The breathtakingly beautiful movie "Beloved Van Gogh" was released to continuous praise. But why did the director choose these paintings? Do these characters have anything to do with Van Gogh? Is the story that happens in the movie real?
We talked in detail with director Hugh Welshman about the arduous process of shooting in the past 7 years, and compared with the plot and the historical facts studied by the director and his wife for many years, we took you to a comparative reading of film and real art.
After reading this article, and then brush "Beloved Van Gogh", you will have other gains!
Look up to Van Gogh
Wen Dongning
Dolotta Kobila, the female director of "Beloved Van Gogh," wrote a paper at the age of 15 on the relationship between mental illness and creativity, and Van Gogh is the case of her focus. She has painstakingly studied for decades, and it can be said that she fully understands the loneliness and depression in the painter's heart.
Later, she met her future husband, Hugh Welschman. Hugh is already a relatively mature animator, and his work "Peter and the Wolf" won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. The two hit it off and began the 7-year journey of filming "Beloved Van Gogh".
The film of 56,800 oil paintings has aroused countless nostalgia for Vincent van Gogh, the poor and great painter who is finally no longer just 38 hazy self-portraits. The shot of Van Gogh turning around makes many people can't help but cry.
In order to shoot the film, the two directors tried their best. Dolotta moved back and forth 21 times, and when funds were tight, she had to borrow money from relatives. This may be the charm of art. For van Gogh's gaze back, why not wait 7 years.
Van Gogh's letter to his brother
- Plot - In Beloved Van Gogh, Van Gogh's landlord discovers a letter that Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo and gives it to the old postman Joseph Rurin, who hopes that his son can return the letter to Theo. So the postman Armand embarked on a journey to deliver letters, where he met all kinds of people who participated in Van Gogh's life. After becoming acquainted with the painter, Armand began to explore the true cause of Van Gogh's death.
-Reality- When I first wanted to animate Van Gogh's paintings, the biggest challenge for the two directors was not to complete 56,800 oil paintings, but how to write the most moving story for Van Gogh's paintings.
The two men thought about it for a long time, until Hugh, who had been lining up in London for a full 3 and a half hours in order to admire the copy of Van Gogh's letters, suddenly thought of using the letter as a lead to tell the story of what happened in the last 6 weeks of Van Gogh's life.
Younger brother Theo van Gogh
- Plot - The recipient Armand is looking for in the film is Vincent Van Gogh's closest brother, Theo van Gogh. Theo also died six months after his brother's death. The postman could only hand the letter over to his widow.
- Reality - Van Gogh's letters from his lifetime are important evidence for exploring his life today. The Complete Letters of Van Gogh contains 902 letters, more than 650 of which were sent to his younger brother Theo. Theo was Van Gogh's closest family and friend, and he idolized his brother all his life, believing that he would achieve great things in the future. During Van Gogh's stay in the small french town of Arles, Theo would send 150 francs a month to support Van Gogh's paintings, and at the same time funded Gauguin, Bernard and other painters to help his brother form the ideal "painter's house" in the "Yellow House".
After the death of Vincent van Gogh, Theo frantically commemorated his brother, held art exhibitions, visited old friends, planned and published biographies, and behaved more and more like Vincent. It wasn't until 6 months later that Theo died in a psychiatric hospital. In 1914, after remarrying, Theo's wife moved his remains to Van Gogh's tomb, and compiled the correspondence between Van Gogh and Theo into a volume and published Dear Theo. Unfortunately, Van Gogh did not paint for Theo, only the above van gogh self-portrait, which some researchers believe is actually painted by Theo, and the color of the beard, the shape of the face and the shape of the ears on the picture are obviously different from Van Gogh. However, this view is still debatable.
The messenger, Armand Rurin
- Plot - Armand is the male protagonist of the film, who originally had no good feelings for Van Gogh, and his father persuaded him to send a letter. On the way, as Armand got infinitely closer to Van Gogh's life, his understanding of the painter also changed.
- Reality - When Van Gogh met the Rurin family in Arles, Armand was working as a blacksmith apprentice. He later joined the army and served in Tunisia, North Africa. Van Gogh used to paint many paintings for the elder Rurin and his family members. But there wasn't much communication with Armand.
Old postman Joseph Rufflin
- Plot - The film wants Armand to deliver the letter by the old postman Joseph Ruhring, a close friend of Van Gogh's life.
Van Gogh painted many portraits of Joseph Ruhring
- Reality - Between 1888 and 1889, Van Gogh lived in the "Yellow House" in Arles, which was also the peak of Van Gogh's creation. Joseph Ruhring's extended family gave Van Gogh some comfort at home. Until later, Gauguin moved into the "Yellow House", personality and artistic differences led to conflict between the two, van Gogh, who always liked to blame himself, took all the mistakes on himself, cut off his ears, and was sent to a mental hospital. In the end, it was the elder Rurin who took Van Gogh home.
Among the many portraits of the old postman, the Portrait of Joseph Ruhring was sold privately by Swiss collectors to the Museum of Modern Art in New York for $58 million.
A café under the stars
- Plot - The frame ratio of Beloved Van Gogh uses the "Academy Ratio", which is the film ratio that prevailed in Hollywood in the 1940s, 1.37:1. Van Gogh used frames of different sizes, and this film frame scale is closer to the frame scale that Van Gogh most often uses, which is why there are black masks on both sides when viewed on the screen.
- Reality - This "Café Under the Stars" is a famous painting by Van Gogh, and the café in the painting is a place that Van Gogh frequented in Arles. Dolotta and Hugh couldn't afford to make any changes to it, so they used a moving lens to show the audience the somewhat long masterpiece in its entirety.
Daddy Tangi, the owner of the painting shop
- Plot - Father Tange is a painting shop owner whom Van Gogh met while he was in Paris, and in Beloved Van Gogh he tells Armand the story between Van Gogh and his brother Theo.
-Reality- The real-life Tangi has a kind and gentle personality, allowing the painter to pay credit. Paintings of Pissarro, Cézanne and Gauguin often appeared in the shop, and of course, a painting by Van Gogh was also displayed in the window. Papa admired Van Gogh, who also attended his funeral after committing suicide.
The oriental elements in the background of Tang Ji's father that seem to conflict with the oil painting are Japanese ukiyo-e prints copied by Van Gogh. The popularity of oriental art at that time can often be felt in Van Gogh's paintings. Van Gogh also frequented Tangeri's shops to buy ukiyo-e.
Overnight café
- Plot - In the film, Armand sleeps in a café for one night, and the plot here is very reasonable, because this café is famous for its all-night business.
- Reality - This "Night Cafe" is famous and is currently in the collection of the Klemmüller Museum in the Netherlands. The café depicted in the painting is where Van Gogh lived before he moved into the Yellow House in Arles, open 24 hours a day, and this painting was the same painting that Van Gogh spent two all-nighters creating. Today, this Lancassan café still exists in the formal square in Arles, France.
Dr. Gachet's maid
- Plot- When Armand arrives in Orwell (the famous town of Van Gogh), he meets Dr. Gachet's maid, who is extremely disgusted with Van Gogh, and van Gogh's eccentric and depressed personality is conveyed by this lady.
- Reality - The image of the maid is based on the famous oil painting "The Peasant Woman before the Wheat", which is also one of Van Gogh's highest-selling works, and was acquired by Stephen Wynn, the owner of an American casino club and real estate company, for $47.5 million. It is not known whether this peasant woman hated Van Gogh as much as a maid during her lifetime.
Miss Margaret Gachet
-Plot- Miss Gachet admires Van Gogh in "Beloved Van Gogh" and is a confidant who can read Van Gogh's heart.
- Reality - Margaret Gachet at the Piano was composed between 1889 and 1890 when Van Gogh was living in Orville near Paris. The painting is 1 meter long and 50 centimeters wide, and its proportions are relatively rare in paintings. In order to better present the original effect of the work, the director imagined Van Gogh looking at Margaret from outside the house and painted a scene for her, so he used the door frame as a foreground.
This work is Van Gogh's proud work. He once mentioned in his letter that "it was a pleasure to make this portrait painting". As for Miss Gachet herself, she was not satisfied with the painting. She thought the green in the background was too strange. In reality, Miss Gachet was also wary of Van Gogh, and only helped Van Gogh model once.
Adeline Rau of The Rau Hostel
- Plot - Armand arrives in Orville and stays at the Rau Hotel where Van Gogh was staying at the time. Here, the eldest daughter of the Rao family describes to him Van Gogh's last days.
- Reality - Adeline Raou is the eldest daughter of the owner of the Rau Hotel, and Van Gogh died in the room of the Rau Hotel. Adeline was only 12 years old when Van Gogh painted for her, and the little girl was only 13 years old when Van Gogh died, so most of van Gogh's story was heard from her parents, and later she gave countless interviews, and the content about Van Gogh also began to appear inconsistent, inconsistent with the Gachet family's statement, making Van Gogh's story in this period of Orville more and more confusing.
The Rau Inn has also been run as a century-old shop, and of course it is now a tourist attraction.
Dr. Mussoorie
- Plot - After Asumão begins to suspect that Van Gogh did not die by suicide, he finds Dr. Mussoorie. The Doctor introduced another version of Vincent's death— manslaughter. Dr. Mussoorie believed that Van Gogh's wound was shot from a rare oblique angle, staying near the spine, making one wonder if the gun was shot into the body from a distance.
- Reality - This passage is based on "In the Chair" and was drawn by Van Gogh while undergoing psychiatric treatment at st. Remy's Lunatic Asylum. The old man in the picture is an unknown veteran living in a mental hospital. Using this image, the director leads to the conjecture that Van Gogh died of manslaughter.
The cunning son René Sackriton
- Plot - Many people suspect that René Sackriton killed Van Gogh by mistake. This idiot boy always teased Van Gogh in Orville.
- Reality - This "Boy in a Wide-Brimmed Hat" is speculated to be a sketch of René. René also wore a pistol while living in Orville. After Van Gogh's death, the family moved away.
René later became a successful banker and was interviewed about Van Gogh while he was alive. He did not personally admit to his manslaughter, and the truth of the matter is yet to be discussed.
Van Gogh's physician Paul Gachet
- Plot - At the end of the film, Dr. Paul Gachet finally makes a grand appearance. He was a contradiction in his own right, and his relationship with Van Gogh was controversial. He was Van Gogh's attending physician in the small town of Orville, a psychiatrist. He envied Van Gogh's talent and loved Van Gogh's works so much that he even copied them himself. He insisted that Van Gogh had given up his life and blamed himself for telling Van Gogh about Theo's syphilis, making Van Gogh realize that he was a drag on his brother and eventually lost the motivation to live.
- Reality - Dr. Gachet loved art and had a friendship with many Impressionists, and Pissarro and Cézanne were his guests. His personality is nervous and impulsive. Van Gogh's letters to Theo often mention Dr. Gachet, sometimes saying, "He's sicker than I am," and sometimes saying, "He's a veritable doctor whose profession and faith inspired him." ”
After Van Gogh shot the bullet into his body, Dr. Gachet consulted with a local veterinarian and chose conservative treatment - the conditions did not allow it, so nothing was done, allowing Van Gogh's life to disappear little by little.
Van Gogh created two portraits of Dr. Gachet, one of which (the other in the musée d'Orsay in Paris) sold for $82.5 million at Christie's in 1990 and was auctioned off by Ryohei Saito, the former president of Showa Paper in Japan, but after Saito's debt died, the painting disappeared from the international art market and remains unaccounted for. This painting is arguably Van Gogh's most valuable work.
Those places van Gogh visited
There are also many places where Van Gogh once traveled in the film, and in 1886, after studying painting at the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts in Belgium, Van Gogh went to Paris with Theo. La Moulin Rouge de La Garret is a corner of the Paris streetscape. The trip to Paris became a turning point in Van Gogh's art, and he came into contact with early Impressionist art and changed his original gloomy painting style. I also found that the only thing I loved deeply was color, brilliant, unmodified color.
The Bridge of the Anielsena was painted by Van Gogh while living with his brother in Paris. During the contemporary French art movement of 1887, he became acquainted with Toulouse Lautrec, Gauguin, Pissarro, Seurat and Cézanne, and attended gatherings of Impressionist painters, inspired by the changing color values of manet, Monet, and Renoir.
Van Gogh, who left his brother in 1888, began a new creation in Arles, starry night on the Rhône, showing night scenes on the Rhône in Arles.
He began to believe that the true value of the work lay in the honest expression of personal feelings, the incorporation of strong emotions into the painting, he said in a letter to Theo: "I am often delirious, unconscious of myself, and the picture comes to me like a dream." "Sunflowers was also created during this period.
In February 1889, Van Gogh had a second psychosis relapse. He painted in his studio during the day and was admitted to the hospital at night. Some residents of al city submitted an application asking the local government to quarantine Van Gogh. In May of the same year, Van Gogh fell ill for the third time, and he voluntarily came to Saint-Rémy, 25 kilometers from Arles.
The famous Starry Night (Starry Sky, aka Starry Night Sky) was created in May 1889 when Van Gogh was undergoing psychiatric treatment in Saint-Rémy. It was at this time that Van Gogh no longer emphasized the light and shadow of Impressionism, and began to integrate strong personal emotions and lean towards Expressionism. This painting is also one of Van Gogh's rare works that does not rely on direct observation of objects, but uses imaginary forms and colors to create an atmosphere based on imagination.
In 1890 Van Gogh moved to Orville for treatment by Dr. Gachet.
"Crows in the Wheat Field" is one of Van Gogh's several works before his death, and many people mistakenly believe that this is Van Gogh's last work, and even say that he committed suicide by drinking a bullet while painting this painting, but there is no evidence to support it. However, this painting was indeed painted in the same month that Van Gogh committed suicide, and the oppressive and harsh sky of the picture is easily reminiscent of Van Gogh's manic and fierce heart