Van Gogh

Anna Benson Gyles – 1990 – England

 

Feature-length episode of the BBC’s Omnibus program starring Linus Roache as  Vincent Van Gogh and serves as a very interesting counterpoint to a simultaneous Van Gogh production the same year, Robert Altman’s theatrical feature Vincent and Theo starring Tim Roth.  The style here is radically different from the more well-known Altman film; much more fragmented and playful, reminiscent of Richard Lester’s early work and Ken Russell’s series of biographical films about artists (also for the BBC) in the late 60s.  It’s filled with surreal anachronisms, breaches of the fourth wall, and leaps backward and forward in time.  The production values are commensurate with an anthology TV series’ budget, of course, making it a ragtag cousin to the sumptuous Vincent and Theo, but it undoubtedly has its own strengths, not the least of which is the remarkable, manic performance of Roache.  Veering wildly from moments of righteous passion as a devout Christian to bouts of lonely insanity as a starving bohemian, he beautifully captures the range of Vincent’s frantic existence as he gradually discovers his genius for painting.