Anti-Criterion Challenge 2024 | 34/52 | Animated film from a country that is not the US or Japan
Auvers-sur-Oise, France, 1890
On Sunday, July 27, one Van Gogh, aged 37, Dutch painter staying at Auvers, shot himself with a revolver in the fields, but being only wounded, returned to his room, where he died two days later.Arles, France, 1891We cannot speak except by our paintings. — Van GoghSo, here's a movie that tries to do all the speaking for him. The camera pulls out of the east-facing window of Van Gogh's asylum room in Saint-Rémy, from which he painted Starry Night, morphing into the streets of Arles. Armand Roulin punches a man in the face on behalf of his father, Joseph, before entering Café de la Gare, the subject of The Night Café painting. A policeman inquires about the fight, learning that it was over "Crazy Red," a nickname given to Van Gogh. Armand dropped a letter in the scuffle, written to Theo van Gogh, Vincent's brother. Geno, Vincent's old landlord, found it among Vincent's things when clearing the place and gave it to Joseph. Joseph gave it to Armand to deliver to Theo. Joseph finds Vincent's suicide hard to believe and hopes that Armand can learn more about what happened. Armand isn't keen to deliver the letter, as the town had put together a petition to kick Vincent out of town, and his father didn't sign it, making the Roulin family pariahs. The subject of Vincent's painting, La Mousmé, vocalizes that she signed the painting. For some reason, the film turns the Japanese woman in the painting white — I guess because they hired a white actor and the painters didn't want to take "artistic liberties." Anyway, through flashbacks and investigation, Armand learns about Van Gogh's final days before his death. I saw The Peasants, the follow-up from these directors when it came out. Like this film, the gimmick is impressive. In both cases, it's apparent that the movie was filmed and made, and then artists rotoscoped over each frame. Here, at least, the artistic style centers the film (except for the flashbacks, which are in a similar representative style to The Peasants). While the story is equally slight, it has more intrigue at its center. (Even though the film takes wild liberties with Van Gogh's life, I would not trust any biographical information it relays.) I'm not saying, "Therefore, it's bad." I am saying that if the story cannot stand up without the style applied, then the style isn't worth much to me. Add to that the insult of a narrative so overwrought and overexplained that it makes one wonder what the filmmakers's interest in Van Gogh was in the first place if they cannot leave a single second to abstraction or interpretation.