''National Gallery'' is a 2014 documentary film edited, co-produced, and directed by

Frederick Wiseman Frederick Wiseman (born January 1, 1930) is an American filmmaker, documentarian, and theater director. His work is "devoted primarily to exploring American institutions". He has been called "one of the most important and original filmmakers worki ...

. The film details operations at the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

in London.

Synopsis

The film captures daily activity at the National Gallery in London, depicting both the guests' experience at the museum and behind-the-scenes employee operations. Like Wiseman's other films, the film uses only observational footage with no interviews, music, or voiceover narration.

Release

The film premiered at the

67th Cannes Film Festival The 67th Cannes Film Festival was held from 14 to 25 May 2014. New Zealand film director Jane Campion was the head of the jury for the main competition section. The Palme d'Or was awarded to the Turkish film '' Winter Sleep'' directed by Nuri Bi ...

through the

Directors' Fortnight The Directors' Fortnight (french: Quinzaine des Réalisateurs) is an independent selection of the Cannes Film Festival. It was started in 1969 by the French Directors Guild after the events of May 1968 resulted in cancellation of the Cannes festiv ...

program, and later participated in other festivals such as the

New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, it is ...

and

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

Reception

Critical response

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the film received a positive response from 95% of critics and 72% of audience members. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film holds a score of 89 out of 100, indicating "universal acclaim".

Manohla Dargis Manohla June Dargis () is an American film critic. She is one of the chief film critics for ''The New York Times''. She is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Career Before being a film critic for ''The New York Times'', ...

of the

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praised the film for its "cool intelligence and steady camera", calling it an "unexpectedly moving" experience.

Box office

As of June 2024, the film has an estimated worldwide gross of $354,971 since its release.{{Cite web , title=National Gallery , url=https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt3720794/credits/ , access-date=2024-06-29 , website=Box Office Mojo

References

National Gallery, London Documentary films about the visual arts