66
Metascore
9 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyThe Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyIn every sense, The Great Museum (Das grosse Museum) imparts a feeling of privilege — privilege on the part of those (the Hapsburgs) who built and opened Vienna's extraordinary Kunsthistorisches Museum in 1891, privilege among those lucky enough to work at such a rarified establishment and privilege on the part of any viewer of Johannes Holzhausen's wonderfully evocative and droll documentary.
- 80CineVueCineVueThe Great Museum is a beautiful love letter to obsession and eccentricity, the love is given and received in equal measure. This, at its nature is what art should do, and what cinema strives for and rarely achieves, with this poetic discourse about the difficult question of what to do with the art of robber barons in relation towards a finality that befits such a collection.
- 75Slant MagazineClayton DillardSlant MagazineClayton DillardThe ghostliness of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna derives from an identity crisis, where digitization threatens to eradicate the gallery space.
- 70VarietyJay WeissbergVarietyJay WeissbergThere are no interviews, thankfully no voiceovers, and no music; Holzhausen respects the viewer’s intelligence, just as he respects the museum staff.
- 70Village VoiceSerena DonadoniVillage VoiceSerena DonadoniHolzhausen is respectful but not reverential, portraying the museum as a living thing that's being cared for with meticulous diligence.
- 60EmpireEmpireIn avoiding narration, interviews, music or any traditional method to draw the audience in, the film has a cold, unengaging feel, leaving it mostly for art buffs who like seeing taxidermied bears having their hair fastidiously cleaned with a tiny toothbrush.
- 60The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawA pleasing, high-minded film; also something of a palate-cleanser.
- 50The DissolveAndrew LapinThe DissolveAndrew LapinThe film creates a kind of romantic view of the minutiae of running a museum, yet it’s barely concerned with the actual artwork housed within. Maybe this won’t matter to the audience, if they find the mere idea of a museum fascinating on its own.
- 50The New York TimesBen KenigsbergThe New York TimesBen KenigsbergThe Great Museum, in comparison, feels like a cursory guided tour.