With movies such as “Spiderman: a new universe” a push towards a more hand painted style in the animation industry could be felt. Arcane pushed the combination of hand painted looks of 3D animation even further. However, these styles are always in combination with computer animation. What if a movie is not only hand drawn but hand painted?
Loving Vincent is an animation film published 2017, written and directed by Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman. It is the first feature length painted movie. In 1 hour and 35 minutes all of the 66 960 frames are hand painted oil paintings created by 125 professional oil painters. As reference real actors and actresses were filmed in front of a green screen or sets designed to look close to the paintings.
As a concept for the movie 94 paintings of Vincent can Gogh were reimagined, reframed and strung together to create a story. For flashbacks photos of the time and van Gogh were added in a black and white to create a contrast to the colorful painting world.
Following the death of Vincent van Gogh Armand gets the task to deliver van Goghs final letter to some worthy recipient. While searching for the recipient Armand finds himself in a village with many people close to van Gogh or people who modeled for his paintings. Questions about van Goghs life as well as death were asked but left open for interpretation just like his paintings.
Loving Vincent is a special case in many aspects. The animation style is woven into the concept of the movie itself. It doesn’t just enhance the narration. It takes over the narration. The goal is to be sucked into the paintings of van Gogh, and the movie succeeds in it. Sometimes the style can be confusing and overloading due to the many moving brush strokes, however, it doesn’t take away from the impressiveness. It is an ode to van Goghs works and completely driven by the style. With a different approach the movie would lose a big part of the story. While not all viewers may understand all the references and nods given to the paintings, they will recognize van Goghs painting style even if they only know one painting of his. In a different style this connection may be lost.
Loving Vincent is not a typical movie about a famous figure. It does not feature the painter as the main character. It shows what he left behind with a new perspective.
