Directed by David Devine, Rembrandt: Fathers and Sons reveals the great master at the height of his success. In need of a challenge, he sets out to reinvent the portrait amid demands from the aristocracy, his new family and especially a young boy estranged from his father. Rembrandt was a mysterious figure in his day but his nearly one hundred self-portraits tell their own story. Rembrandt was a happy man. He adored his wife and had a bustling home and studio, with enough commissions to satisfy his passion for buying art at fine art auctions. A multitalented and prolific artist, aside from his magnificent portraits, Rembrandt depicted over 800 biblical scenes and is also considered the greatest etcher in the history of art. Created and produced by David Devine and Richard Mozer from a screenplay by Ann MacNaughton (Pit Pony, Wind at My Back, Traders, Ready or Not) Rembrandt: Fathers and Sons was shot in Telc in the Czech Republic. Although the buildings in Telc are not made of the same red bricks of Amsterdam, the shapes are remarkably similar. The enormous town square where the exteriors were shot is impressively uniform, reflecting Gothic, Renaissance and the Baroque architecture. Director David Devine admits, "This town square is at least 10 times larger than any Hollywood backlot." Rembrandt's famous masterpiece "The Nightwatch" was recreated by hiring a famous Slovak artist to reproduce the painting with oils close to its actual size: 12 by 16 feet. The difference was that the faces of two of the lead actors were painted in: Ross Petty as Captain Cocq in the centre and Kari Matchett as Saskia in the background. "The Nightwatch" was by far the most revolutionary painting Rembrandt had created and it transformed the traditional Dutch portrait into a dazzling blaze of light, colour and motion. Rembrandt lifted his art into the realm of the soul. Though he suffered several personal tragedies later in life, this only served to deepen his awareness of the human condition, which as he matured, he conveyed with overwhelming depth and tenderness.
