Copyright by Laura Mareike Sager 2006 - The University of Texas at ...

Alexander Korda alludes to all six of the above discussed self portraits, framing
the film with the Self Portrait at the Age of 34 at the beginning and with an
amalgamation of the Self Portrait at the Easel and the Self Portrait as Zeuxis in
the final scene, while the Painter in his Studio of 1629, the Self Portrait of 1669
in the Mauritshuis and the Self Portrait as the Apostle Paul are used in the middle
parts of the film. However, nowhere does Korda’s film represent Rembrandt’s
self portraits in exact tableaux; as noted earlier, he makes Charles Laughton
resemble the artist in these selected self portraits and represents him in poses
reminiscent of self portraits, thus inducing the viewer to look for their pictorial
model. The film’s choice of a sequence of self portraits and their adaptations into
the cinematic discourse not only emphasizes Rembrandt’s role play and self
promotion, but also indicates a changing, less fixed, and rather fragmented notion
of self. By contrast, Zuckmayer’s frame and interpretation of the Self Portrait as
Zeuxis portrays a more stable notion of self and a process of self-discovery and
identity stabilization.
From Screenplay to Film: Self Portrait as Zeuxis vs. Self Portrait at the Age of
34
Zuckmayer’s screenplay begins with a 1936 auction in Amsterdam of
what seems to be Rembrandt’s Self Portrait as Zeuxis. Thus starting the action in
Zuckmayer’s own present, long after Rembrandt’s death, Zuckmayer stresses the
difference between the artist’s reception by his contemporaries and by posterity.
The picture the auctioneer gives about Rembrandt is the typical hagiography of
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