Review of Lust for Life (1956) by Art S — 04 Jun 2017

Kirk Douglas takes a star turn as Vincent Van Gogh and there's a whole lot of emoting going on. My viewing of this film was precipitated by a visit to an exhibition of Van Gogh's paintings (Van Gogh and the Seasons) here in Melbourne over the weekend.

Douglas looks like Van Gogh with the same haircut and beard (dyed red) but the energy and voice still seem his own. The film (directed by Vincente Minnelli) charts Van Gogh's adult life, from failed pastor in a mining town to painter with a growing amount of confidence (but no financial success).

He seems to use up the various places he stays in (The Hague, Arles, etc.), wearing out his welcome with his manic-depressive moods. His brother Theo provides constant support (financial and emotional) throughout Vincent's life but it still ends in tragedy (suicide).

The production was smart enough to obtain Van Gogh's actual paintings for shooting here and we see an assortment of them from the early days right on up to his late masterpieces (some which I had seen only days before, which gives you a strange kind of feeling).

They also shot on location in the real sites where Van Gogh painted (sometimes recreating the buildings and structures from his paintings). Overall, however, the film feels rather pedestrian, even as its subject is so extraordinary; it may be that the 1950s way of acting, not all that naturalistic, creates distance between the actors and their parts (including Anthony Quinn who won the Oscar as Gauguin).

Nevertheless, I have a greater sense of Van Gogh and his context today than I ever had before.