Review: Loving Vincent (on DVD)

Loving Vincent
[DVD Loving]

I had not heard anything about this experimental film before my wife checked it out and brought it home for us to view.

This is a shame, because it is a wonderful little film and deserves more accolades, and a wider viewership, than I believe it has received to date.

The plot of this film is relatively simple. Following the death of artist Vincent Van Gogh, his loyal postman and friend wants to make sure Vincent’s final letter to his brother Theo Van Gogh is delivered. To accomplish that, the postman sends his dilettante son on a journey to hand-deliver the letter. Along the way, the son learns more about Van Gogh’s last days, especially about the struggles the artist had with his mental health, and the complicated relationships the artists had with the people in his life. The postman’s son does some growing up in the process. For anyone only vaguely familiar with Van Gogh — the tortured artist who cut off his own ear and who suffered from mood-altering depressions throughout his short adult life — this film is a revelation.

The most significant thing about the film is not the story it tells, but rather the method in which it tells the story. The entire film is animated, but not animation in a traditional sense — hand-drawn or computer-generated. No, this film was animated entirely with oil paintings. It took over two years for the team of painter/animators to painstakingly create moving images from oil paintings — and all capturing the stylistic look of Van Gogh’s paintings. Most the characters and settings are taken straight from famous Van Gogh paintings! This artistic style of storytelling is simultaneously compelling and off-putting, but the longer you watch it, the more “used to it” you become. Ultimately, it was a fabulous way to add a special type of ambiance to a biographical look at the end of the life of one of humanity’s greatest artist.

[If you enjoy the look of this film, you may be encouraged to read more about Van Gogh and his art. The libraries have numerous art books and biographies that discuss Van Gogh — I recommend those that you’ll find in the 759.92 Gog or qGog shelving sections.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official Loving Vincent web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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