BreakThru Films upcoming animation Loving Vincent |
Presented in splendid MGM Metrocolor, the first major adaptation of Vincent Van Gogh's tragic and tumultuous life stars Kirk Douglas as the artist tormented by his obsessive personality and eventually driven to suicide by an inability to realise his aesthetic ambitions. Lust for Life relies on the now unfashionable assumption that Van Gogh painted as he saw the world, that his paintings are intended to be accurate representations of a hallucinatory world which he was uniquely privilaged to. This view tends to work reductively against his achievements as a painter, suggesting as it does that his work is more the product of a fevered imagination than artistic skill.
Kirk Douglas makes for a dashing young artist |
Vincent (1987)
This US production, directed by Paul Cox, uses a vast range of images in a strange but moving documentary narrated by John Hurt. Making extensive use of Van Gogh's own diaries, Vincent tells the painter's story in his own words, and in combination with the startling and vivid visuals, the simple approach is remarkably powerful. Far less sensational than the MGM drama which preceded it, Vincent is indicative of Van Gogh's gradual movement into the centre of the global art canon.
The poster for Paul Cox's 1987 documentary |
Illustrated with works created throughout Van Gogh's career, it also offers an opportunity to appreciate the development of his style, the labour he poured into finding his true direction in life and his struggles with poverty and the blank incomprehension and apathy of his peers, and the art world he at once despised and desperately sought entry to.
Vincent and Theo (1990)
A less well-known TV drama directed by Robert Altman, Vincent and Theo is notable for its concern with the wider Van Gogh family. Telling the story of the painter's brother, and the support he gave throughout his life, it is a stirring family drama that strips away a few of the layers of myth which had accumulated over the Dutch master in previous decades. Theo Van Gogh's own ambitions as an art dealer are dealt with, and the image of Vincent as a lone voice bellowing in the wilderness is dispelled.
Tim Roth makes for an often despondent Vincent, while Paul Rhys excels as his beleaguered brother, whose life and home are gradually swallowed up supporting his brother's apparently directionless talent. A meditation on the conditions genius needs to prosper, Vincent and Theo is something of a neglected classic.
A less well-known TV drama directed by Robert Altman, Vincent and Theo is notable for its concern with the wider Van Gogh family. Telling the story of the painter's brother, and the support he gave throughout his life, it is a stirring family drama that strips away a few of the layers of myth which had accumulated over the Dutch master in previous decades. Theo Van Gogh's own ambitions as an art dealer are dealt with, and the image of Vincent as a lone voice bellowing in the wilderness is dispelled.
To save money, art students were employed to paint many of the film's numerous reproductions in their various states of completion |
Vincent and the Doctor (Doctor Who) (2010)
Matt Smith's first series as the mysterious Time Lord took his TARDIS to the fields of Provence where, together with his companion Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) he encounters the artist at the height of his powers, but plagued by a vision of a strange beast that only he can see. Tony Curran is a superb Vincent, with shades of wicked humour to balance out his darker moments, particularly in his brief and unrequited passion for flame-haired Amy. There are shades of the 'magical eyes' trope last seen in Lust for Life, but the manner in which they are delivered, in a spectacular animation that sees the night sky morph in imitation of his most famous landscape, more than justifies it.
Vincent takes a trip in the TARDIS |
Best of all is a time-bending finale in which Van Gogh finally gets to see the praise his art attracted years after his death, as the Doctor takes him on a trip to a modern museum where a present-day art-critic (Bill Nighy) unwittingly tells Van Gogh that he is regarded as 'the greatest painter of them all'. Richard Curtis penned this unashamed love-letter to the artist, and it's filled with beautiful images and highly intelligent writing.
Loving Vincent (coming soon...)
Loving Vincent is a spectacular animation composed of over 57,600 individual oil paintings. Every frame of the film has been hand painted in oils by a team of 30 painters, led by Polish painter-director Dorota Kobiela.
Famous images are brought to life in ground-breaking painted animation |
- Stewart Pringle
Looks fantastic guys :)
ReplyDeleteThere was also a fairly big budget french version by French Auteur Pialat , with a brooding Dutronc as 'Vincent the lover!' Not sure how he justified that interpretation given Vincent's letters and painful rejection from the women he loved. Also worth a mention is Andy Serks portrayal of Vincent in the Simon Scharma Power of Art programme on Vincent.
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