Loving Vincent is a fantastic achievement
An animated film that brings Van Gogh’s canvases dazzlingly to life
By Rick Bentley, Chicago Tribune Oct 13, 2017
Painter Vincent Van Gogh (voice of Robert Gulaczyk) in "Loving Vincent," an animated film in which each frame is a painting created in the style of the artist. (Good Deed Entertainment)
Dorota Kobiela has a deep passion for filmmaking and the works of Vincent van Gogh. She's brought those two loves together to create "Loving Vincent," the most visually stimulating feature film to be released in years.
The film is the result of what can happen when a director is inspired to look beyond the celluloid canvas to tell her story. To achieve this, Kobiela used a selection of van Gogh paintings as the basis of the visuals for the production, and through the work of hundreds of painters she created 65,000 hand-painted frames of film that wove seamlessly the moments from one van Gogh work to another. In the world of animation, van Gogh would be the film illustrator and the other artists the go-betweeners.
Each brush stroke by the army of artists is used to tell the story of what happened after van Gogh's death in 1890. The script is based on letters written by the artist and his brother, Theo, along with other documentation from that time. In the summer of 1891, Armand Roulin (Douglas Booth) is given a letter from Vincent by his father, Postman Joseph Roulin (Chris O'Dowd), to hand-deliver to Vincent's brother. During his trek, Roulin begins to get a clearer picture of van Gogh. And the more Roulin learns, the more he begins to question the reports that van Gogh committed suicide.
All of the characters are brought to life by a cast filmed in a green-screen environment. This allowed each painter to give the scene a look taken from one of van Gogh's works while still maintaining the integrity of the performance. Those familiar with van Gogh's work will be able to spot which paintings inspired which characters. Even the actors are painted into the scenes to make them look as if they come from van Gogh's world.
Scenes from the making of 'Loving Vincent'. Actors were filmed using green screen backdrops, as seen on top row; painted versions used in the film on bottom row.
And there were plenty of works by the Dutch painter to use, as in just over a decade he created approximately 2,100 artworks, including 860 oil paintings. His most famous works include "The Starry Night" and "Sunflowers."
"Loving Vincent" is a movie that shuns the conventional and embraces the original. Because it was put together in an unconventional manner, it requires the audience to reset its own calibration in regards to watching the film so that there's more of a willingness to accept this brave presentation. You could watch "Loving Vincent" without the sound and still be entertained by the visual spectacle.
There is a stunning flow to each scene as the artist took van Gogh's unique use of color, shape and texture and transformed it into a moving world. Water dances in those comma-like shapes and swirls that are almost a signature to a van Gogh painting, while backgrounds explode with very distinct hues.
There have been plenty of movies over the years that have had cinematography so beautiful that each frame looks like a piece of art. "Loving Vincent" takes that one step further, as each frame is a piece of art that brings a new kind of motion to the artist's work.
Douglas Booth is the voice of Armand Roulin in 'Loving Vincent', a film created with the help of more than 100 artists.
Watch: 'Loving Vincent' Official Trailer
Printer-friendly version
