My Rembrandt

“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s words have seldom been illustrated as starkly as they are in the new documentary My Rembrandt. The film follows the paths of several Rembrandt portraits through the hands of wealthy Europeans, and the effect the paintings have is intriguing and ever-changing. One young man’s career skyrockets, one old man is nearly ruined, and a dozen or more people in between see in the portraits comfort, power, national pride, and — occasionally — beauty.

Ordinary people may experience the paintings in a way close to their original function, as art and documentation of history, but we can’t own them. As the “My” in the film’s title indicates, actual possession of these invaluable, hyper-valuable assets is another state of being entirely.

The documentary’s main focus is an art dealer named Jan Six, the 11th generation descendent of a Dutch nobleman painted by Rembrandt in 1654. (The portrait hangs in the family home, a mansion on a canal in Amsterdam.) Six the Eleventh is on a constant hunt to discover unknown or unattributed Rembrandt works, two of which figure prominently in the film. One of the two becomes something of an international sensation, leading to that rare and precious happenstance for a documentarian: a third-act scandal that unfolds in front of the cameras.

But director Oeke Hoogendijk’s smartest move was surrounding Six’s story with those of other superrich, wide-eyed aristocrats. One is a Rothschild who has decided to sell the two giant Rembrandt portraits he has kept in his bedroom for decades; another is a Scottish duke who lives in a moldy castle with a gorgeous, remarkably casual Rembrandt known simply as Old Woman Reading. The naive expressions of glee as these men talk about their paintings — always referred to as “he,” “she,” and “them,” never “it” — is perhaps the clearest indication you’ll ever see of how phenomenal, hereditary wealth is both empowering and isolating.

Which brings us back to Jan Six XI, whose struggle is to prove himself in the art world despite his bloodline advantages. It’s his thread that Hoogendijk uses to zoom in on some fascinating and little-seen aspects of the art world, including the cult-like system of “authentication” and the amazing, scary techniques of restoration. (A restorer estimates it will take him four years to chip away a Holy Family poorly painted on top of the work of one Old Master — while preserving the potential masterpiece beneath.) After the third-act drama wanes, Six is seen over the final credits targeting another potential Rembrandt discovery, as the ordinary people of Amsterdam go about their lives on the canal-side path that runs under the 15-foot-tall windows of his home.

The very rich are indeed different from you and me.

Grade: A. Available now to stream via Grail Moviehouse’s Virtual Sofa Cinema streaming service.

(Photo: Strand Releasing)