Vincent & Theo
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Movie Reviews of Vincent & Theo
Movie Review: Unbearably intense
Summary: 5 Stars
Director Robert Altman has with this film accomplished something biographers, writers of fiction, art historians and yes, filmmakers, have failed at for so long: to give us a convincing portrayal of painter Vincent Van Gogh's life without falling too deeply into the harmful stereotype of "the mad genius" or trying to explain him away as a severely ill man who happened to have groundbreaking talent.
Both Tim Roth and Paul Rhys give exquisite, painful, but never over the top performances as two men who are intimately linked in a way that suggests something more than mere brotherhood. Outwardly they have very little in common aside from being biologically linked: Theo is an art curator who endures the daily trials of the average man with perhaps a little more poverty; Vincent is an isolated painter who operates from an area of the mind and spirit which allows him no rest and no integration into society.
Tim Roth's Van Gogh is a quietly explosive figure who walks in the avenues of his own unrelenting pain and occasional ecstasy at the revelations he has in the most uncanny situations--drawing a prostitue while defecating, for instance. He is in some ways the opposite of Kirk Douglas' overbearing, sentimental painter who begs the world to understand him. This Van Gogh just doesn't care and sneers at the world unless it really bothers him, and then he lets everyone know how he's feeling in a way that is not to be ignored.
Rhys make Theo as interesting if not more. He is also "somewhere else", and not in the sense of a mere romantic cliche. He is a staid businessman but, like his brother, he is violently unable to reconcile himself to the world around him which is mostly composed of phonies and mediocrities. Throughout all the emotional outburts, all the ferocious fights between the two, there is an elusive thread of understanding that ties the two tightly together.
The scenes in which Vincent paints are not pleasant, as they are in so many other films. His agitation grows throughout the film though Roth plays it with a kind of poker faced approach. The lilies, flowers and all the things he sees so intensely do not bring him pleasure but buzz at him, attack his mind, creating the impossible desire to communicate his vision to others.
When Vincent realizes his "psychologist" is a corrupt, patronizing hack and that he is far too gone to be brought back to reality, his suicide is cold and impulsive. The rest of the movie is like a car crash. Theo cannot live without his brother and can no longer maintain the social fictions that allowed him to make a living before. And his syphillis is beginning to destroy him.
This movie is a masterpiece and will probably be the cinematic last word on the relationship between these two legendary figures in the history of art.
Movie Review: Altman's Forgotten Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
If you like Robert Altman or Van Gogh, see this movie; if you like Robert Altman AND Van Gogh, buy this movie.
It's much better than the old Hollywood "classic" "Lust for Life" which painted a much more palatable, commercially-friendly version of Van Gogh. Altman, however, is and never has been interested in commercial film-making and his film recasts the story of Van Gogh with his characteristically grim and beautiful realism.
The film might be Altman's overlooked masterpiece, and its obscure fate was, in my opinion, the result of its being originally released on television in England instead of in movie theaters around the world.
This movie's portrayal of the co-dependent relationship between the Van Gogh brothers is gorgeously filmed and appropriately dark. The realistic dialogue and the cinematography are terrific, and Tim Roth's warts-and-all performance as Vincent is particularly thrilling to watch.
Roth's portrait of the artist is not endearing like the one created by Kirk Douglas. But even though Roth's Vincent is self-righteous and fervently anti-social, he is also a brilliant and unpretentious artist whose failure is linked to his inability to adapt to the world or to the people in it. Still Roth's Vincent is able to appreciate the world's beauty through his art, and we see him work feverishly to share his gift with an indifferent world.
This is where his character manages to elicit sympathy, capturing the zeitgeist of the modern artist who, by refusing to compromise his art for commercial interests, becomes marginalized as a result. And it's this aspect of Van Gogh's life and work with which Altman most clearly empathizes.
Though much more successful than Van Gogh during his own lifetime, Robert Altman was a filmmaker who made non-commercial films outside of the Hollywood studio system that made hack-work like "Lust for Life." And it's sad that the result of Altman's efforts went direct to television. It's a shame though it certainly is fitting considering the theme of his beautiful "Vincent & Theo."
Movie Review: A dark film under a bright sun
Summary: 5 Stars
This is my favorite Altman film, and I think arguably his best film. However it is unquestionably the best film on Van Gogh.
My title for this review states that this is a dark film, perhaps a more fitting adjective would have been sober. The overall mood is fairly stern as Vincent's own mood appears to have been as well.
I can understand why some people may feel this film is insipid (although the adjective used by another reviewer was dull), the same way I could understand why many people might feel that Van Gogh's paintings are brutish and simplistic if it weren't for the fact they've constantly been told otherwise by the art establishment. In the end I just believe Altman nailed his subject, and this film ranks as one of the very best biographies on Van Gogh.
Tim Roth's performance was also very very good, and while so was Kirk Douglas' melodramatic performance in Lust for Life (a 1956 Hollywood film about Van Gogh), Roth has probably given us something much closer to the truth.
In short this film probably gets us as close to the reality of Vincent's last few years as we're able to come, and this ironically might be why some people dislike the film. Despite the popular image of Van Gogh as an expressionistic, even manic, personality, he was, the evidence suggests, a pensive, inflexible man who exuded an oppressive seriousness. No matter how much you like his paintings, now, he probably wasn't a person whose company you would have enjoyed, then.
Movie Review: Intelligent and intimate in a stunning dvd format
Summary: 5 Stars
The intimacy and intensity between the van Gogh brothers is that of lovers. You don't need to be physical to share the deepest emotions and relationship. My interest with Vincent began only after I read his letters to Theo. The brilliance of his art only caught fire after reading the intimate letters between these two brothers. Van Gogh's true genius and his deep and dark introspect and intelligence is revealed in these letters.
The performances of this well written script are directed toward a more mature and sophisticated audience. You feel the grit, humanness and frustrations both Vincent and Theo shared. Vincent's visits to Hell and the brothels reveal something of both the man and the artist. I can't imagine a more authentic portrayal.
Theo's frustration and love for his brother were electric. I have never seen more sparks between two people on the screen. Having read the letters, having read a couple biographies, and having come to appreciate van Gogh's work, I find this stunning performance and dvd a wonderful documentation on one of Humanity's great artists. Everyone involved deserves much praise.
Altman's documentary is also excellent. I highly recommend this dvd.
Movie Review: "Now I think I know what you tried to say to me....
Summary: 5 Stars
...How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they're not listening still.
Perhaps they never will... "
Don McLean "Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)
Robert Altman's "Vincent & Theo" (1990), is as beautiful, powerful, and disturbing as the life of a man who could create the richest, most exiting paintings, who could never paint from his imagination but only by what he saw. How he saw the world around him was extraordinary. The life of the artist was not glamorous, it was depressing and self-destructing but as a result of his Art, we all have became a little richer, happier (even if for a moment) and better.
Based on letters written by Vincent van Gogh to his art-dealer brother Theo, this is a wonderful cinematic biography, perhaps one of the best ever made about the life of a painter. Tim Roth was sensational and Robert Altman IS one of the greatest directors of all times. His film looks at us through Vincent's eyes, and for two hours we are in Vincent's world of madness and genius.