Vincent: The Life and Death of Vincent Van Gogh
by Paul Cox, Gerrit Messiaen, Rob Visser
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Gabriella Trsek, John Hurt, Marika RiveraDirector: Gerrit Messiaen, Paul Cox, Rob Visser
Brand: New Video
Cinematographer: Paul Cox
Editor: Paul Cox
Writer: Paul Cox
Producer: Gerrit Messiaen
Producer: Tony Llewellyn-Jones
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Color, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-08-30
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: New Video Group
Movie Reviews of Vincent: The Life and Death of Vincent Van Gogh
Movie Review: A masterpiece sadly in need of a better transfer.
Summary: 4 Stars
I saw this film in the theatre in the late 1980's and have shown this film to my students for many years. This is quite simply the best film on an artist ever made. There is nothing condescending or easy in this movie. The film is approached with the same serious spirit that Van Gogh possessed. We hear Vincent's alternatingly inspirational and heartbreaking words read with deep understanding by John Hurt. Hurt does not think about these words, he inhabits them. I cannot concieve of a better choice for the narration of these letters.
The cinematography is intense, personal, agitated, calm, and experimental. It is perfectly suited to the material. This is not a polished, Ken Burns-style documentary. The approach is subjective and risky...but it works. This is smart, touching, belly food.
So why only 4 stars? Now we get to my motivation for writing in the first place. This DVD is an abysmal transfer of the original film. The colors are washed out and bland, the contrast is low. Someone should be arrested for allowing this to happen. Paul Cox, anyone, please "re-master" this film with an original print. Van Gogh's paintings do not come through in this DVD. Very sorry indeed. A major flaw.
Summary of Vincent: The Life and Death of Vincent Van Gogh
The most profound exploration of an artist's soul ever to be put on film (Village Voice), VINCENT: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF VINCENT VAN GOGH is a captivating study of a brilliant artist. One of the Top 10 documentaries the year it was released, Paul Cox's portrait of Vincent Van Gogh is a journey through the life of a tortured genius who became one of the greatest artists of all time. The story is told through letters written to his brother Theo from 1872 until 1890, eloquently read by actor John Hurt.The best film about Vincent Van Gogh is not one of the many biopics of the painter, but this stirring, ardent documentary. Forgoing a conventional biography's and-then-he-cut-his-ear-off approach, the gifted Dutch-Australian director Paul Cox opts for pure evocation: he trails his camera through the places where Van Gogh walked, as though trying to dream his way into the artist's mindset. Meanwhile, the beautiful voice of John Hurt reads from Vincent's amazingly searching letters to his brother, Theo. (Hurt's voice probably deserved an Oscar for this vocal-cord performance alone.) Van Gogh's journey as struggling artist and tormented man of soul is thus made strangely direct--it will not only send you to see Vincent's paintings but to locate a copy of his collected letters as well. Many film directors have grappled with this subject: Vincente Minnelli with Lust for Life, Robert Altman with Vincent & Theo, Maurice Pialat with Van Gogh. But the perpetually underappreciated Cox (Innocence) has trumped them with simplicity and sheer intensity of feeling. --Robert Horton
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