A "pure" documentary from Wiseman on the National Gallery

As with too many documentaries, Frederick Wiseman's National Gallery at 3 hours is too long and could have more of an impact had it been cut two an even 2 hours but that said the film is a great mixture that shows so many of the astonishing paintings in the collection and gives a great look behind the scenes at the life of this museum and cultural institution. I in particularly liked the several scenes in which the museum director and staff member or perhaps consultant on communications go toe to toe (in their polite and reserved British manner): the communications person goes an a long discourse arguing that the museum has to be more open to the public and more in dialogue with its audience, which she defines as the entire British population plus the millions of visitors, and the director - obviously made even physically uncomfortable by her monologue (I have to wonder whether she's carrying water for someone of higher rank, such as a the chair of the trustees? - otherwise, he'd just shut her down) argues that the gallery need to hold fast to its high principles and to serve the people truly devoted to art: she wants them to do a big promo around a marathon that ends near the gallery, and he thinks that's ridiculous and has nothing to do with the mission of the gallery. He's right, in my view. He says he'd rather do a show that's a spectacular failure rather than an insipid success - and we get the impression she'd want the gallery to do shows like the art of football or some such thing to draw in the crowds. The documentary also shows a # of the gallery guides speaking to groups of visitors - one guide in particular - describing and triptych from the middle ages and other pieces is extraordinary. We also see and hear from some of the curators, the restoration work in progress, the odd behind-the-scenes activities like repairing frames, setting up an exhibit, and some great shots of the many museum-goers. In Wiseman's characteristic style there are no interviews or voice-overs - the entire movie is made up of observation, and truly pure documentary - on an institution that at first seems austere and foreboding but that gradually, as we realize, is full not only with classic works of art but with people and with life. Inevitably, this will recall the great film about the Hermitage, The Russian Ark - which is entirely different in concept but, like National Gallery, is a confluence of cinema and painting.