Loving Vincent is the world’s first fully painted feature using oils on canvas!
A team of total 125 classically trained professional artists created 65,000 frames that finally resulted into 853 different oil paintings, each of them hand-painted using Van Gogh’s iconic style and technique!
And the result is irresistibly disarming; watching your favourite Van Gogh masterpieces coming to life in front of your very eyes is more like a dream (that you didn’t know you always had in your subconscious) coming true!
The plot concerns with an unopened letter from Vincent Van Gogh (the artist’s final letter) for his brother Theo, that needs to be delivered by a not so keen young man named Armand Roulin. Armand finds his traveling to Auvers-sure-Oise for the sake of this one-year-old-letter utterly pointless since he soon comes to know that both Vincent and Theo are dead!
But then once arriving at the village where Van Gogh used to reside till his last day, knowing the place and the people, Armand becomes fascinated by the life and death of the troubled Dutch painter! Did he really shot himself as most of them are convinced or was he murdered?
Overall decent acting performances by Douglas Booth, Saorise Ronan, Jerome Flynn, Helen McCrory, Chris O’Dowd and Robert Gulaczyk(who played Van Gogh) but then honestly neither the actors nor the storyline of Loving Vincent will keep you engrossed till the end. What does is the remarkable dedication of directors Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman and their team who over a period of 10 years have managed to breathe life into some of the most popular paintings by the acclaimed impressionist of the 19th century!
Well complemented by Clint Mansell’s soulful music, 120 of Vincent Van Gogh’s finest works have been integrated into this amazing film!
Firstly the actors performed the whole movie in-front of the green-screen, their action turned into black outlines which was then projected into the artist’s painting-boards where they painted the full scenes using Van Gogh’s paintings as references. These paintings then photographed and put in-sequence, and then edited to create the final magic!
Probably the slowest form of film-making but I must say it certainly is the most satisfying visual experience ever!
My Verdict
My Ratings
5
If you are a fan of Cinema, a fan of Art, a fan of Van Gogh, or a combination of any of these three – you better go watch Loving Vincent.
