MOVIE REVIEW: LOVING VINCENT (2017)

 

Loving Vincent (2017)- the world's first fully painted film

Loving Vincent (2017) is an amazing biographical film about the life of world-famous painter Vincent Van Gogh. It is an artistic, philosophical and animated film, which is made up of around 65000 paintings created by 125 artists. Many scenes of the film contained Von Gogh's paintings. It is a rare movie that is created to present art in the best way. The film is not only about the painter's life but it has many themes like art, the struggle of artists, love, relationship and the world's miserable influence on a person's life. It is a deeply moving film, those who love art, paintings and literature will mostly enjoy it. Have you ever watched a painted film?? if not then watch this film. 

Loving Vincent (2017) is the world's first fully painted film, ever in history.  It is also an experimental animated film on the death of Vincent Van Gogh. He committed suicide but still, his death is a mystery. His tragic death is long known to everyone but what has remained a mystery is how and why he came to be shot. What triggers him to do such a horrible thing and ended his life. 

Vincent Van Gogh remained a little known artist in his lifetime, now is a world-famous artist in the world. He suffered from poverty, failure, a psychologically disturbed life and much more. 

He wrote in one of his letters; "Who am I in the eyes of most people? A nobody, a non-entity, an unpleasant person. Someone who has not, and never will have any position in society. In short, the lowest of the low. Well then even if that were all absolutely true, then one day I will have to show by my work what this nobody, this non-entity has in his heart." 

Loving Vincent is a thriller, crime, animation and biography genre movie. The story is simple and captivating. The plot is a bit complicated but for whom it matters. Everything is painted on the screen, characters and all have eyes attracting sight. It is for everyone. The setting of plot, tone, paintings everything is well designed and intoxicating for spectacular. 

The film starts when a young man, Armand came to the village of the painter, Vincent Van Gogh to give Van Gogh's last letter to his brother, Theo. There he came to know through an art supplier that Theo died six months after Vincent. He went to Dr Paul Gachet's place, who support Vincent in art and attended his funeral. There he met different people who told him more about Vincent and his mood of suicide.

Armand began to investigate and suspect many people like the boy who wanted to shot Vincent or a girl who was in love with Vincent. But when he heard Dr Gachet side story, he digs deeper to get more knowledge about Vincent's death. Dr Gachet promised him to deliver the letter to the widow of Theo. Also, he posits that Van Gogh and Dr Gachet had arguments about Theo. Because of releasing Theo from the burden of Vincent, he was driven to commit suicide.

Vincent Van Gogh shot himself in the abdomen while painting on 27 July 1890. He didn't die that moment, he lived two days more. In 2011, the biography of Van Gogh co-authors wrote that it was murder. They even claimed to prove that they had shreds of evidence. They doubted on the young boy, which Armand met in the film. Therefore Vincent's death will remain misunderstood and unsolved mystery. 

There were many other reasons for committing suicide or murder. Vincent was failed in multiple jobs or releasing his art. He never married or had children as he loved but failed to get it. Sometimes his parents rejected him and other times girls' families or circumstances. He was disappointed in his lifetime. He wrote mostly about death in letters to his brother. 

At the end of the film, Armand returned home. His father postman, Joseph Roulin gave him Theo's widow Johanna, a letter to Armand. She thanked him for returning the letter and also attached a letter of Vincent to her- signed as "Your Loving Vincent".  

"In the life of the painter, death may perhaps not be the most difficult thing. For myself, I declare I don't know anything about it. But, the sight of the stars always makes me dream. Why I say to myself should those spots of light in the firmament be Inaccessible to us? Maybe we can take death to go to a star and to die peacefully of old age would be to go there on foot. For the moment, I'm going to go to bed because it's late, and I wish you goodnight and good luck with a handshake, your loving Vincent."

Loving Vincent is about 93 minutes film. It is a fascinating movie. Vincent is not only famous for his paintings but his tormented life, cutting his ear and his death while painting, give him popularity. The film depicts that how miserable his life was and how psychologically he suffered. He is even known as 'World's Tortured Artist'. 

Many of the famous paintings Vincent created during the period of asylum. It was his poor mental health that leads him to asylum. His worldwide famous painting "The Starry Night" is repeated in film many times. 

"I don't know anything with certainty, but seeing the stars makes me dream," wrote Vincent.

 The film includes more than 100 paintings of him, such as Starry Night, The Cafe Terrace at Night, Sunflowers, The Bedroom, Wheatfield with Crows and indeed his own face from his self-portraits and many more which are most admired and recognised images in the whole world.

The film is written and directed by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman. Dorota trained as a painter. She chose Vincent Van Gogh paintings and letters to make a combined film out of some crisis. The film brought life to his paintings, with oil-painted frames.  Dorota said that the reason they made such a film was not to be first or set a record in history but to tell his story through his paintings, without which it was not possible.

Dorota Kobiela explained, in an interview about Loving Vincent, “This is taken from one of his letters, he said ‘We can only speak by our paintings’ and I felt that yes, that’s it!”  Therefore, his paintings reflect his thoughts and speak for him and telling his story to the audience. 

However, it took six years to produce the artistic film, Loving Vincent. They worked day and night to create it. The film employed a twist technique called Rotoscoping. At first, it was filmed with the actors then divided into individual frames to paint them on canvas. Those actors are not on screen but behind the frame of oil paintings. They made it as true as possible. Many trained artists were working on it to paint like Van Gogh. 

It was a time-consuming film. It was made up around world wide a budget of 5.5 million dollars. The Movie is also considered a box office success, it hit 42.1 million dollars. Despite the painstakingly hard process of creation for the first painted film, hold a high rank in the artistic movie list. Even there is no painted movie like Loving Vincent, best of all the times. It won Best Animated Feature Film Award at the 30th European film Awards. 

It is a spectacular piece of art in itself. It's worth every brushstroke. It is more than a tribute to an artist who became known to the world after his death. Moreover, it is a thought-provoking and engaging film. The audience after watching get excited and motivated to study his biography in detail and search for his paintings. 

In short, Loving Vincent is based on the death and last days of Vincent Van Gogh. An artist whose only single painting sold in his lifetime, he was rejected and failed many times, but now became the world's top famous painter. He was posthumously considered the father of modern art.

"I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say 'he feels deeply, he feels tenderly." said Vincent Van Gogh.