Loving Vincent

The artist who painted for ten years only.

After a lapse in Lumiere visits lately, I went on almost the last day of 2017 to see Loving Vincent and was thrilled with the work of art I was privileged to witness. It is just gorgeous to behold; original and mesmerising. It is strictly speaking an animated biographical drama about the life, and more particularly, the tragic events leading up to the death of Vincent Van Gogh. It is the first fully painted animated film, and is an international co-production between Poland and the U.K.

It felt as if one was watching Van Gogh's paintings become alive; living cartoons in all his wondrous hues, the blues and greens, the yellows and oranges, all 

Auvers-sur-Oise where Van Gogh died.

  painted in his swirling, highly-personalised style AND on canvas. In fact, there are 65,000 frames painted by 125 painters, selected from hundreds of artist applicants, a process which deliberately excluded experienced animators. It is unique and a dazzling achievement which has already won plaudits and awards in its short exposure to audiences. It premiered the 2017 Annecy International Animated FilmFestival and was awarded Best Animated Feature Film Award in the 30th European Film Awards in Berlin. The creative  impetus for the film came from the duo who wrote and directed Loving Vincent;  Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman.

After the original idea had been mulled over, the logistics to future action were not simple. It took the couple four more years to develop the proper technique to achieve their unusual concept. Loving Vincent was shot as a live action film with actors, to begin with, then the directors recruited an army of artists to paint each frame in the style of the

The Keeper of the Inn where Van Gogh died.

Master. Of the 125 artists commissioned, the most working at any given time was 97. The team of up to 66 people worked in Gdansk at a studio near the film-makers’ home in northern Poland. Smaller groups of painters worked in western Poland, in Bratislav, and in Athens. To capture changing backgrounds, facial expressions and movement, each canvas was re-painted an average of 76 times. Between them, the artists executed a total of 65,000 frames in oil paint. Each second of the film equals 12 frames! Surprisingly, the directors said that this process went relatively smoothly. ‘Animation is about preparation and we spent a lot of time preparing’, said Welchman. 

The Old Man thatching the roof

Dr Gachet

A tiny section of the artists involved.

At the end of the shooting, the directors were left with 845 paintings, each depicting the last frame of each shot. While many artists took home a painting, several canvases were eventually for sale at prices between 1,200 and 9,500 dollars! The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam helped with research and both it, and the Musee d’Orsay plan to screen the film. The real Dr Gachet bequeathed 26 Van Gogh paintings to the Musee d’Orsay. He was the only man to buy from Van Gogh during his life and he bought one.