This 2006 documentary is one episode of an eight-part series where historian Simon Schama takes a look at famous painters and how they impacted art and society. There is also a book to accompany this series. This is beautifully shot with some gorgeous footage of where Van Gogh lived. I gets a bit Painted With Words at times, but is well worth the time. This is not a comprehensive documentary of his life (the whole ear thing is barely mentioned) but concentrates on how why he painted as he did.
Although I recommend this program, here are a couple of warnings:
There's swearing
Van Gogh is pronounced wrong
There is a disturbing scene of Vincent eating a tube of yellow paint
There's Simon Schama himself, who takes a little getting used to. He has a peculiar voice and a very drone-like way of speaking. However, he does have a droll sense of humor and has a great sense of why Van Gogh matters.
Vincent is played by British actor Andy Serkis (yes -- the same guy who did Gollum). I wonder what would happen if a Dutch actor was ever cast for a British documentary on Vincent. However, Serkis uses a lower class British accent, which certainly would have made a direct impact on the BBC audience. He uses a frantic energy and a steady determination which grows on you during the course of the show.
The most famous mentally ill artist in history was arguably Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890.) At the age of 37, Vincent staggered into the hotel he was staying over a café with a bullet wound in his abdomen. He was examined by a doctor. The bullet could not be removed without killing Vincent. He lingered for two days and died. He claimed he harmed himself and urged no one other than himself to be blamed for his death. It is possible that he was shot by a teenaged boy, but Vincent apparently wanted to die anyway.
Although the historical details in this very short independent film are debatable, I'm not highlighting it here for it's accuracy. It is a very good portrayal of someone who has decided to die. If you or someone you know has trouble understanding why anyone would want to kill themselves or want to die while relatively young, watch this. It gives a good view of why suicide can seem like a perfect solution and why preventing suicide can be so difficult.
(Because of a technical problem in Blogger, I cannot place the YouTube video directly into this blog post. Sorry!)
Some more videos on YouTube about Vincent Van Gogh include:
I lived just over five years in England and miss many things about it -- the great radio, the tea, the cheese and the telly. Channel 4 is the edgier channel and often showed controversial documentaries. I was living back in America when this one came out. The Yellow House (2007) is a dramatization of a book by the same name. It's not the most historically accurate film (according to the books about Vincent I've studied) but that's not the point. The point was to highlight and contrast the conflicting personalities of Paul Gauguin and Vincent Van Gogh.
The film is about one hour and 13 minutes long and has incredibly good background music. Pour a glass of your favorite wine (or tea, if you don't drink alcohol) and savor. John Simm plays an excellent Vincent with John Lynch as the obnoxious and thoroughly self-absorbed Paul Gauguin.
I was planning on doing a long post featuring all of Vincent Van Gogh's self-portraits. At the time, I only thought he'd done about 20 which still survived (at least one was destroyed during World War II.) And then I found out that DOZENS of Vincent's self-portraits have survived and realized that blog post was going to be the War and Peace of blog posts.
So I left it to the Studio of the South to put together a short YouTube video featuring some of the most famous of Vincent's self-portraits. One note -- "Self Portrait with Grey Felt Hat" (1887 -- he's wearing a pinkish suit against a greyish background) has some questions around it. Some art historians think that this is actually a portrait of Vincent's long-suffering brother Theo. Personally, I don't care who it's supposed to be of. I like it.)
It's a shame that a series like South Bank Show in America. This is a great 1990 documentary about making of Robert Altman's film Vincent and Theo (1990), of which bits and pieces of it pop up on YouTube. This seems to be the entire episode (which, for some reason, YouTube will not allow me to place the clip on this blog.)
It focuses on director Altman and his problems making a fictional movie about a beloved historical figure nd his long-suffering brother. Tim Roth (pictured) puts on a killer performance as Vincent.
Here's a quirky little film made by American water colorist and filmmaker Phil Savenick. Although he struggles with at least three different pronunciations of "Van Gogh" and incorrectly states that Vincent shot himself in the heart, it's still a film worth seeing by art fans and frustrated artists like me. Savenick only goes to France (minus Paris) to where Vincent spent his final years. He also takes sunflower seeds back to his home. He believes the seeds are related to Van Gogh's sunflowers, but that seems about as accurate as the "shot through the heart" quip. The film also makes you wonder how Vincent managed to paint in the rain.
If you only get one book about Vincent Van Gogh, make it Van Gogh: His Life and Works in 500 Images by Michael Howard (Anness; 2010.) It's the most succinct look at Van Gogh's life, body of works and influences that I've ever come across. It also makes a great gift for any Van Gogh fan that wants a good collection of works.
Yes, there have been more detailed biographies on Van Gogh, but this isn't as exhausting, sensationalistic or skimpy as presented in other biographies. Since this is a heavy book, it's good that the pages keep on turning rather than having to wrestle with teeny-tiny print on huge pages (like Steven Naifeh's monster Van Gogh: The Life.)
The 500 images are not all Van Gogh works. They also include images of paintings and illustrators that inspired and influenced Van Gogh. It also includes works of Van Gogh's contemporaries, including Paul Gauguin.
This hardback coffee-table book is part of Anness' series on major artists which include a brief biography and an in-depth veiw of many of that artist's works. Other artists in the series include Cezzane, Renoir, Degas, Turner and Monet. There is also a book devoted to one of Van Gogh's biggest influences, Rembrandt.
This is a very short video (1 minute 14 seconds) put up by the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC of one of Vincent's many self-portraits. It focuses on seeing Vincent's brushstrokes and glops of paint in places which tell just as much about what type of person Vincent was as does his physical features.
The thing that touches me the most about Vincent's art is that you can see his brushstrokes. Those brushstrokes are the way Vincent achieves immortality. I don not believe in God or heaven, but I do believe in brushstrokes. Usually these are hidden or blended in so that the canvass looks like a photo -- even before the invention of cameras. By letting us see his brushstrokes, Vincent was letting us peek into the creative fires of an artist.
OK, this will be the weirdest Van Gogh documentary you will ever see, but if you get stoned on flu medication or have insomnia for a few days due to illness, then this is really trippy. This film centers on Vincent's time as a missionary to impoverished minors at the Borinage in Belgium. He was dismissed by his order for becoming as dirty and course as the local population.
As you will see, funding got cut off and production problems abounded, but the director was determined to finish the documentary. That explains why Van Gogh is in period dress walking around modern London as cars go whizzing by. This documentary did air on some European television channels. I found it at (where else?) YouTube. It's 53 minutes long and has a really good narrator. Enjoy!
From the YouTube description:
Long lost documentary which I found back some days ago. I made this in 2000 and due to an argument with the production company it never made (reached) any festivals. It is about Van Gogh's time he spend in Belgium desperately longing to step in his father's footsteps to become a vicar, knowing he was born to be an artist. The film was shown on Spanish, Italian, Maltese and Cypriotic television but has never been viewed in Belgium.
Director: klaus verscheure. Writer: Rene de Bok Editor: Jan Weynants Music: Frank Deruytter & Tony O'Malley
I wish I had a dollar for every time I've heard, "Oh, anyone can paint like him!" The him referred to being Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890.) If you think you can paint like Van Gogh, go right ahead and try. All power to you.
Of course, the odds of you being able to do it are slim to none.
This is proven is a half-hour documentary series called The Forger's Masterclass, hosted by convicted art forger John Myatt (who looks a little like Van Gogh). Myatt did porridge in Brixton Prison -- which is probably still nicer than Alcatraz ever was, but still an awful place. No, I've never been there, but during my years being homeless in the UK, I met several people who did.
Anyway, this is the third episode in the series, where Myatt tries to get three art students to balance both passion and control by having them paint their self-portraits in the style of Van Gogh's blue swirly hatless self-portrait from 1889.
Although some of the biography information about Vincent is questionable and the name is constantly mispronounced, it's still an eye-opening program. It was well worth 28 minutes of my life. Enjoy.
Not the best documentary on Van Gogh, but one of the most interesting because it was written and presented by actor, director and fine photographer Leonard Nimoy, who portrayed both Vincent and his brother Theo on stage. Nimoy does a very nice monologue near the end. Sometimes it is unintentionally funny (check out the chick in the 1970s haircut and lingerie) but a nice summation of the Van Gogh legend. This episode is from Season 4 (Jan 10, 1980), Episode 16. Enjoy.
