This is at least the third Vincent Van Gogh biopic I know of, and there’s at least two other major documentaries describing his life and times (plus a Doctor Who episode). What brings people back to examine his life again and again, and does Julien Schnabel’s film offer something new? Well, certainly it offers a very internal view of Vincent – the passion for painting that continued in the face of overwhelming rejection, the desire to capture the world and preserve it for generations to come. And that’s expressed through Willem Defoe’s performance in a pure expression of inspired rapture and artistic mania. But this tends to peak in individual scenes (in particular one with Mads Mikkelsen as a priest) rather than really working as an overall dramatic throughline – I don’t know that this entirely hangs together as an overall film. As a vehicle for Defoe, it’s a fine one, but this doesn’t entirely work as a dramatic presentation of its subject so much as a collection of moments that don’t quite pile up to enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment