Thursday, November 16, 2017

Loving Vincent

DIRECTORDorota 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”?