Is this the best ever artist biopic ever made? Very close to that, probably because this portrait of Van Gogh, with his passion, his orneriness, his pursuit of his art in spite of financial failure, and his fits of rage against those near and dear to him, amounts to a self-portrait of Pialat himself. The film hardly puts a foot wrong. It completely ignores the “mad Vincent” part of the popular Van Gogh mythology (cf Tim Roth’s Van Gogh in Altman’s Vincent and Theo). It’s fascinating in the way on the one hand it deals in sudden narrative ellipses and on the other constructs tremendous sequences of “dead time” (consider the lengthy sequences around Theo’s visit – the lunch, the walk along the riverbank etc). And its magnificent in its evocation of the painting of the day not through direct imitation but more indirect allusion. Look at the scenes by the riverbank where Renoir, father and son, are both invoked.
by Ian Johnston | Source: Artificial Eye DVD
15 Dec 2005 11:51 AM | Submit Comment
