Vincent & Theo
by Robert Altman, Greg Carson
(Click here)
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Adrian Brine, Jean-Fran?ois Perrier, Paul Rhys, Tim Roth, Yves DangerfieldDirector: Greg Carson, Robert Altman
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 140 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-08-23
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of Vincent & Theo
Movie Review: Bad
Summary: 1 Stars
Vincent & Theo, a 1990 film by director Robert Altman, may be the worst film ever made by a major director who has made a great film. Watching this two hour and twenty minute abomination left me, and my wife, stunned by its wretchedness. From the nonexistent narrative, to the indulgence of every artistic clich? imaginable by screenwriter Julian Mitchell, to possibly the worst soundtrack, by Gabriel Yared, ever used in a film (even worse than the estimably bad Robot Monster!), it's a wonder Altman ever crawled his way out from under the odium of this horrorshow, the nadir of his career- even more so than Popeye a decade before. Yet, his very next film, The Player, somehow relaunched his career. If I can indulge a clich?, maybe it really can be darkest before the dawn!
I have still yet to see a successful film made on the life of a real artist, where all the clich?s were not utilized. Perhaps the closest to that ideal was Amadeus, save for the fact that its protagonist was not Mozart, but Salieri, and the story was the latter's envy of the former's talent, and the truth was that that whole film was an almost total fiction.
This film, however, does not even address the artistic impulse, and the paintings, which is the ONLY reason anyone gives a damn about Vincent Van Gogh, his suffering, or even his brother. Altman states, in the featurette, that what interested him were Vincent's letters to Theo, yet we NEVER get a hint of what they say, only one ridiculously melodramatic scene where a raving Theo bitches at his wife's opening up of the letters.
Altman's always been at his best in ensemble pieces, like Nashville, M*A*S*H, The Player, and Gosford Park. He seems utterly adrift in this intense de facto two person stage play where both actors wildly overact, as if they were in a Roger Corman 1960s comic-horror version of Lust For Life, save with British accents, not Dutch.
Vincent & Theo is a horrible film, in its own stolid way as bad as Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan or Schindler's List, but it seems even worse because Spielberg's never come within a light year of a film as complex as Nashville. There is no progression nor insight into Vincent Van Gogh in this film, nor even his brother. When the brothers die we do not care, nor do we have an iota of insight into Altman's ideas on life and art. Vincent's graffiti that `I AM THE HOLY SPIRIT. I AM WHOLE IN SPIRIT.' are not only dull and trite, but not given a shred of evidence one way nor the other by Altman. I could go on and on, and list a few dozen other reasons why this is easily Altman's worst film, and a terrible film, period, but hopefully I've earned enough trust with my readership that I can tell them to simply skip this one and watch Lust For Life instead. It's a better film, and more intellectually honest, to boot. Ok, exhale!
Summary of Vincent & Theo
The eternal struggle between madness and genius takes its toll on the brothers Van Gogh in this "luminous" (LA Weekly) masterpiece from Academy Award?-nominated* director Robert Altman. Tim Roth and Paul Rhys give "stupendous performances" (Rolling Stone) in the roles of tortured artist Vincent and his brother Theo in this "beautiful disturbing and powerful film" (Screen) that is "as rich and tactile as a Van Gogh painting" (New York Post).In life he was impoverished his work largely ignored; yet today paintings by Vincent Van Gogh fetch millions of dollars at auction. This supreme irony is laid bare in the passionate story of an obsessive artist driven by inexorable demons and his alternately devoted and despairing younger brother who seems unable to live with him or without him.*2001: Gosford Park; 1993: Short Cuts; 1992: The Player; 1975: Nashville; 1970: M*A*S*HSystem Requirements:Running Time: 140 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre:?DRAMA Rating:?PG-13 UPC:?027616927538 Manufacturer No:?M103173Robert Altman, the great ironist of American movies, can't resist beginning Vincent & Theo with video of an art auction at Christie's, where Van Gogh's Sunflowers attracts dizzying multi-million-dollar bids. Dissolve to the utterly squalid hovel where Vincent (Tim Roth) lives--reminding us that the artist sold but one painting in his poor, tormented lifetime. Vincent & Theo is an unusual and--fittingly enough--impressionistic look at Vincent and his brother Theo (Paul Rhys), the mad genius and the art broker. These parallel lives unfold, with Vincent's celebrated wallow in the fires of art running alongside Theo's neurotic struggle to fit into the real world. Roth is mesmerizing and frightening as Vincent, while Rhys gives a more mannered performance that fits Theo's tortured ambivalence. The eerie buzz of Gabriel Yared's music helps us get inside Vincent's head. If the true-life circumstances are unavoidably grim and Altman's pace is slow, almost druggy, the film nevertheless casts a spell. (Vincent's eloquent letters to Theo are beautifully used in Paul Cox's Vincent, a good companion piece to this version of the artist's life.) --Robert Horton
Art House & International DVD Video
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Movies most talked about in If you want to discover Tim Roth (1961 - )
The HitRelease date: 2002-11-19; DVD
Best price: $73.94
Return to Waterloo/ Come DancingRelease date: 1999-03-09; DVD
Best price: $14.99
A World ApartTWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2005-08-23; DVD
Best price: $3.52
Price in other shops:
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her LoverRelease date: 2001-03-13; DVD
Best price: $75.00
Vincent & TheoTWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2005-08-23; DVD
Best price: $3.25
Price in other shops:
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are DeadDREYFUSS,RICHARD; Release date: 2005-03-22; DVD
Best price: $8.44
Price in other shops:
Reservoir Dogs (15th Anniversary)Lions Gate; Release date: 2006-10-24; DVD
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops:
Bodies, Rest & MotionRelease date: 2003-06-24; DVD
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops:
The Perfect HusbandRelease date: 2000-04-25; DVD
Best price: $18.00
Price in other shops:
Pulp Fiction (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)TRAVOLTA/JACKSON/THURMAN; Release date: 2002-08-20; DVD
Best price: $10.05
Price in other shops:
Similar DVD Movies
The Long GoodbyeRelease date: 2002-09-17; DVD
Best price: $3.92
Price in other shops:
Girl With a Pearl EarringLions Gate; Release date: 2004-05-04; DVD
Best price: $4.43
Price in other shops:
Camille ClaudelRelease date: 2001-01-23; DVD
Best price: $4.98
Price in other shops:
The Agony and the EcstasyRelease date: 2005-02-22; DVD
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops:
BasquiatRelease date: 2002-09-03; DVD
Best price: $7.98
Price in other shops:
FridaRelease date: 2003-06-10; DVD
Best price: $6.09
Price in other shops:
Vincent: The Life and Death of Vincent Van GoghRelease date: 2005-08-30; DVD
Best price: $15.57
Price in other shops:
ModiglianiUNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP DISTRIBUTION; Release date: 2005-09-27; DVD
Best price: $5.39
Price in other shops:
PollockSony; Release date: 2001-07-24; DVD
Best price: $7.67
Price in other shops:
Lust for LifeWarner Brothers; Release date: 2006-01-31; DVD
Best price: $4.28
Price in other shops: