LOVING VINCENT - "Awe-Inspiring" (2017)

Tonight's mid-week culture injection is a 2017 Polish film made called "Loving Vincent!" It might just be the most beautiful movie I've ever seen that wasn't boring!

I seriously had no intentions of doing this, but because of a series of events, it just became destiny. We were going to see this movie last Friday at the local Fox Theatre, a classic old downtown venue! It was the first in a new film series they were having!

The movie was supposed to start at 7:30, so after downing a couple of Margaritas, we showed up at the movie house at 7:00, and snagged some nice seats in the front row of the balcony! They didn't start the show until 8:00 because they said there were still people in line. After an introduction, they started the show, but the DVD wouldn't play. It was pixelating, and breaking up, and starting over, so after about 10 minutes of that they said they would try and reboot the machine. 30 minutes later we were headed for the exit. Sadly, they never did get it to play, and gave the money back to whoever wanted it! They have now got their computer fixed and are going to try it again next month.

When we got back home, I looked on the internet and found out that the movie streamed on Amazon for $3.99, so we did some Vincent bingeing yesterday evening, a double feature of this and the Kirk Douglas film from 1956 called "Lust For Life." "Lust For Life" was a little more difficult to watch after watching "Loving Vincent," but I thought Kirk made a pretty decent Vincent! (Good name for a rock band, "Decent Vincent," and I don't think it's ever been used) I'll sell it for five bucks!

The basic premise is that about a year after Vincent's death, "The Man In The Yellow Jacket," Armand Roulin, has been deployed by his postmaster Father to deliver one last letter from Vincent to his brother Theo. Unfortunately, Theo has died from syphilis, so Armand is left to try and find somebody worthy to give the letter too. Armand had been painted by Vincent three times, and his Father respected him a lot, as Armand will learn to do too!

It took over one hundred artists and six years to create to 65,000 paintings needed to animate this movie all in the style of Vincent Van Gogh!

I don't think there's any way to gauge how much thought went into it! "Loving Vincent" is a true piece of art, just like it should be! How ironic in this day and age!

They say that even as a child, Vincent was fascinated by light. He reminded me a bit of Butch in the "Our Gang" comedies! The black and white sequences are all scenes from Vincent's earlier life.

Maybe you have to be a big Van Gogh fan to dig this, but I really don't think so, if you just give it a try! This shot is from an interview with the gentleman who sold Vincent his paint!

The stills I'm showing you are great, but it's pretty unbelievable when they're moving!

It's hard to believe that if Vincent had just even the slightest bit of success, his story would have been so much different, and a lot happier!

This flashback scene is complete despair! Theo Van Gogh supported his brother almost his whole life, and tried desperately to sell his paintings! To see Vincent dying lost and alone is just sad!

 Vincent Van Gogh created 8000 paintings in eight years!

But Vincent sold only one painting in his lifetime!

I can only hope that all the artists that created these gorgeous canvases made more than Van Gogh!

I've always been a big fan of the work of Vincent Van Gogh, but I must admit, I didn't know or remember much about his actual life, so that made this film that much better. Armand has gone to the site where Vincent shot himself, because just like Kennedy, there's something about the story that sounds fishy!

There's another Doctor in town who has a different theory about Van Gogh's death, but he can't really get anybody to listen to him until Armand shows up!

The Doctor gets down on the ground to prove his theories, that number one, from the angle of the wound, a man couldn't shoot himself in the stomach like that, and if he could get his hand that low and all contorted around, a wound from that distance would be much larger, and that the killer had to be at least five or six feet away! Now I don't know if that's all cock n' bull or not, but it makes for a good story!

If you get a chance to see this marvelous film, do yourself a favor, and take the time to do it! I promise you will not regret it one bit, unless you have to wait an hour and a half and it doesn't come on!

The story of Vincent Van Gogh is amazing any way you look at it, but when you realize the man lived in poverty his whole life, but his heirs must be living better than kings and queens, it's pretty strange!

Van Gogh paintings regularly sell for over 80 million dollars each, and "Starry Night" is worth about 100 million! I think it's the world that is crazy, not Vincent Van Gogh, and here's more proof! "Loving Vincent" is rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements, some violence, sexual material and smoking! That's not only crazy, it's down right sinful and insane! One of the most beautiful and historical cinematic wonders of the century, and they can't even show it in the schools because there's smoking! The ratings people should be ashamed of themselves!