There is a film coming out in September that deals with the death of Vincent van Gogh. Called Loving Vincent, the film has been in the works for several years and features several high profile actors–Chris O’Dowd, Saoirse Ronan and Aidan Turner as van Gogh. It tells the story of the artist’s sudden death as a sort of mystery/detective tale with one of van Gogh’s portrait subjects as the narrator. The characters move through scenes and locales easily recognizable to fans of van Gogh.
But what makes this project truly interesting is the manner in which the story is told on film. It is supposedly the first completely hand-painted feature film. I guess they somehow distinguish between this and the drawing/painting of features such as Disney’s Snow White.
Maybe it’s in the manner of painting. They used a team of 125 artists specifically trained to emulate the thick, vibrant strokes of van Gogh, which seem well suited to film with their rhythmic, vibratory qualities. Even as paintings there is a sense of movement.
I thought I would share the trailer to give you an idea of how this looks.
What a fabulous concept, and it looks as though it’s very well done. I tend not to be a film-goer, but I’d love to see this one. We don’t usually get such things in our theaters, but I suspect it will play in Houston.
At first, I wasn’t sure I would like it because sometimes these projects don’t match up to our own perceptions of the subject or tell the story in a way that is all surface. But this does look very well done and the scenes have a truly interesting feel and movement. Like you, I am pretty sure this won’t come to my local theatre. So, I’ll just keep an eye out and hopefully catch it at some point.
Omg – I can’t wait to see this.
Yes, it looks pretty interesting.
Thank you!!! I will be looking for it. With my granddaughter, who is a Van Gogh fan, and covets a self portrait i did once in college, as an assigned Van Gogh pastiche.