Bizarre. Beautiful. Naff. “The world’s first fully painted film” is a mixed bag but definitely worth seeing.
The film-makers want to immerse us in the world and work of Vincent Van Gogh. So they shot a drama and then asked a team of artists to overpaint each frame in the style of the Dutch post-Impressionist.
Most biopics about great painters contain an awkward gap between the individual (mobile) and the work (static). Here that gap disappears. Images wriggle and explode before our eyes, showcasing the firm lines and weird colours (peppermint greens! mustard yellows!) that Van Gogh made his own.
It’s a mind-blowing trip, and I’d kill to watch Loving Vincent in an Imax cinema. Having said that, second time around I’d bring my iPod so I could tune out the worst sections of the script.
The plot involves an investigation (conducted by Armand Roulin, played by Douglas Booth) into how and why the artist died. It’s all pretty contrived. And though some of the acting is intense (Eleanor Tomlinson and Jerome Flynn are superb), the dialogue feels dumbed down for kids.
Also, if you’ve got no time for the conspiracy theory that Van Gogh was the victim of a gun-toting bully, then these sections will feel like a waste of space. The less you know about the subject, the more diverted you’ll be.
Either way, the climax is emotional. Van Gogh’s words, plucked from a letter he wrote to his brother, chime perfectly with the moving images. There’s a lot here to love.
