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Mathieu Almaric

At Eternity’s Gate – Van Gogh’s Calling

December 17, 2018 by Darrel Manson 1 Comment

“God is nature, and nature is beauty.”

The life of Vincent Van Gogh with all its spiritual and psychological challenges is well known. In At Heaven’s Gate, from artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel, we see scenes from his life—some based on his letters, some from legends, some (as Schnabel notes) “just plain invented”. It is not meant to be viewed as a straight biography. Rather it is an examination of what it means to be driven to produce art—especially art that is as personal and out of the ordinary as was Van Gogh’s.

The film covers many years of Van Gogh’s (Willem Dafoe) life, from his days in Paris, to Arles, and Saint-Rémy where he was hospitalized, and Auvers, where he died. Along the way we meet others in his circle: his brother Theo (Rupert Friend), Paul Gauguin (Oscar Issac), and some of the people immortalized in his paintings such as Joseph Roulin (Laurent Bateau) and Dr. Gachet (Mathieu Almaric).  But it is Van Gogh’s art and his making of the art that is more important than plot per se.

It is of import that Schnabel is himself a painter. His approach to the Van Gogh story includes a great deal of subjectivity. He tells the story as it has affected him. The scenes are often based in his reactions to Van Gogh’s works. And his concern for the need to make art is very evident in the way this story is told. Van Gogh often speaks in the film of how much he needs to paint. In one important scene while he is hospitalized, Van Gogh talks with a priest (Mads Mikkelsen) about his art and how he sees the world he paints. The priest thinks his work is ugly and offensive. But Van Gogh sees his vision and his talent as a gift from God. And asks the priest why God would give him a gift to show the ugliness of the world.

There is throughout the film a sense that for Van Gogh painting was in many ways a spiritual exercise. He has a deep connection to nature, immersing himself in the very soil of a field before starting to paint it. And in that connection to nature he feels a connection to God. He expands on this as he talks to the priest and brings in theological insight and scripture to expand on his ideas. (Van Gogh was the son of a pastor and at one time began to study for the ministry.) For Van Gogh in this film, painting is a calling to share his vision of God’s creation. For him that vision is about the beauty that God shares with us.

That conversation with the priest give me pause because there are times in the film that I react to Schnabel’s directing in much the same way the priest reacts to Van Gogh’s art. Some of the camera work and editing at times seem to work against watching the film. A case in point is the use of a lens for some shots that seems to be looking through bifocal glasses. It may be that he is trying to visualize the sense of madness going on in Van Gogh, but it was so off-putting for me that it made the film hard to watch and appreciate fully.

Photos courtesy of CBS Films

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: art, Julian Schnabel, Mads Mikkelsen, Mathieu Almaric, Oscar Isaac, Vincent Van Gogh, Willem Dafoe

My Golden Days – Trying to Be Good

March 18, 2016 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

My Golden Days is a prequel and a sequel (mostly prequel) to the 1996 film by director Arnaud Desplechin, My Sex Life…Or How I Got into an Argument. Matthieu Amalric reprises his role as Paul Dédalus during the sequel sections with Quentin Dolmaire playing the character during the flashbacks. Paul, who has been working as an anthropologist in Tajikistan is preparing to return home to Paris and reflects on his life in three sections. The first two are fairly brief, dealing with his childhood and his mother’s unstable mental condition; he is then a teenager who makes a trip to the Soviet Union and, in a bit of espionage, gives away his passport to allow a Soviet Jew to emigrate.

The bulk of the film is the third memory from Paul’s past about a time during his college years when he returns home and meets the girl that would be the great love of his life, Esther (Lou Roy-Lecollinet). Esther is the town beauty and seductress—in some ways perhaps out of Paul’s league. She knows that all the boys worship her, but she treats them with a haughty disdain. But Paul offers her something the others do not—he actually loves her for more than her body. Their relationship grows, but is bound to fall apart in the world of their friends and the betrayals of those who are still learning what it means to love.

The film is a coming-of-age story, but it looks at that concept through Paul’s attempts to be a good person—to his mother, to someone he doesn’t know, to a girl who he wants for his own. But just trying to be a good person does not always lead to happiness. For Paul, his attempts to do what is right sometimes have success, but they also meet failure—not always because of him. As he looks back later in life, those memories now reveal some of the successes and pains that have defined his life. We never know as we live through our lives those important moments. As Paul remembers earlier events, he now sees the ways they have formed him.

Photos courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: Arnaud Desplechin, coming-of-age, French, Lou Roy-Lecollinet, Mathieu Almaric, Quentin Dolmaire

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