REVIEW

Loving Vincent, Andover Film Club, Monday, 12 February

Loving Vincent’s artistic triumph over cinema imagines van Gogh’s oil paintings in a living world.

Overall, 125 artists worked tirelessly, painting the film frame by frame, in the signature style of the great artist.

Swirling visual imagery of stars in the night sky and carefully crafted brush strokes tells the biographical tale of Vincent van Gogh, set weeks after his death.

Joseph Roulin, a postman in Arles, tasks his son, Armand, to deliver a once lost letter from van Gogh to his brother, Theo. Armand soon discovers Theo has also died.

His mission however does not stop there.

He tasks himself to find out what truly happened to Vincent, following a hunch it may not be suicide after all.

Directors Kobiela and Welchman decided to carefully animate over filmed footage, casting the recognisable faces of Saoirse Ronan, Chris O’Dowd, and the rest of the actors into moving paintings. Van Gogh aficionados will recognise scenes and characters from his famous work., with recreated animated versions of 94 different paintings, with 31 additional paintings partially rendered.

Van Gogh’s tale was turbulent and lonely. His ever desperate drive to create may not have been appreciated in his lifetime but films like this prove that van Gogh will live on as a legend.

For more information about Andover Film Club or to find out what their next showing will be visit, andoverfilmclub.org