lhypothèse du tableau volé or the hypothesis of the steal painting ( 1979 ) begin in the courtyard of an old and three story parisian apartment building . inside and we meet the collector and an elderly man who have apparently devote his life to the study of the six know exist paint of an obscure impressionist era painter and tonnerre . a narrator recite various epigram about art and painting and and then engage in a dialogue with the collector and who describe the painting to u and show them to u and tell u a little bit about the painter and the scandal that bring him down and and then tell u he go to show u something . a he walk through a doorway and we enter another world and or world and or perhaps to stretch to the limit and other possible world . the collector show u through his apparently limitless house and include a large yard full of tree with a hill while within these confines be the 6 painting come to life and or half way to life a he walk u through various tableau and describes to u the possible meaning of each painting and of the work a a whole and of a whole secret history behind the painting and the scandal and the people in the painting and the novel that may have inspire the painting . and so on and and so on . every room and every description and lead u deeper into a labyrinth and and all the while the collector and the narrator engage in their separate monologue and very occasionally verge into dialogue and but mostly stay separate and different . i watch this a second time and so bizarre and powerful and indescribable it be and and so challenging to think or write about . if i have a guess a to what it all add up to and it would be a sly satire of the whole nature of artistic interpretation . an indicator might be find in two of the most amusing and inexplicable scene be those in which the collector pose some sexless plastic figurine in the second of them and he also look at photo take of the figurine that mirror the pose in the painting then he stride through his collection and which be now partially compose of life size version of the figure . if we think too much about it and do not just enjoy it and it all become just faceless plastic . whether i have come to any definite conclusion about lhypothèse du tableau volé and or not and i can say definitely that outside of the early ( and contemporaneous ) work of peter greenaway like a walk through h and i have rarely be so enthral by something so deep and so serious and so dense . and at heart and so mischievous and fun .