美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Loving Vincent' Paints Van Gogh Into A Murder Mystery

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A new movie looks at artist Vincent Van Gogh in a startling way. It uses thousands of oil paintings to create a unique form of animation 1 and a murder mystery. The film is called "Loving Vincent." NPR critic Bob Mondello says that when it comes to these filmmakers, it seems love knows no bounds.

BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE 2: It's 1891, a year after Vincent Van Gogh has died, and a postman still has an undelivered letter the artist wrote to his brother Theo. Delivering it will turn out to be tough, as the postman's son discovers when he tries.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LOVING VINCENT")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) I'm afraid you'll never deliver that letter to Theo Van Gogh.

DOUGLAS BOOTH: (As Armand Roulin) Oh, I see. Well, how come?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Six months after we buried Vincent, Theo was dead, too.

MONDELLO: That makes things more complicated, but the quest continues.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LOVING VINCENT")

BOOTH: (As Armand Roulin) There is this doctor who I believe is the person to entrust 3 the letter to.

MONDELLO: That would be the doctor who treated Vincent at an asylum 4. Arriving in Auvers, the postman's son finds plenty of folks who remember the artist, not always fondly.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LOVING VINCENT")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS #1: (As character) You're not going to stir things up again, are you? We've had quite enough weeping over that nutcase in this household.

MONDELLO: All of this is about what you'd expect of a film - in this case an animated 5 film - that means to make a mystery of Van Gogh's suicide.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LOVING VINCENT")

BOOTH: (As Armand Roulin) Why didn't he just pick up the gun and finish the job?

MONDELLO: But if you're picturing animation in the Disney drawn 6 or Pixar computerized senses of the word, you'll need to think again. In "Loving Vincent," it's as if the paint has leapt directly from Van Gogh's canvases to the screen and then started moving. The credits begin with what look like broad brush strokes being painted on glass, thick oil paint, blue-green swirls 7 and yellow smears 8 that gradually resolve into a familiar image - the moon glowing in the middle of one of Van Gogh's most famous canvases, "Starry 9 Night," surrounded by roiling 10 clouds and a slender cypress 11 tree on the left. There's a church spire 12 just to the right of the tree. And as the camera zooms 13 in, it turns out to be part of a town where we hear a fight break out.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LOVING VINCENT")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character, groaning).

MONDELLO: From "Starry Night" to fight night, a striking introduction to a film that is about to provide a tour through many of Van Gogh's most famous works - rooms in taverns 14, crows flying over wheat fields, portraits come to life talking a mile a minute.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LOVING VINCENT")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS #2: (As character) You could set your watch by him. Painting from 8 until 5, you'd think he was going off to a regular job.

MONDELLO: Directors Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman first shot their story as a live-action film with actors in costume on sets that look like specific Van Gogh paintings. You'll likely recognize many of them. Then the filmmakers employed more than a hundred artists to hand-paint each frame's image in oils, matching Van Gogh's style and brush strokes. Once a frame was painted it was photographed, and then the artist could create the next frame by painting over the parts that needed to move.

(SOUNDBITE OF CROWS CAWING)

MONDELLO: The effect is remarkable 15. Hand-painted animation turns out to be very different from hand-drawn, as in Disney films where lines merge 16 smoothly 17 as figures move. Here, water clots 18 and gushes 19. A quizzical expression flickers 20 into anger around the eyes. And when a mysterious figure zips through a garden, he leaves a physical imprint 21, thick oil impasto on the painted grass.

Altogether, some 65,000 oil paintings were created for "Loving Vincent," which speaks to the passion the filmmakers had for their subject. Their story isn't quite as compelling as their execution. But in the end, when images of the performers are juxtaposed with Van Gogh's original portraits and with the screen versions they inspired, you will marvel 22 at the art in this labor 23-intensive labor of love. I'm Bob Mondello.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STARRY STARRY NIGHT")

LIANNE LA HAVAS: (Singing) Starry, starry night.