Starry Night. Sunflowers. Irises. Though the subjects of some of Vincent Van Gogh’s most famous works are classically beautiful and depicted with swirls of vibrant colors that render them near-mystical, the artist himself led a tortured life. His eventual suicide at age 37 was predated preceded by a life of poverty and mental illness.
Vincent Van Gogh has his struggles documented through his own works in Loving Vincent, a biographical film that is the first and only fully painted animation film in existence. Van Gogh’s paintings are brought to life by a team of 115 classically trained painters who created 65,000 individual frames for the film, though only around 1,000 survived the process and actually made it into the production. The film won the “Most Popular International Feature” award at the Vancouver International Film Festival (2017), was nominated for “Best Original Score” in the Hollywood Music in Media Awards 2017, and received the Golden Goblet for best Animation Film at the Shanghai International Film Festival.
Loving Vincent is bound to be a spectacular visionary journey through the life of one of the most influential painters in Western art. Tickets can be purchased on the Michigan Theater website. ($8 for students with ID).
