Synopsis

The title refers to the starting point of the film: Rembrandts last self portraits. The film is a portrait of the life of the great painter, sketcher and etcher is portrayed, but the focus is on the world he lives in and his 'looking at'. This film is made out of love and admiration for the Dutch master.

Background

In his third film, Stlling again sought inspiration from a distant past. From an early age he had always wanted to make a film about Rembrandt. He chose his twilight years, when Holland’s greatest painter of all time made his last self-portrait. He tried to capture that past by means of Rembrandt’s paintings and drawings. The film is like a search for the light, a lesson in looking. His mehod of working hardly differed from his two earlier films. He used almost exclusively amateurs who put hteir best foor forward for nearly two years to parade about in front of Jos Stelling’s camera in old robes. To accentuate his personal involvement, Stelling chose his brother Frans to play the young Rembrandt.

Both audience and critics didn’t think much of it. The VOlkskrant wrote that Stelling was deluded in trying to pose as a new Rembrandt, but added in a bantering tone that everything would turn out all right if he just went to see a psychiatrist. This remark caused a huge commotion. Dutch film directors demanded that the critic in question be boycotted, and he was banned from press screenings of the powerful Tuschinski group for six months. Stelling felt injured and it took him some time before he could make another film. In foreign countries Rembrandt Fecit 1669 was still shown at several festivals as an unusual, artistic experiment without a story, by a director who, with great stubbornness, refused to stay on the traditional course of filmmaking.  One film theatre in Paris showed the film for several weeks in succession.

From the Dutch Film Encyclopedia: "Crushed by critics in the Netherlands, treated with admiration abroad (amongst others, months of successful screening in a Parisian cinema), this Rembrandt film is a sharp historic drama that effortlessly joins in with the works of great film makers as Straub and Duras. Stelling shows with stunning beauty the observing Rembrandt, learning the viewer of the film to look at things with new eyes. Frans Stelling as the young and Ton de Koff as the old Rembrandt both are competition for Charles Laughton in 'Rembrandt' (1936). A film with classic potential."

Cast

Rembrandt (Young)                              Frans Stelling
Rembrandt (Old)                                   Ton de Koff
Saskia van Uylenburgh                        Lucie Singeling
Geertje Dirkx                                          Hanneke van der Velden
Hendrikje Stoffels                                 Aya Gil

Crew

Director                                                  Jos Stelling
Script                                                      Wil Hildebrand, Jos Stelling
Director of Photography                      Ernest Bresser
Production Designer                           Gert Brinkers
Sound                                                     Peter Vink, Cinetone
Music                                                      Laurens van Rooyen

Awards

Best Feature, Festival Asolo, 1978
Best Feature, Film Festival Orleans (France), 1981