“WE CANNOT SPEAK OTHER THAN BY OUR PAINTINGS” — Vincent van Gogh. That is what Vincent Van Gogh said in his last letter to his brother Theo. And precisely through a recreation of his work and the last 800 letters that the painter wrote is how we are going to get to know him, his life and also his mysterious death. This is the first feature film made by animated paintings; Loving Vincent is a film that celebrates the great work of one of the greatest painters of the Post-Impressionist.
Dorota Kobiela was the co-writer and co-director alongside with her husband Hugh Welchman who also worked as co-producer for “Breakthru Films”. I will leave a link to the official site of the movie so you can see the rest of the wonderful creators who helped made this motion picture, because I could write for years trying to thank them for the mind blowing movie experience they gave me.
To see “Loving Vincent” is to be a part of film history, every frame of the movie is an oil painting, you have never seen a movie like this, to see how every stroke of the brush move on the face of the protagonist is amazing, the detail that all of the artist have put to every character and also to maintain Van Gogh style has been achieved to perfection.
(SPOILER ALERT) Even though I feel that if you are admirers of Vincent Van Gogh and his work, then you may know the story.
The film operates under the assumption and belief that Vincent didn’t commit suicide, the mailman Joseph Roulin (Chris O’Dowd) who used send Van Gogh’s letters to his brother Theo, decides to send his son to deliver the famous painter his last letter to Theo. The problem is that Theo passed away a few months later than his older brother.
Armand Roulin the son of the mailman (Douglas Booth) feels obliged to see what really happened, and starts the work of an investigator that makes us truly believe that everyone is guilty, but the movie makes a remarkable job to show us the points of view of every character in Van Gogh’s life.
Vincent Painting In The Rain – Cortesy of the artists of Loving Vincent
It is really interesting how they recreated Vincent funerals; it gave them so much veracity and a feeling to a story that already has so many feelings that any other movie featuring actual non animated humans, whose cheeks don’t shine with that beautiful rose color oil.
The separation of events was done very artfully, when it was a memory it was painted in black and white, but if the moments were in the present everything was filled with bright colors which Vincent adored.
It was beautiful and melancholic to see Theo Van Gogh crying on the coffin of his brother, it was a completely evocative image, and later to see how his death caused a void, that ended up in his own death (of course he had his own illness prior to Vincent’s death)
I appreciate so much that when the writers made you feel secure that “X” person was guilty of the death of Vincent, later we were treat to the motives as to why they would never commit such a terrible act. And I was just as disillusioned as Armand when he came to the conclusion that our beloved Vincent really did shot himself.
Armand Roulin (Douglas Booth) arriving in Auvers by train. Courtesy of the official website of Loving Vincent.
Vincent’s story was a sad one, but within his sadness and loneliness he had the best version of the world, transforming his sadness into the most attractive colors, creating works of art that are considered the best of its time (the best works of history in my humble opinion)
Every time I see or read something about his history, I always expect a different ending, I hope that someone tells me that “the crazy man who committed suicide” was just a myth that never cut his ear, and actually lived until he was a very old man with his great love, because he deserved that story, and those damn humans around him who could never give him, but I must have the self-criticism to admit that if there is an actual “mad genius” I have no idea where he or she is, and how to help them, because the world has become much more cynical since Vincent’s death.
But I also have to ask myself that if that sadness and possible mental illness, were necessary to create the work that he left us, and if he had had that beautiful life I so wish to read, could he have painted all those breathtaking paintings that I love so much?
Would “Starry Night” exist or “Old Man in Sorrow” (which by the way I almost jump out of my chair when I saw that painting come to life in “Loving Vincent”, the animations really deserved another praise, (like winging Best Animated Feature Film for example)
I think it’s safe to say by now that I adored this film, because they did justice to my favorite painter in an unimaginable way, by making film history. I want to thank them for doing something so marvelous.
TRAILER OF THE MOVIE
Sofía Formoso 