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Review / ‘Exhibition: The Curious World of Hieronymus Bosch’ (E) ****

exhibition-the-curious-world-of-hieronymus-bosch-movieTHIS documentary comes with two titles. The one above is used in Australia. Elsewhere, it’s screening as “Jheronimus Bosch, Touched by the Devil”, a more challenging title probably chosen for it by director Pieter van Huystee and producers the Nordbrabants Museum in the Netherlands city of Den Bosch. 

It’s a marvellous film. 

Several decades ago, my only acquaintance with Bosch was with his best-known work – the triptych “Garden of Earthly Delights”.  There’s much more than that to tell about him. The museum has collected work from public galleries over Europe and the US for the film.

Twenty-sixteen, a year before Martin Luther published his “95 Theses” and set the Reformation in progress, marks the 500th anniversary of Bosch’s death. Bosch was a devout Catholic. His work is crammed with allegorical images expressing his faith in earthly, very human, often animal, terms. One can only conjecture how the Reformation might have impacted on his faith and, in the longer view more importantly, the statements expressed in his work.

Art historians lead the filmgoer among those statements and provide fascinating commentary about his life and times. Saints and sinners, nobles and peasants, he applied his imagination and his media to illustrate them in visual styles that say much about humanity and look unexpectedly modern. And his eccentricities are a joy to wander among – making visual statements for the film’s expert commentary and analysis to undertake the not always easy task of explaining. 

Many documentaries diminish their value by strangling filmgoers with information overload. This one by whatever name is rich with very palatable information. Retaining it all might well need several viewings. Which would not be a chore.

The “E” classification signifies “exempt”.  I expect that school teachers would know it well.

At Dendy on 14 December only.

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Dougal Macdonald

Dougal Macdonald

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One Response to Review / ‘Exhibition: The Curious World of Hieronymus Bosch’ (E) ****

Phil Grabsky says: 14 January 2017 at 10:14 pm

Hi – Phil Grabsky here, Producer of the film. Please note that this film is part of the EXHIBITION ON SCREEN series and not connected to the ‘Touched by the Devil’ film which is quite different. Please enjoy our film THE CURIOUS WORLD OF HEIRONYMUS BOSCH and then look our for our next which is I, CLAUDE MONET coming soon! Thanks

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