Loving Vincent **** (2017, voice of Douglas Booth, Chris O’Dowd, Helen McCrory, Saoirse Ronan, John Sessions) – Movie Review

‘I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart.’ – Vincent van Gogh.

Writer-director Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman’s superlative Oscar nominated animated feature film about the life and mysterious death of Vincent van Gogh is fascinating and beautifully done. Loving Vincent must be counted quite remarkable and a great success. It is a technical and artistic marvel as the world’s first fully painted animation feature, taking a team of more than 100 artists to hand paint each and every frame of it.

It is made with superb craftsmanship, and the characters really spring to life! It tells a compelling detective mystery story too, where you learn lots of essential facts about the troubled and neglected artist Vincent van Gogh.

Douglas Booth is outstanding as the main character, Armand Roulin.

The actors somehow manage ‘real’ performances also, with Douglas Booth outstanding as the main character, Armand Roulin, the son of postman Joseph Roulin (Chris O’Dowd), who asks him to deliver a letter of the deceased Van Gogh to his younger brother Theo. It becomes a mystery story as Armand Roulin tries to unravel the secrets behind the painter’s mysterious death,

Each of the film’s 65,000 frames is an oil painting on canvas, using the same technique as Van Gogh. Wow! I wonder what has become of them all. Apparently a fly can be seen on one of the frames!

Other famous voices are those of Helen McCrory as Louise Chevalier, Saoirse Ronan as Marguerite Gachet and John Sessions as Pere Tanguy.

Loving Vincent was Oscar, Golden Globe and Bafta nominated as Best Animated Feature Film (for Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman and Ivan Mactaggart), failing to win. It is considerably undervalued.

A Poland, UK and US co-production, costing €5 million, it was filmed at Three Mills Studios, Three Mill Lane, Bow, London, England. The good news is that it has grossed $6,681,942 in the US, so the investment looks safe and we might get more such films. The production companies are BreakThru Productions, Trademark Films, and Silver Reel.

Van Gogh continues to fascinate us. It is interesting to compare with Lust for Life (1958), Maurice Pialat’s 1991 Van Gogh, and Vincent & Theo (1990).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Movie Review

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