• Alakina Mann
• Alexandre Desplat
• AllRovi
• Anand Tucker
• Andy Paterson
• Anna Popplewell
• BAFTAs
• Best Art Direction
• Best Cinematography
• Best Costume Design
• Box Office Mojo
• C.I.C.A.E. Award
• Camerimage
• Cillian Murphy
• Colin Firth
• Contract
• Delftware
• Drama film
• Dutch Republic
• Eduardo Serra
• Essie Davis
• Golden Globes
• Golden Hitchcock
• Johannes Vermeer
• Judy Parfitt
• Maid
• Maria Thins
• Olivia Hetreed
• Painting
• Pathé
• Patron
• Pearl
• Peter Webber
• Pieter van Ruijven
• Rotten Tomatoes
• Scarlett Johansson
• Tom Wilkinson
• Tracy Chevalier
• UK Film Council
• £
• €
• 
  

• 
  Dutch Republic
  The Dutch Republic — officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden), the Republic of the United Netherlands, or the Republic of the Seven United Provinces (Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Provinciën) — was a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the Batavian Republic, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and ultimately the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands. Alternative names include the United Provinces, Foederatae Belgii Provinciae (Federated Belgic Provinces), and Belgica Foederata (Belgic Federation).
  Until the 16th century, the Low Countries – roughly now corresponding to Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg – consisted of a number of duchies, counties and bishoprics, most of which were under the supremacy of the Holy Roman Empire.
  Most of the Low Countries had come under the rule of the House of Burgundy and subsequently the House of Habsburg. In 1549 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V issued the Pragmatic Sanction, which further unified the Seventeen Provinces under his rule. Charles was succeeded by his son, King Philip II of Spain. In 1568 the Netherlands, led by William I of Orange, revolted against Philip II because of high taxes, persecution of Protestants by the government, and Philip's efforts to modernize and centralize the devolved-medieval government structures of the provinces. This was the start of the Eighty Years' War.
  
  wn.com/Dutch_Republic

• Alakina Mann
  Alakina Mann (born 1 August 1990) is an English actress. She has had a few roles, such as playing Anne in The Others and also appeared in the 2003 film Girl with a Pearl Earring as Cornelia Vermeer. She also appeared in the television interpretation of Fungus the Bogeyman.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Alakina_Mann
• Alexandre Desplat
  Alexandre Michel Gérard Desplat (born 23 August 1961) is a French film composer. He has received four Academy Award nominations, five BAFTA nominations, five Golden Globe nominations, and two Grammy nominations. Desplat won his first Golden Globe for The Painted Veil in 2006, his first British Academy Film Award in 2011 and his first Grammy Award in 2012 for The King's Speech. Among various projects, Desplat has worked on a variety of Hollywood films including independent and commercial successes like The Queen, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, New Moon, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Part 2.
  Desplat was born in Paris to a French father and a Greek mother who met at the University of California, Berkeley. After their marriage, they moved back to France, where Alexandre was born. Alexandre is the younger brother of Vic Desplat. At the age of five, he began playing piano. He also became proficient on trumpet and flute. He studied with Claude Ballif, Iannis Xenakis in France and Jack Hayes in the U.S. Desplat's musical interests were wide, and he was also influenced by South American and African artists and teachers, among whom were Carlinhos Brown and Ray Lema. Desplat swiftly became skilled, both as a performer and a composer.
  
  wn.com/Alexandre_Desplat
• Anand Tucker
  Anand Tucker (born 24 June 1963) is a film director and producer based in London. He began his career directing factual television programming and adverts. He co-owns the production company Archer Street.
  He was scheduled to direct Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, but in May 2006 was replaced by Chris Weitz.
  Tucker was born in Thailand to an Indian father and German mother. He attended high school at Island School, Hong Kong.[1] He then moved to the UK at the age of 18. He has one child with his partner, director Sharon Maguire.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Anand_Tucker
• Andy Paterson
  Andy Paterson is a British film producer and former second unit director.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Andy_Paterson
• 
  Anna Popplewell
  Anna Katherine Popplewell (born 16 December 1988) is an English film, television and theater actress. She is best known for her role as Susan Pevensie in The Chronicles of Narnia film series since 2005.
  Popplewell, eldest of three children, is the daughter of Andrew Popplewell and Dr. Debra Lomas, a dermatologist. She was born in London. She has two younger actor siblings: Lulu Popplewell and Freddie Popplewell, who starred as Michael Darling in the film Peter Pan. Her paternal grandfather, Sir Oliver Popplewell, is a distinguished former judge. She attended North London Collegiate School and was senior student 2006–07.
  Popplewell began acting at the age of six, taking classes at the Allsorts Drama School. She began acting professionally in the TV production Frenchman's Creek in 1998. She made her film debut in 1999 in the film Mansfield Park and has since appeared in supporting roles in films like The Little Vampire (2000) and Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) with Scarlett Johansson. In 2001 she appeared as Victoria in the BBC serial Love in a Cold Climate.
  
  wn.com/Anna_Popplewell
• 
  Cillian Murphy
  Cillian Murphy  /ˈkɪliən/ (born 25 May 1976) is an Irish film and theatre actor. He is often noted by critics for his chameleonic performances in diverse roles and his distinctive blue eyes.
  A native of Cork, Murphy began his performing career as a rock musician. After turning down a record deal, he made his professional acting debut in the play Disco Pigs in 1996. He went on to star in Irish and British film and stage productions throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, first coming to international attention in 2003 as the hero in the post-apocalyptic film 28 Days Later. Murphy's best-known roles are as villains in two 2005 blockbusters: Scarecrow in the superhero film Batman Begins (a role later reprised as a cameo in The Dark Knight), and Jackson Rippner in the thriller Red Eye. Next came two contrasting and acclaimed starring roles: his Golden Globe Award-nominated performance as a glam transgender orphan teen in 2005's Breakfast on Pluto and a turn as a 1920s Irish revolutionary in the 2006 Palme d'Or winner, The Wind That Shakes the Barley. In 2010, Murphy played the target of Leonardo DiCaprio's dreamscape heist in the acclaimed blockbuster Inception.
  
  wn.com/Cillian_Murphy
• 
  Colin Firth
  A Darcy Before I Die - satirical poem by Ronnie Taheny (c) 2008
  Colin Andrew Firth, CBE (born 10 September 1960) is an English film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. In 2011, Firth received an Academy Award for his portrayal of King George VI in The King's Speech, a performance that also earned him the Golden Globe, BAFTA and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor, amongst others. The previous year, he received his first Academy Award nomination, for his leading role in A Single Man, a performance that won him a BAFTA Award. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011.
  Firth was born in England. His mother, Shirley Jean (née Rolles), was a comparative religion lecturer at King Alfred's College Winchester (now the University of Winchester), and his father, David Norman Lewis Firth, was a history lecturer (also at King Alfred's) and education officer for the Nigerian Government. Firth has a sister, Kate, and a younger brother, Jonathan, who is also an actor. Firth's parents were raised in India, because his maternal grandparents, Congregationalist ministers, and his paternal grandfather, an Anglican priest, performed missionary work abroad. Firth spent part of his childhood in Nigeria, where his father was teaching.
  
  wn.com/Colin_Firth
• Eduardo Serra
  Eduardo Serra (born 2 October 1943) is a cinematographer from Lisbon, Portugal, twice nominated for Academy Awards for Best Cinematography.
  From 1960 to 1963, Serra studied engineering at Lisbon's Instituto Superior Técnico, but he had to leave the country after his involvement in students' protests against Salazar's dictatorship. He settled in France, where he was accepted to Vaugirard film school in Paris; he graduated in 1966. In 1970 he got his second degree from the University of Paris-Sorbonne, in Art History and Archeology.
  Eduardo Serra received Academy Award nominations for Best Cinematography for his work on The Wings of the Dove (1997) and Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003). He has also received BAFTA nominations for his work in these films.
  In 2004 Eduardo Serra received the Ordem do Infante D. Henrique, a civilian award presented for services to Portuguese culture, from President Jorge Sampaio.
  He provided the cinematography for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Deathly Hallows – Part 2, released 2010 and 2011 respectively.
  
  wn.com/Eduardo_Serra
• Essie Davis
  Essie Davis is an Australian actress. Born and raised in Hobart, Tasmania, she is the daughter of locally famed artist George Davis.
  Essie Davis emerged from the Old Nick Company at the University of Tasmania in the late 1980s. She is also a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney. Her acting career began with the Bell Shakespeare company when, straight out of NIDA, she was cast as Juliet in the 1993 production of Romeo and Juliet. Her film career started after her role in the all Australian movie Dad and Dave: On Our Selection (1995), also starring other prestigious actors such as Geoffrey Rush, Leo McKern, and Joan Sutherland. Her most famous movie roles are in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, Richard Flanagan's 1998 Tasmanian film The Sound of One Hand Clapping, and Girl with a Pearl Earring.
  In 2003 she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress for her UK performance in the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire. In 2004 she starred in a Broadway production of Tom Stoppard's Jumpers, for which she earned a Tony nomination. In 2005 she appeared as Mrs. Nellie Lovett in the BBC production of Sweeney Todd with Ray Winstone. In the 2008 film Hey, Hey, It's Esther Blueburger she plays Esther's controlling mother. Also in 2008, she appeared in the movie Australia with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, directed by Baz Luhrmann. In 2008 Davis played Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for the Melbourne Theatre Company.
  
  wn.com/Essie_Davis
• 
  Johannes Vermeer
  Johannes, Jan or Johan Vermeer (Dutch pronunciation: [joˈɦɑnəs jɑn vərˈmɪːr];1632 – December 1675) was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle class life. Vermeer was a moderately successful provincial genre painter in his lifetime. He seems never to have been particularly wealthy, leaving his wife and children in debt at his death, perhaps because he produced relatively few paintings.
  Vermeer worked slowly and with great care, using bright colours and sometimes expensive pigments, with a preference for cornflower blue and yellow. He is particularly renowned for his masterly treatment and use of light in his work.
  Vermeer painted mostly domestic interior scenes. As Koning points out: "Almost all his paintings are apparently set in two smallish rooms in his house in Delft; they show the same furniture and decorations in various arrangements and they often portray the same people, mostly women".
  Recognized during his lifetime in Delft and The Hague, his modest celebrity gave way to obscurity after his death; he was barely mentioned in Arnold Houbraken's major source book on 17th century Dutch painting (Grand Theatre of Dutch Painters and Women Artists), and was thus omitted from subsequent surveys of Dutch art for nearly two centuries. In the 19th century Vermeer was rediscovered by Gustav Friedrich Waagen and Théophile Thoré-Bürger, who published an essay attributing sixty-six pictures to him, although only thirty-four paintings are universally attributed to him today. Since that time Vermeer's reputation has grown, and he is now acknowledged as one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age.
  
  wn.com/Johannes_Vermeer
• Judy Parfitt
  Judy Parfitt (born 7 November 1935) is a BAFTA-nominated English theatre, film and television actress who began her career on stage in 1954.
  Judy Parfitt was born in Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, the daughter of Catherine Josephine (née Caulton) and Lawrence Hamilton Parfitt. As a teenager, she attended Notre Dame High School for Girls in Sheffield, and later trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
  In 1981 she created the role of Eleanor in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Peter Nichols' Passion Play. In 1987, she played the mother of Clive Durham for Merchant Ivory's Maurice. In 1995, she portrayed Kathy Bates' former, domineering employer in Dolores Claiborne, who is dying in present-time, but is seen as a vibrant, glowing woman in flashback sequences. Two of her most notable past roles are Mildred Layton in The Jewel in the Crown (1984) (for which she received her first BAFTA nomination), and Lady Catherine de Bourgh in 1980's TV serial version of Pride and Prejudice.
  
  wn.com/Judy_Parfitt
• 
  Maria Thins
  Maria Thins (ca. Gouda 1593-Delft, December 27, 1680) was the mother-in-law of Johannes Vermeer and a member of the Gouda Thins family .
  In 1622 she married Reynier Bolnes, a prominent and prosperous brickmaker. In 1635 the marriage deteriorated; her sister found her crying in bed after her husband had beaten her. The couple moved to another house, where Wouter Crabeth had lived. There Bolnes had his dinner in the front room, together with his son, while he refused to talk to her and slept in a room upstairs. At one time her daughter Cornelia was locked up by her father and in 1641 Maria Thins decided to move to Delft, where her brother lived. Her husband refused to divorce her, but in 1649 she received a considerable sum of money from him.
  In 1653 her daughter Catharina married Johannes Vermeer in Schipluiden but it is not exactly known when the couple moved in at her rather spacious house on Oude Langendijk. Vermeer had his atelier on the front side of the second floor.
  Maria Thins apparently played an important role in their life. She was a devotee of the Jesuit order in the nearby Catholic Church, and this seems to have influenced Johannes and Catherina too. Their third son was called Ignatius, after the founder of the Jesuit Order. It is not known if the children were baptized in the Catholic Church, because baptismal records from that period are no longer extant.
  
  wn.com/Maria_Thins
• Peter Webber
  Peter Webber (born 1960) is a British director who is best known for his debut feature film Girl with a Pearl Earring and Hannibal Rising.
  Girl with a Pearl Earring, starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth, marked Webber's feature film debut. The film has received numerous accolades, including three Academy Award nominations, two Golden Globe nominations, and 10 BAFTA Award nominations.
  Dino De Laurentiis tapped Webber to direct Hannibal Rising.  Based on Thomas Harris' book of the same name, and starring Gaspard Ulliel, Gong Li and Rhys Ifans, this prequel depicts a young Hannibal Lecter as he gradually becomes a serial killer. The film received many negative reviews at the time but has since garnered a cult status.
  Webber made his first short film, The Zebra Man, about sideshow performer Horace Ridler starring Minnie Driver.
  He directed Simon Russell Beale as Franz Schubert and explored the counter-culture of tunnel-dwelling road protesters in Underground. His 2001 Channel 4 mini-series "Men Only" stirred controversy for its frank and shocking portrayal of the dark side of male sexuality. It is notable for giving early leads to Stephen Moyer of True Blood and Martin Freeman of The Hobbit.
  
  wn.com/Peter_Webber
• 
  Pieter van Ruijven
  Pieter Claesz. van Ruijven (Delft, 1624 - Delft, August 7, 1674) is known as Johannes Vermeer's patron. In 1657, he lent Vermeer 200 guilders. It is not known if he had any trade or profession. Like his father, he worked for the city institution, the Camer van Charitate (1668–1672).
  In 1653, he married Maria de Knuijt. The couple had one daughter named Magdalena, born in 1655. In 1680, Magdalena van Ruijven married Jacob Abrahamsz Dissius, a bookbinder. His father owned a printing press on the Market square, close to Maria Thins.
  Magdalena van Ruijven died in 1682, one year after her mother. Her spouse inherited most of her wealth, including 20 paintings by Vermeer. In 1683, the estate was divided by Dissius and his father. In 1694 Abraham Dissius was buried, his son Jacob died the year after.
  On May 16, 1696, twenty-one paintings by Vermeer were sold in an auction in Amsterdam. These paintings brought a total of 1,503 guilders, about seventy guilders each. It is presumed the paintings had belonged to the Van Ruijvens, who had built up a large collection of paintings by Vermeer, three by Emanuel de Witte, four by Simon de Vlieger and one by Jan Porcellis.
  
  wn.com/Pieter_van_Ruijven
• 
  Scarlett Johansson
  Scarlett Johansson (born November 22, 1984) is an American actress, model and singer.
  Johansson made her film debut in North (1994) and was later nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for her performance in Manny & Lo (1996). She rose to further prominence with her roles in The Horse Whisperer (1998) and Ghost World (2001). She shifted to adult roles with her performances in Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) and Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation (2003), for which she won a BAFTA award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Both films earned her Golden Globe Award nominations.
  A role in A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004) earned Johansson a third Golden Globe for Best Actress nomination. Johansson garnered another Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress with her role in Woody Allen's Match Point (2005). She went on to star in two further Allen movies: Scoop (2006) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008). Johansson has appeared in other successful films, such as Christopher Nolan's The Prestige (2006). Johansson played popular Marvel comic book character Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff in the films Iron Man 2 (2010) and The Avengers (2012).
  
  wn.com/Scarlett_Johansson
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  Tom Wilkinson
  Thomas Geoffrey "Tom" Wilkinson,OBE (born 5 February 1948) is a British actor. He has twice been nominated for an Academy Award, for his roles in In the Bedroom and Michael Clayton. In 2009, he won Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Film for John Adams.
  Wilkinson was born in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, the son of Thomas Wilkinson, Sr., a farmer. At the age of four, he moved with his family to Canada, where they lived for several years before returning to England and running a pub in Cornwall. Wilkinson graduated from the University of Kent, where he was a member of T24 Drama Society (then named UKCD) and attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
  Wilkinson currently lives in North London with his wife, actress Diana Hardcastle, and their two children, Alice and Mollie.
  In 2011, Wilkinson and Hardcastle portrayed real life husband and wife Joe and Rose Kennedy in the mini series The Kennedys.
  Wilkinson made his television debut in the mid-1970s and worked on several British television series, most notably the mini-series First Among Equals (1986). He first gained critical acclaim with his appearance as Mr. Pecksniff, in the BBC’s 1994 adaptation of Martin Chuzzlewit. He made only the occasional film (including a brief appearance in 1995’s Sense and Sensibility). After becoming part of the ensemble cast of the smash hit The Full Monty in 1997, a role which earned him a BAFTA, he began to take film roles more frequently, including supporting parts in Oscar and Lucinda, Wilde, Shakespeare in Love, and The Patriot.
  
  wn.com/Tom_Wilkinson
• 
  Tracy Chevalier
  Tracy Chevalier (born in 1962 in Washington, DC) is a bestselling historical novelist. She lives in London with her husband and son.
  Chevalier was raised in Washington, D.C and graduated from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Bethesda, Maryland. After receiving her B.A. in English from Oberlin College, she moved to England in 1984 where she worked several years as a reference book editor. Leaving her job in 1993, she began a year-long M.A in creative writing at the University of East Anglia. Her tutors on the course were novelists Malcolm Bradbury and Rose Tremain.
  Her career began with the book The Virgin Blue but she became known with her novel Girl with a Pearl Earring, a book based on the famous painting by Vermeer.The film based on the novel received three Academy Award nominations in 2004. Burning Bright, published in March 2007, concerns two children who become neighbours of William Blake in London in 1792. Her latest novel is Remarkable Creatures, based on the life of the English 19th-century fossil collector Mary Anning.
  
  wn.com/Tracy_Chevalier

Girl With a Pearl Earring (2003)

Actors

• Colin Firth
• Scarlett Johansson
• Tom Wilkinson
• Judy Parfitt
• Cillian Murphy
• Essie Davis
• Joanna Scanlan
• Alakina Mann
• Chris Mchallem
• Gabrielle Reidy
• Rollo Weeks
• Anna Popplewell
• Anaïs Nepper
• Melanie Meyfroid
• Nathan Nepper

Director

• Anand Tucker
• Peter Webber

• timeline:
• 2012
• 2011
• 2010
• 2009
• 2008
• 2007
• 2006
• 2005
• 2004
• 2003
• 2002
• 2001

• timeline:
• 2012
• 2011
• 2010
• 2009
• 2008
• 2007
• 2006
• 2005
• 2004
• 2003
• 2002
• 2001