Starry, Starry Night: Lust for Life

Lust for Life (1956)

A creditable little biopic that tells the life of Vincent Van Gogh as portrayed by Kirk Douglas, and shot by the visually astute director Vicente Minnelli. The movie suffers from a couple of deficiencies that will not alienate a real fan of the subject matter but should be mentioned for accuracy's sake.

First of all, Kirk Douglas looks just like the pictures I've seen of Van Gogh, but his performance does not convincingly portray the sensitive, tortured artist that we are told Van Gogh was. The role is simply beyond his range, even though he has the look down to a "T." I am a big fan of Kirk Douglas' and this was clearly an important project to him, but sensitive he is not.

Secondly, an exceptionally heavy-handed Miklos Rozsa score bombastically telegraphs every emotional moment. There is no subtlety or emotional coloration allowed to naturally develop without a blaring crescendo to underscore it.

Now, there is plenty to admire about Lust for Life, also. It's a BIG movie, full of the best of everything in terms of sets and locations, costuming, props, and so forth are deadly accurate. Vicente Minnelli was also the premier house director at MGM, indicating the importance of this project. The supporting cast is also superior, with Anthony Quinn portraying Van Gogh's contemporary Paul Gauguin. Gauguin was the artist who left and moved to Tahiti.

Quinn received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for what was a fairly minor part while Douglas, who hoped to get the Best Actor Oscar, was disappointed. The rest of the supporting cast is pretty much solid character actors like James Donald and Lionel Jefferies, and like most Hollywood films portraying non-English speaking people, the actors speak British English - except for Douglas and Quinn, who retain their "good ole" American accents.

The movie begins showing Vincent at work as a missionary in the coal mining region of Belgium - the Netherlands. Pretty much everything he turned his hand to failed so he moved home and concentrated on drawing and painting. Of course, this did not sit well with his parents, but he had a sympathetic brother, Theo (James Donald) who stuck by him through his entire tragic, shortened existence. Theo and Vincent kept up a lively written correspondence but the director made the odd choice of using James Donald's voice to read Vincent's letters. I think it would have been much more effective with Douglas' voice, especially as the voiceovers were illustrated with vignettes of Douglas.

The film is shot in beautifully lit Technicolor with plenty of colored floodlights to add emotion. Minnelli has a great eye for composition and used the 2.40:1 frame expertly. The widescreen version is truly superior to the old VHS cropped 4x3 television format.

The story is from the novel by Irving Stone and Minnelli deviated from the strict story to maintain interest and sympathy for Van Gogh, who according to what I've read was not a very sympathetic character. Still, the movie lasts just over two hours (2:02) which was a good long movie in 1956.

I recommend the movie, but the bombastic score really damages the credibility of the production and Kirk Douglas was not truly suited to the role, despite his heroic efforts. Three stars.

More artist biopics -

Toulouse Lautrec

Rembrandt