Loving Vincent (2017)

Written and Directed by Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman

Starring Douglas Booth, Jerome Flynn, Robert Gulaczyk

The most impressive part of Loving Vincent is of course the animation. Most of the film looks like the animators were trying to recreate the style of his paintings. There are brush strokes that call attention to themselves to indicate detail as moving trees or the beard of Chris O Dowd. Watching the characters move through the landscape reminded me a lot of cutscenes in early 90s adventure games. There was a lot of rotoscoping going on to capture movement in those cutscenes and the surreal traversal of these images gives the same impression.

Where the visuals of the film really shine are in the flashback sequences. They are painted in black and white and it looks like a lot more attention was given to each particular frame. Because of imitating the style of Vincent Van Gogh, there's never a moment in the colour scenes where I was fooled that I was watching a movie with real actors and locations as the imagery was so surreal. I was fooled on many occasions during the flashbacks. The rendering of light in whites and grays is astonishing. Often the movement will break the illusion, but even still, most of the flashbacks made me think I was watching a black and white movie instead of an animated painting.

Now I've been thinking whether or not this mammoth undertaking and unique vision of animating a story in the style of Vincent Van Gogh actually has any bearing on the narrative being told. The plot is a mystery. The son of the postmaster that Vincent sent his letters through has one final letter to Vincent's brother Theo he wants delivered a year after the artist's death. Armand spends the film tracking down Theo, and then trying to understand what happened to make Vincent want to kill himself (and if that is really what occured). Talking to the townsfolk reveals insight into Vincent as a character, and this is where the black and white scenes take over and the world is rendered in great detail.

The rest of the movie, when Armand is trying to discover what happened to Vincent and who he was, that's when Vincent's art style showcases itself. Like Armand is trying to see the world through Vincent's eyes to understand him, or at least that's what we as the audience are meant to do. When the conversation with Dr. Gachet at the end of the film finally occurs, the revelation is shocking, and very sad. Vincent thinks himself a burden to his brother and to the rest of the world. Anyone familiar with the thought processes of depression will recognize this feeling and how destructive it can be. I teared up a little during this revelation.

The film ultimately ends on an uplifting note with two letters of Vincent's talking about the struggle of an artist, his goals for life, and the lasting effect he wanted to make on the world. I never knew this story. It paints Vincent Van Gogh as tragic as all the tales you've likely heard about him. Despite his inner turmoil, he gave us 800 pieces of beauty in the short time he painted, and this film is a celebration of his life (Gachet's daughter says this outright). I was happy that beneath the impressive visual undertaking, there was a well acted story that was at least for me, emotionally resonant.