Been dying to see this since it came out 8 years ago....

I'm glad you hung in there, roo! 😁

I have the DVD of this, haven't viewed it in 5-6 years, and now feel inspired to give it a new viewing. Nice choice for perhaps this holiday long weekend!

By the way, I'm half of Polish descent and love that all the hand-painting of film frames done for this movie was done in Poland. Clearly was A LOT of painstaking and very time-consuming work. Poland is big on the arts and culture. In fact, the painstaking work of talented, highly-skilled artisans is precisely what this awesome current hit (in Poland) song (I regularly listen to international Polish radio station RMF) is about. If interested in knowing precisely what the lyrics of the song - which the title of translates to "Long Live Art!" - are saying, the Polish lyrics can be found beneath the video; simply copy/paste into Google Translate or the such.

It's been so long since I last watched this film that I must admit I no longer remember, at this late date, what its exact fictionalized and creative-license take on Vincent's latter real-life/death events is, and how it plays out. I mainly now just recall the gorgeous visuals, and who the included featured familiar (from popular past historically-set prestige British tv series or miniseries) actors are, and how they look, in costume, in this.

@rooprect said:

My only criticism, and I wonder if anyone else caught this, is that the story put a little too much emphasis on the since-debunked conspiracy theory that Vincent was shot by someone else. This movie really pushed that angle, and even at the end after our investigator finally interviews the doctor and seems to come to his senses, makes that one final dig by saying someone got away with murder.

That wild theory, first proposed in 2011 (so I guess it was the hot topic when they were writing & planning the film) was based entirely on guesswork, no witnesses or tangible evidence, and was roundly refuted by scholars & historians. Vincent’s own last words, a lucid admission of suicide and refusal to be medically treated, along with the most famous last words in the history of tortured suicidal artists, “the sadness will go on forever,” were downplayed as Vincent trying to protect some unnamed killer for reasons we can’t imagine. I thought that was lowkey insulting to the memory of Vincent and the unbearable pain of his existence.

Instead the conspiracy theorists allege that Vincent was magically cured of his lifelong depression & embracing life when, d’oh! someone shot him. The authors of the theory were probably just milking the 2010s conspiracy theory wave and found traction. Eventually in 2019, two years after this film was released, the actual gun was found, credibly dated, historically recognized as having been found in the field where Vincent killed himself (not in the barn or in the possession of the alleged killer), so history was set straight. Unfortunately it leaves a stain on this otherwise flawless film.

I remember all this from some years ago and I agree that, until otherwise proven, it was suicide, but I cannot find any indisputable proof that the gun that was found was really the one with which Van Gogh was shot. There are only articles using words like 'possible,' 'allegedly used,' and 'believed to'.

The alleged gun was not found in 2019, but in the 1960s. It was dated as having been buried between 50 t0 80 years before it was found. This was already known, as there was an exposition in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 2016 with the gun and information on how it was found. In 2019 the alleged gun was auctioned.

In this article the auction house claims that it is the real McCoy, and they point to several factors that support that.

This article doubts their claim.

L'insitut Van Gogh also has its doubts:

But the sale was hit by controversy on the eve of the auction as the Van Gogh Institute, which looks after the village inn where the artist spent his last days, condemned the sale.

"Nothing suggests that the remains (of the gun) are formally linked with the death of Van Gogh," it said in a statement, deploring the "commercialisation of a tragedy which deserves more respect".

While Art Auction, which sold the gun, said there is no way of being absolutely certain it is the fatal weapon, they insisted tests showed it has been in the ground for 75 years, which would fit.

A more in depth research article about the controversy:

“The Smoking Gun” Evidence in the Tragic Death of Vincent Van Gogh

Perhaps you have more information with details on the gun's origin that has been independently verified?

@genplant29 said:

Been dying to see this since it came out 8 years ago....

I'm glad you hung in there, roo! 😁

I have the DVD of this, haven't viewed it in 5-6 years, and now feel inspired to give it a new viewing. Nice choice for perhaps this holiday long weekend!

By the way, I'm half of Polish descent and love that all the hand-painting of film frames done for this movie was done in Poland. Clearly was A LOT of painstaking and very time-consuming work. Poland is big on the arts and culture. In fact, the painstaking work of talented, highly-skilled artisans is precisely what this awesome current hit (in Poland) song (I regularly listen to international Polish radio station RMF) is about. If interested in knowing precisely what the lyrics of the song - which the title of translates to "Long Live Art!" - are saying, the Polish lyrics can be found beneath the video; simply copy/paste into Google Translate or the such.

It's been so long since I last watched this film that I must admit I no longer remember, at this late date, what its exact fictionalized and creative-license take on Vincent's latter real-life/death events is, and how it plays out. I mainly now just recall the gorgeous visuals, and who the included featured familiar (from popular past historically-set prestige British tv series or miniseries) actors are, and how they look, in costume, in this.

Absolutely! The mystery is just a vehicle for the mind blowing visuals. I just watched the bonus Making Of documentary (since you have the DVD you oughta give it a look also) and it sunk in how much work went into this production. For each frame, an entire oil painting would be made and photographed; then to animate it, the artist would scrape off the paint of the moving object and repaint it, repeat, for some 66,000 frames. They had about 100 artists, which would make the workload around 660 frames per artist working for 4 years. The result is so amazing, I wouldn't care if they'd made a fictional story about Van Gogh the vampire hunter, it's worth the watch.

Polish cinema is batting 1000 for me! I've seen most of Kieślowski's films and loved every one, and recently I've seen 3 Polish films which I adored: Loving Vincent, Zimna wojna [Cold War], and Córki dancingu (The Lure). There's definitely a very artistic vibe in all of these movies, every scene is thoughtfully done as if every detail were meticulously planned. Music/dance figures in prominently, and locations as well as set design are always eye popping. I'd love to hear what you think about Córki dancingu because it was supposedly Poland's first musical and they had no template to follow, so they mixed every style.

That song & video you linked is really inspiring! I love the lyrics and the message follows essentially what Van Gogh also said, quoted in the movie, "What am I in the eyes of most people - a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person - somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then - even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart."

In other words, "Eviva l'arte" ✊

@wonder2wonder said:

@rooprect said:

My only criticism, and I wonder if anyone else caught this, is that the story put a little too much emphasis on the since-debunked conspiracy theory that Vincent was shot by someone else. This movie really pushed that angle, and even at the end after our investigator finally interviews the doctor and seems to come to his senses, makes that one final dig by saying someone got away with murder.

That wild theory, first proposed in 2011 (so I guess it was the hot topic when they were writing & planning the film) was based entirely on guesswork, no witnesses or tangible evidence, and was roundly refuted by scholars & historians. Vincent’s own last words, a lucid admission of suicide and refusal to be medically treated, along with the most famous last words in the history of tortured suicidal artists, “the sadness will go on forever,” were downplayed as Vincent trying to protect some unnamed killer for reasons we can’t imagine. I thought that was lowkey insulting to the memory of Vincent and the unbearable pain of his existence.

Instead the conspiracy theorists allege that Vincent was magically cured of his lifelong depression & embracing life when, d’oh! someone shot him. The authors of the theory were probably just milking the 2010s conspiracy theory wave and found traction. Eventually in 2019, two years after this film was released, the actual gun was found, credibly dated, historically recognized as having been found in the field where Vincent killed himself (not in the barn or in the possession of the alleged killer), so history was set straight. Unfortunately it leaves a stain on this otherwise flawless film.

I remember all this from some years ago and I agree that, until otherwise proven, it was suicide, but I cannot find any indisputable proof that the gun that was found was really the one with which Van Gogh was shot. There are only articles using words like 'possible,' 'allegedly used,' and 'believed to'.

The alleged gun was not found in 2019, but in the 1960s. It was dated as having been buried between 50 t0 80 years before it was found. This was already known, as there was an exposition in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 2016 with the gun and information on how it was found. In 2019 the alleged gun was auctioned.

In this article the auction house claims that it is the real McCoy, and they point to several factors that support that.

This article doubts their claim.

L'insitut Van Gogh also has its doubts:

But the sale was hit by controversy on the eve of the auction as the Van Gogh Institute, which looks after the village inn where the artist spent his last days, condemned the sale.

"Nothing suggests that the remains (of the gun) are formally linked with the death of Van Gogh," it said in a statement, deploring the "commercialisation of a tragedy which deserves more respect".

While Art Auction, which sold the gun, said there is no way of being absolutely certain it is the fatal weapon, they insisted tests showed it has been in the ground for 75 years, which would fit.

A more in depth research article about the controversy:

“The Smoking Gun” Evidence in the Tragic Death of Vincent Van Gogh

Perhaps you have more information with details on the gun's origin that has been independently verified?

Conspiracy theorists will always find some spurious way of disputing what's right in front of our eyes, but I go with facts and logical deduction, until proven otherwise through facts and logical deduction.

The gun was found in the field where Van Gogh said he shot himself, it's a 7mm Lefaucheux revolver which matches the caliber of the bullet removed from his body, and it was scientifically dated to the 1890s which was when he shot himself. The position of the trigger indicated that it had been fired prior to being dropped. The official Van Gogh museum endorsed & exhibited it as the real thing, so that's good enough for me--otherwise we need to start doubting if the Louvre is really showing the Mona Lisa or is it a fake? Conspiracy theorists have a yarn for that too, I'm sure. Something about a flat earth and Illuminati? ;)