DIRECTOR: Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman LEAD CAST: Douglas
Booth, Helen McCrory, Chris O’Dowd, Aidan Turner, Jerome Flynn SCREENWRITER: Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman & Jacek Dehnel PRODUCER: Claudia Bluemhuber EDITOR: Dorota Kobiela & Justyna Wierszynska MUSICAL DIRECTOR: Clint
Mansell GENRE: Animation Biography, Crime/Drama
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Tristan Oliver & Lucasz Zal DISTRIBUTOR: Solar Pictures (in the Philippines)
LOCATION: London, England RUNNING TIME: 94 minutes
Technical assessment: 4
Moral assessment: 3
CINEMA rating: V14
Loving Vincent
begins
a year after Vincent’s death. Armand Roulin (Douglas Booth) is tasked by his
father Joseph (Chris O’Dowd), a postman, to deliver Vincent’s letter to his
brother Theo (Cezary Lukaszewicz). Armand goes to Paris and learns that Theo died
shortly after van Gogh’s death. Though reluctant at first, Armand turns his
errand into a quest that leads him to Auvers-sur-Oise where Vincent died. He
meets Dr. Paul Gachet (Jerome Flynn) and his daughter Marguerite (Saoirse
Ronan), and the many people who were Vincent’s subjects in his paintings. Puzzled
by the strange circumstances of Vincent’s death, Armand investigates and hears from
the people closest to the painter or those who knew him. Did he shoot himself, and then changed his
mind? Or was he murdered? If someone else shot him, who did it and why?
In
the letter found in his breast pocket when he died, the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh wrote: “We cannot speak other than by our
paintings.” This is exactly what directors Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman
tried to do in Loving Vincent, the
first full-length oil painted animation film. It tells the story of Vincent van
Gogh, one of the greatest revolutionary forces in art, by bringing his
masterpieces back to life and allowing the subjects of these paintings to speak
about his childhood, his passion, his tortured life and his mysterious death. Kobiela and Welchman did a live-action
version of the film first and then a team of over a hundred painters and
animators rendered each frame in van Gogh’s style producing 65,000 paintings!
The result is a mesmerizing visual delight! If you’ve ever wanted a painting to
come to life, this is a must-see. Non-art lovers might find it dizzying and a
strain to the eyes, though. Loving
Vincent brings together van Gogh’s story and his colorful masterpieces in
such a compelling biography, using pencil drawings for flashbacks. Although a
veritable unknown in his lifetime, selling only one out of 860 paintings he
made in eight years, Van Gogh has become one of the most loved painters of all
times. Did he commit suicide? The film presents many hypotheses and each of the
characters saw Vincent in a different light. Was he a gifted but tortured soul?
Unbalanced in mind and heart? The film masterfully blended Vincent’s works with
an appropriate musical score while the plot is simple and straightforward.
Although
there are scenes of drinking and fights, plus Vincent’s mysterious death from a
bullet wound, Loving Vincent is
replete with values that may seem foreign and outdated today: integrity and
doing what is right; honoring friendships; respect and the search for truth.
Despite all the rejections he experienced in life, Vincent tried to assure
everyone that no one is to be blamed for his death. Was it ambition that drove
him to work so hard at his craft? Or was he trying to prove himself worthy of
love and acceptance? Or was he compelled to put on canvas his own vision of the
world expressing the joy and beauty he saw in it, regardless of other’s reception?
Through his paintings, Vincent Van Gogh continues to speak to the men and women
of today. Could he be telling us: “What you are is God’s gift to you. What you
make of yourself is your gift to God”?
