Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)

Colin Firth: Vermeer

Photos 

Quotes 

• Catharina : [in tears]  Why don't you paint me?

  Vermeer : Because you don't understand.

  Catharina : [gesturing toward Griet indignantly]  And *she* does?

• Vermeer : [Describing his newly arrived Camera Obscura]  See this? This is called a lens. Beams of reflected light from that corner pass through it, into the box, so that we can see it here.

  Griet : Is it real?

  Vermeer : It's an image. A picture made of light.

  Griet : Does the box show you what to paint?

  Vermeer : It helps.

• Vermeer : Look at me. Now, turn your head. Not your shoulders. Look at me. There. That's it.

• Catharina : Show me this painting.

  Vermeer : It will make your self ill.

  Catharina : You show me.

  [Vermeer reveals the painting] 

  Catharina : It's obscene.