it is maybe one of history's greatest ironies that Vincent Van Gogh died having sold only one painting during his lifetime. "At Eternity's Gate" (also the title of one of Van Gogh's last paintings in 1890) makes a compelling attempt at putting us in the mind of Vincent, and frequently seeing the scenes through his eyes. Or what director Julian Schnabel posits Van Gogh's first-person view of the world might have looked like (represented onscreen with a persistent yellow tint and fractured halfway down the frame). Schnabel's own roots as a painter himself give the film a more abstract take on the typical movie biopic. shots and cinematography, especially in the Arles countryside, are infused with the same impressionistic feel as Van Gogh's works.
Despite being 25 years older than Van Gogh at the time of his death, Willem Dafoe inhabits the spirit of the artist completely, not only the passion for his craft but also the madness and despair when contemporary society failed to respond to his vision (figuratively and literally) as expressed on the canvas. Schnabel seems to take a couple factual liberties with the details of Van Gogh's death -- it might not have been the suicide that history has assumed -- and a purported sketchbook unearthed in Arles in 2016, 126 years after Vincent's death. but the questions it poses about the nature of creativity and what price greatness? remain essential truths.
Despite being 25 years older than Van Gogh at the time of his death, Willem Dafoe inhabits the spirit of the artist completely, not only the passion for his craft but also the madness and despair when contemporary society failed to respond to his vision (figuratively and literally) as expressed on the canvas. Schnabel seems to take a couple factual liberties with the details of Van Gogh's death -- it might not have been the suicide that history has assumed -- and a purported sketchbook unearthed in Arles in 2016, 126 years after Vincent's death. but the questions it poses about the nature of creativity and what price greatness? remain essential truths.
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