Review: Loving Vincent (Movie)

After viewing only 30 seconds of the trailer for Loving Vincent (written and directed by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman), I knew I had to see this unique and wonderful film.

The entire 94-minute movie (65,000 frames) was hand painted by a team of more than a hundred artists, who mimicked Vincent van Gogh's style and brushwork and relied on the famous artist's color palette and existing paintings.

Most people remember van Gogh as an early modern painter who cut off his ear. Some may have learned that the artist died at the age of 37 from suicide. The story of van Gogh is much more complicated than those two sentences imply, and the circumstances of his death have remained shrouded in mystery.

Directors/writers Kobiela and Welchman focus on the last months of van Gogh's life and shed light on just how the painter ended up with a bullet wound to his abdomen.

The characters and settings in the movie are all subjects of van Gogh's paintings, which were brought to life by a combination of live action, animation, and oil paintings. The story takes place a year after the artist's death, when Armand Roulin (played by Douglas Booth) is asked to deliver an unsent letter Vincent wrote to his brother Theo. Armand's journey takes him to Paris and then to the village of Auvers-sur-Oise, where Vincent lived during the last weeks of his life. The more Armand talks to the people who knew Vincent, the more he sympathizes with the painter and the more he questions the nature of van Gogh's death.

Loving Vincent (produced by BreakThru Films & Trademark Films) is absolutely stunningly gorgeous. I could barely take my eyes off the screen as the colors and brushstrokes shimmered and changed with the action. When the people Armand meets begin to tell him stories of van Gogh's past, the paintings turn to black and white and look almost like pencil or charcoal drawings. While watching the film, you feel as if you were inside van Gogh's paintings, transported to a different world. The actors were carefully picked not only for their talent but also for their resemblance to the real people whom van Gogh painted, increasing the sense of authenticity.

The movie took eight years to create. Every frame in Loving Vincent was hand painted, and over the course of the film, 125 Vincent van Gogh paintings are featured, in full or in part. The black and white sequences are all original artwork, and they blend in well with the van Gogh oils. The story itself is teased out from the painter's letters and other contemporary accounts of his life and death.

The principal cast includes Douglas Booth (Jupiter Ascending), Eleanor Tomlinson and Aidan Turner (both were in Poldark), John Sessions (Gangs of New York), and Jerome Flynn (Game of Thrones), all of whom do an amazing job. Loving Vincent opens tonight in New York and then in Los Angeles on the 29th, and finally across the country. The theater dates for the United States are available at the Loving Vincent website. The movie has already won awards and accolades across the globe.

Loving Vincent stands in a class by itself. Do not miss this film, which breaks new ground in concept and technique and is utterly beautiful to watch. You'll also learn a lot about Vincent van Gogh the man. (Thanks to the publicists for access to the digital screener.)

Below you'll find the trailer and a short film telling you more about the making of Loving Vincent.