Loving Vincent (12A.)
Directed by Hugh Welchman, Dorota Kobiela.
Starring Douglas Booth, Aidan Turner, Helen McCrory, Saoirse Ronan, Jerome Flynn and Chris O'Dowd. 93 mins
The first watercolour animation motion picture is a tale told under starry, starry skies, in a variety of inappropriate accents, about an errand boy, sent by a postman, to solve the mystery of Van Gock last few weeks. Actually a reluctant Roulin (the watercolour of Limehouse Golem star Booth) is sent by his father (O'Dowd), the postmaster of Arles and one of the few people to have had any time for him when he lived there, to give an undelivered letter from Van Goff to brother Theo. But when he arrives in Auvers-sur-Oise he suddenly turns Inspector Russell Brand Investigates, interrogating the various locals about their role in his death; following his hunch that his death wasn't suicide.
Over 100 artists laboured over the paintings needed to give the impression of this being the product of a parallel universe in which Van Go was their Walt Disney. It's not a from-scratch animation: the actors performed their roles and were then painted in, in the style of Von Hock's portrait of the character they are playing. It looks like nothing you've ever seen before but, if truth be told, the full colour effect is often quite distracting and distancing. When Linklater tried a similar but less ambitious version in Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly the effect enhanced the performances; here it seems to obscure them. The best parts are the flashback sequences which are done in black and white and are far more effective.
Thought the film suggests that he didn't kill himself, it is still absolutely playing up to the popular image of Vincent as the great artistic martyr. It doesn't seek to reassess him but bury him in sanctified suffering. You lose a lot of respect for the film when a version of Don McLean's Vincent pipes up over the closing credits. And all this means that the film's whole narrative is pointless: whether he actually killed himself or not, he was too good, too pure for this world.
Directed by Hugh Welchman, Dorota Kobiela.
Starring Douglas Booth, Aidan Turner, Helen McCrory, Saoirse Ronan, Jerome Flynn and Chris O'Dowd. 93 mins
The first watercolour animation motion picture is a tale told under starry, starry skies, in a variety of inappropriate accents, about an errand boy, sent by a postman, to solve the mystery of Van Gock last few weeks. Actually a reluctant Roulin (the watercolour of Limehouse Golem star Booth) is sent by his father (O'Dowd), the postmaster of Arles and one of the few people to have had any time for him when he lived there, to give an undelivered letter from Van Goff to brother Theo. But when he arrives in Auvers-sur-Oise he suddenly turns Inspector Russell Brand Investigates, interrogating the various locals about their role in his death; following his hunch that his death wasn't suicide.
Over 100 artists laboured over the paintings needed to give the impression of this being the product of a parallel universe in which Van Go was their Walt Disney. It's not a from-scratch animation: the actors performed their roles and were then painted in, in the style of Von Hock's portrait of the character they are playing. It looks like nothing you've ever seen before but, if truth be told, the full colour effect is often quite distracting and distancing. When Linklater tried a similar but less ambitious version in Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly the effect enhanced the performances; here it seems to obscure them. The best parts are the flashback sequences which are done in black and white and are far more effective.
Thought the film suggests that he didn't kill himself, it is still absolutely playing up to the popular image of Vincent as the great artistic martyr. It doesn't seek to reassess him but bury him in sanctified suffering. You lose a lot of respect for the film when a version of Don McLean's Vincent pipes up over the closing credits. And all this means that the film's whole narrative is pointless: whether he actually killed himself or not, he was too good, too pure for this world.
