my hair. He stood on the threshold, gazing at me. I lowered my hands. My hair fell in waves over my shoulders, brown like fields in the autumn. No one ever saw it but me. 'Your hair,'he said. He was no longer angry. At last he let me go with his eyes."

由于电影并没做太多修改，它的润色使得作品更完整。Griet的蔬菜，画室外的天空，冬天的河渠，他们俩沾了颜料的手，她小心翼翼的清洁过再复原的画具，他每次看她碰到她时她的紧张，她抿嘴唇和swallow的小习惯......音乐，用光，布景，演员的演技，都恰到好处。好像流水一样舒适。

Vermeer教会Griet如何研磨颜料，如何分辨色彩，如何静静欣赏一份不可逾越的感情。他观察她，欣赏她，画她，要她为他做一切服务于他审美以及日后他的作品的事情——住在阁楼为他磨颜料，清洁画室；当他的模特，然后对她说"Thank you, Griet, you may continue cleaning."；还有要一位maid扎耳洞，17世纪，这是越举而不合常理的事。

"I did as he commanded. He was studying me." Vermeer看着Griet的时候，她这样想。但她也得到了Vermeer朋友的忠告，'His eyes are worth a room full of gold. But sometimes he sees the world only as he wants it to be, not as it is. He does not understand the consequences for others of his point of view. He thinks only oh himself and his work, not of you' 这是爱，只是是不寻常的爱，是Vermeer用他艺术家的眼光培育出的，仅仅存在于Griet心底的艺术品。
 

“I lay back gingerly, unable to take my eyes off it. I could not imagine sleeping in the room with the painting. I wanted to take it down but did not dare. Finally I blew the candle--- I could not afford to waste candles on my first day in the new house. I lay back again, my eyes fixed to the place where I kew the painting hung.
I slept badly that night, tired as I was. I woke often and looked for the painting. Though I could see nothing on the wall, every detail was fixed in my mind. finally, when it was beginning to grow light, the painting appeared again and i was sure the Virgin Mary was looking down at me.”