'Loving Vincent' Review

"On 27th July 1890 a gaunt figure stumbled down a drowsy high street at twilight in the small French country town of Auvers."

Vincent Van Gogh, the worlds best known artist, a ground breaker in western art, and a huge inspiration.

Surprisingly enough he only painted for the last eight years of his life, -dying at the early age of 37- and yet in that time he managed to paint over 800 paintings, with the majority of those being done in the last two years of his life.

This project was always going to be ambitious, even the idea of taking on Vincent was a big deal!

For the dialogue, they used over 800 of his personal letters.

More than 66,000 paintings make up the film.

It took six years, with over 100 artists working on it and 1300 litres of paint to create it.

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Synopsis

"A young man (Douglas Booth) journeys through France to investigate the death of painter Vincent Van Gogh (Robert Gulaczyk). He encounters a variety of people along the way, including the doctor (Jerome Flynn) who treated Van Gogh in his last days and the doctor's mysterious daughter (Saoirse Ronan). Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman directed this historical drama, which is the first animated feature painted entirely in oil."

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I was very excited to get the opportunity to see Loving Vincent, and I was very surprised with how accurate the style of Vincent's work was portrayed.

The whole movie is really trying to answer this question:

"how does a man go from calm, to suicidal in six weeks?"

How did he die?

And somehow it manages to get away with the fact that these questions do not get answered.

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The film is set one year after Vincent Van Gogh's death.

To create the characters for the film they took portrait paintings by Vincent as the base, then took the actor (who was cast because they best resembled the painting) to then paint said actor in the same style hundreds and hundreds of times...

Robert Gulaczyk played Vincent Van Gogh. Although not exactly the same in look, this portrayal of Van Gogh did have a strong resemblance and was pretty much how I had pictured him.

If they could get Vincent right then it was looking good for the rest of the characters.

Douglas Booth brought Armand Roulin to life.

Armand really was the main character that lead the story, he felt like he should have done more to help Vincent and so to try to make up for this he investigated his death, but what he really found was more questions.

Chris O'Dowd played the Postman Joseph Roulin.

Playing Armand's Father, Postman Joseph was the one that asked the question first "how does a man go from calm, to suicidal in six weeks?"

It was he, who persuaded young Armand to deliver Vincent's last letter to its rightful owner.

The Boatman - Aiden Turner

Some of my favourite actors took part in the project!!

Aiden Turner played the Boatman, his part was small but important, giving the information as to who owned the gun that Vincent might have used to kill himself.

Eleanor Tomlinson was the brilliant Adeline Ravoux!

Eleanor being another of my favourite actors was amazing!

Her character Adeline was well developed and played a vital role in the story.

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Did it pay homage to Vincent?

I think it did, I feel like I know him and his situation more personally now.

He was a real person, with real problems.

For the majority of his life all he wanted was to be valued and loved.

Searching for that acceptance, I think is what killed him in the end.

Painting brought him a focus, it was a big part of his daily routine.

Coming out of the Cinema, I felt greatly saddened...

here was a legend in the painting world, and in his life he painted more than 800 paintings... but sold only one.

He was never to know the success that he would get in the future or the millions he has inspired, he would never know...

Red Vineyard at Arles.

The one and only painting he ever sold now resides at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.

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Over all I loved it for what it was.

A part of me wishes we had found out a clear answer to the questions asked but I guess that is what makes this film feel so real and personal.

The paintings were magical to watch, as they created scene after scene... Watch Loving Vincent Now!!