Review of Edvard Munch (1974) by Ben G — 22 Jan 2008

Certainly one of the best movies ever made. The actors are brilliant, specially the one playing Munch who has as well an amazing physical resemblance with the original.

This is also the only film of fiction that convincingly portraits the creativity required to paint, miles away from Vincent drinks and suddenly he sees the sunflowers blue. The director is an artist himself and uses all the possibilities given by the TV camera. The light and in general the ambiance is unique (cold and inspiring).

Despite the fact that Watkins latter said he did not like this bit of his work, the editing is wonderful. It is fast and it tells its own story. It allows Watkins to deal with the childhood memories but in the mean time to escape the Freudian interpretations.

There would be many other aspects of the film to praise (costumes, how it deals with Munch's influences, ?) but let me just say one last thing: watch it and you'll never thanks Watkins enough to have made the pleasure last 3 hours.