LOVING VINCENT
Directors: Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman
Cast: Douglas Booth, Chris O’Dowd, John Sessions, Helen McCrory, Eleanor Tomlinson, Aidan Turner, Saoirse Ronan, Jerome Flynn, Robert Gulaczyk
Rating: (M)
★★★★★ (out of five)
However, scholars have been unpicking the various narratives of van Gogh’s last days and have found plenty of things that do not add up. Loving Vincent (Rialto and Metro) is set a year after van Gogh’s death.
Van Gogh’s friend, the postmaster Roulin (Chris O’Dowd), has a letter for Vincent’s brother, Theo, that has been returned address unknown, so he sends his son Armand (Douglas Booth) to Paris to deliver it personally. Armand is not keen. He posed for one of van Gogh’s paintings but believes the artist was crazy. Still, he loves his father and sets off to Paris to do his bidding. Once there, he quickly learns that Theo, too, has died, thus leaving him with a letter from a dead man to a dead man.
It seems hopeless, but it is suggested he take the letter to the doctor who looked after van Gogh. So Armand heads to Auvers-sur-Oise, the place where van Gogh spent his final months. Ironically, the doctor is away in Paris, leaving Armand with a few days to fill in before he can hand over the letter and return to Arles. He spends his time asking people about van Gogh and how he died.
Armand’s clumsy detective work is absorbing but Loving Vincent is all about the incredible visuals as van Gogh’s paintings are brought to life.
