Museum Hours

Museum Hours may be the best movie I've ever seen about art. Interestingly, it's not a biopic of an artist, like Frida, or Pollock, or Mr. Turner. Instead, as the title suggests, it's focal point in a museum, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

This is a narrative film, sort of. The plot, such as it is, has a Canadian woman visiting Vienna to be by the bedside of her cousin and closest relative, who is in a coma. She visits the museum and meets a guard, who takes a friendly interest in her (there is no romance--I believe he is gay). He shows her other parts of the city and they have chats. There is really no conflict, though--I guess it's if the cousin will die or not.

Instead, the film frequently just shows us what's in the museum, and I've never seen a movie that details what it's like to observe art. I loved a scene early in the film when Johann, the guard (Bobby Sommer) visits the Bruegel room (this is the largest collection of Bruegel in the world) and talks about how he notices new details in the paintings almost every day. Then we switch to him outside, waiting for the bus, and we see small items, as if life itself were a painting. This is repeated late in the film, when Johann sees images, such as an old woman struggling up a hill on path, or a storefront, and sees them as works of art.

The film keeps coming back to the artwork, though. Written and directed by Jem Cohen, this couldn't have been made without the museum's cooperation (Pollock, which did not have the approval of his estate, showed no paintings of his, as a contrast). For about ten or fifteen minutes we and Johann eavesdrop on a tour guide showing guests some Bruegels, talking about his life and pointing out details his work, as it was unusual then for an artist to depict peasant life. It's fascinating. Later in the film the the two take a tour of an underground lake, and wee see that nature is its own kind of art.

Museum Hours is not for everybody--it's very slow moving, almost peaceful. It's the kind of thing you might want to put on to relax to, which is not something I would ordinary say about a film. But I enjoyed it very much.