National Gallery

Wonderful documentary film looking at life behind the scenes at the National Gallery which I went to see at the ICA.

It’s a long film (3 hours) but totally absorbing. There are a lot of shots of people just looking at the pictures and it is a great study of the gaze. Most interesting is the moment at which people stop looking and how they react. Then there are quite lengthy sections on the gallery talks with different types of groups featured, school groups, older groups, generic gallery visitors etc. It was very strange to see so many of the lecturers I now know quite well from going myself.

There were good sections to on the work of the conservation studio and framers. I loved the fact that every time you went back to the study the same man was up a ladder touching up a Veronese. It just showed how long these things take. I also loved a piece on the Leonardo exhibition including its dismantling!

My favourite bits were where they had filmed meetings. It’s always interesting to eavesdrop on someone else’s meeting! This gave a real sense of the good work going on inside the building contrasted to the pressures of the outside world.

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