This, another on the list of "Movies no-one has ever seen but you must if you'd consider yourself cinema-literate".
Which of course I bought into, being a fan of the obscure and esoteric.
The premise, an art collector has a selection of 7 paintings of Tableaux that he interprets for the camera/audience, via live recreation of each of the tableaux and his subsequent interpretations.
In style, a black-and-white forerunner of Peter Greenaway. The sets, styles, music, filming - I'm pretty sure this made an impression on him.
In substance - the paintings the collector has amassed - ludicrous, appalling recreations of what we are assured are art masterpieces. Even in black and white these appear to be 3rd rate studies by an artist of little talent and an impoverished imagination. That is not addressed, and I would think should be taken as a "clue". The collector shows us the painting, and then analyzes it for us, then on to the next painting - and each painting, somehow, is joined or thematically linked to the next. Until we arrive at the third or fourth which has been stolen, but the collector nevertheless attempts to reconstruct it's content and link it to the others.
It is a fine example of the "unreliable narrator" - how someone with a great deal of knowledge upon various subjects can tie them together in ways that - while they may impress the uneducated viewer - in themselves possess no greater value (or insight) than the paintings do on their own. The progenitor of every conspiracy theory. A curiosity, for sure, and some interesting ideas, but niche in the extreme and not entirely relevant. Yet another film I can strike up a conversation at the bar with..."You should see"...ending with "Well, maybe you shouldn't but it's only an hour long...".
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyQf4am7VOA
I'm waiting on the books I ordered, need a break from all of this European-Art-Haus, and, checking the tracking, I"m still 2-3-4 weeks away. And they're all on the same continent. Bloody hell. I'm seeing the value of Amazon...