Η ζωή ενός ανθρώπου

theriverjordan4.0

Kirk Douglas creates an impassioned portrait of a starving artist in “Lust for Life,” if not exactly in the image of the one he is meant to be portraying. That would be Dutch impressionist Vincent Van Gogh, perhaps the most known and loved painter of modern times, though most decidedly not the man Douglas is acting out in Vincente Minnelli’s biopic. Douglas’ interpretation of an artist driven to raving madness for want of love is more the actor’s own perception of Van Gogh’s legacy, rather than a direct performance of the man’s life. This makes “Lust” a curious sort of biopic; one that trades on ideas rather than aspects of factuality. This, though, is somewhat befitting of a work about an artist who exists as much in sentimental memory for his personal tragedy as he does for his paintings. This, too, is the choice of Minnelli’s film, which certainly pays homage to famous works by Van Gogh, but is rather more interested in the dramatics past the margins of their canvases. “Lust,” which inspired John Wayne to criticize Douglas for playing “a weak queer,” is notable for centering the relationship of Van Gogh and his contemporary Paul Gauguin. Played by Anthony Quinn, Gauguin becomes the one outlet for Van Gogh’s love and loneliness. As in historical record, there is no outright depiction of a homosexual relationship between the two, but it’s clear the duo existed on a plane of intense and exclusive emotional understanding. Modern scholars have hypothesized that it was perhaps even Gauguin who sliced off his friend’s ear in a heated emotional dispute, rather than the official story that the wound was self-inflicted. While Minnelli’s film predates this research, the idea would unquestionably fit in with the versions of Van Gogh and Gauguin seen here. Douglas is not acting as Van Gogh in Minelli’s “Lust,” but in refusing mimicry, he replaces this with a genuineness of emotion. The portrait is more of himself, in the style of Van Gogh, which makes “Lust” a sort of essential entry on the idea of one artist, as interpreted through another.

nora3.5

convinced that technicolor was invented just so van gogh’s paintings would look beautiful on film. wept a little when van gogh told gauguin that he painted the friendly sunflowers just for him. also loooove how modal rózsa’s score is!!! impressionism wasn’t just an era in visual art!!!

Carlos Valladares4.5

When Vincente Minnelli makes a movie about art, I sit up and listen. Playing Vincent Van Gogh, Kirk Douglas's anguish-pain-hysteria swirlingly evokes the brooding, pent-up rage of the Abstract Expressionists, the lonely avant-gardists, the romantics, the hubris-filled artists armed with such noble, radical insight into humanity and nature that their society shuns them, so overwhelming are the sun-like rays they emit. Theirs is a lonely and solemn path. They take on the tortures of emotion and make it more vivid, more lifelike than life, through art. A film of magnetic intensity, a film that transforms the way you look at a tree or a person in a purple sea. And yet, easy romanticizing of the artist's hermit-like destiny is avoided. As is the case with Minnelli's works, ambivalence creeps up behind every silver lining. Those final words of Van Gogh's will haunt my dreams. I'm still tearing up.