Screened as part of NZIFF 2006

Van Gogh 1991

Directed by Maurice Pialat

Maurice Pialat’s 1991 portrait of Van Gogh’s last months eschews sensationalism for the director’s trademark realism. “Arguably the greatest biographical film about an artist ever made." — Sight & Sound

France In French with English subtitles
159 minutes 35mm

Director, Screenplay

Photography

Gilles Henry, Jacques Loiseleux, Emmanuel Machuel

Editor

Yann Dedet, Nathalie Hubert, Hélène Viard

Music

André Bernot, Jean-Marc Bouget, Jacques Dutronc, Philippe Reverdy

With

Jacques Dutronc, Alexandra London, Bernard Le Coq, Gérard Séty, Corinne Bourdo, Elsa Zylberstein

Elsewhere

Once seen, never forgotten, Pialat’s portrait of the last months in the life of Van Gogh has a miraculous limpidity. Its naturalism and its abundant sense of country life may leave you with the poignant feeling that, like so many of the characters in the film, you’ve been in the presence of a remarkable man without quite realising it at the time. The film is set largely in Auvers-sur-Oise, where the self-destructive artist (indelibly played with a lurking, willful passivity by Jacques Dutronc) comes to live in the sun under the patronage and medical care of the free-thinking Dr Gachet. Their relationship becomes strained when Van Gogh begins an affair with Gachet’s young daughter. Meanwhile, the artist’s already-troubled relationship with brother Théo deteriorates further. Pialat eschews the sensational staples of the Van Gogh story for the intimacy, objectivity, relentless realism and remarkable avoidance of sentimentality that are his hallmarks.

“Arguably the greatest biographical film about an artist ever made.” — David Thompson, Sight & Sound