Hardly anyone can name more than three paintings of Vincent van Gogh. You probably can’t say nothing more than mentioning “Sunflowers”, a cut ear and impressionism. “You want to know so much about his death. But what do you know about his life?” asks Marguerite Gachet (Saoirse Ronan) in newly released “Loving Vincent”.
He was born in 1853 in the Netherlands. His best friend and his pillar was his brother, Theo, that was supporting Vincent financially. Van Gogh started painting at the age of 27 and he created almost 900 paintings in the next ten years, but he sold only one painting while he was alive. In March 1890, thanks to Monet, van Gogh started being seen as a new promising artist. Four months later, Vincent dies. He claims that he was trying to kill himself, but as one of the theories show, the angle of the wound suggests something else.
Van Gogh had an obsessive habit of writing letters, one of them is the little hero of the film created by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman in the Polish-British cooperation. Armand Roulin (Douglas Booth) is sent by his father to find Theo and deliver him a letter from Vincent (Robert Gulaczyk). The events happen a year after the artist’s death. Armand sets forth and, as it usually happens, he finds more than he expected. He gets to know more about his death, that itself shows him what kind of person Vincent was. The film draws on paintings that are full of emotions, that effect every hero of the story.
“Loving Vincent” is the first fully painted film. There were 65000 frames created by over 100 painters that were trying their best to copy van Gogh. The effect of their effort is impressive, and it took ten years to be done. But Vincent’s style was always evolving and it’s not really seen in the film. We also don’t really get to know van Gogh from the artist himself as he’s only an impression of himself. An impression in the letter, the people’s feelings, his own paintings and the creators’ ideas. In the people’s minds van Gogh is known as a lunatic, but what Kobiela and Welchman are trying to show is that he was simply misunderstood. The story although most of it is true some twists were added to shed light on his death. However, the one hundred percent biography wasn’t the aim. The film is a tribute to the artist that was misunderstood while he was alive and that was working hard to do what he loved.
Welchman says that van Gogh has inspired a lot of artists, including himself. In the letter, Vincent says that he would like to show by his work, what “this nobody has in his heart”. “Loving Vincent” is an art that presents another form of art. Medium and the message. Even though, the impressionism doesn’t focus on metaphysics – what could be more impressionistic than that?
