This is a captivating movie and Dafoe plays very well (Oscar nominee), but his casting was still not right. Dafoe is 63, yet Van Gogh was only 35-37 during that period.
Julian Schnabel's return to the world of art (after his Basquiat biopic from 1996) deals w/the struggles of Vincent Van Gogh, the great Dutch artist who was never considered thus during his lifetime. Using his brother Theo, as his agent & backer, this story revolves around Van Gogh's time in France as his painting output never slackened but whose notice from the common man is cursory at best & dismissive at worst.
It changed my standards of top movies... Masterpiece!!!
I've seen Kirk Douglas highly emotional rendition of Van gogh in " a Lust for life " also a great film. Until now it was the best.
There are different ways of approaching a biography when you are moving to the cinema. In the case of Vincent Van Gogh, he received a film full of feeling and intimacy.
A poetic film. Beautiful piece of art.
Normally I wouldn't go near a biographical recount of an artist's life, but I'm a big fan of Willem Dafoe, and the imagery looked amazing from the few clips I'd seen. Whilst story-wise this wasn't my favourite (as I anticipated), Dafoe's performance combined with the camera work and choreography makes this a good watch, elevating this film from a biopic to a true dramatic performance.
I enjoyed and was saddened by this movie. Willem Defoe did a superb acting job.
Willem Dafoe makes for an impassioned driven Van Gogh. Better in some ways than Kirk Douglas in Lust For Life, Dafoe deals more with Van Gogh's mental problems.
