At Eternity's Gate | |
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Directed by | Julian Schnabel |
Written by |
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Produced by | Jon Kilik |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Benoît Delhomme |
Edited by |
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Music by | Tatiana Lisovskaya |
Production companies |
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Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 110 minutes [1] |
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Box office | $11.5 million [2] |
At Eternity's Gate is a 2018 biographical drama film about the final years of painter Vincent van Gogh's life, including dramatizing the theory that van Gogh's death was caused by manslaughter rather than suicide.
The film is directed and co-edited by Julian Schnabel, from a screenplay by Schnabel, Jean-Claude Carrière and Louise Kugelberg. It stars Willem Dafoe as Van Gogh, Rupert Friend, Oscar Isaac, Mads Mikkelsen, Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner and Niels Arestrup. Principal photography took place in late 2017 over 38 days at various locations across France where van Gogh resided during his final years.
The film held its world premiere at the 75th Venice International Film Festival on September 3, 2018. The film was theatrically released in the United States on November 16, 2018, by CBS Films, before streaming on Netflix in France on February 15, 2019. It was released theatrically and through video-on-demand in the United Kingdom on March 29, 2019, by Curzon Artificial Eye. The film received generally positive reviews from critics; Dafoe's acting was widely acclaimed, and for his performance, Dafoe was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, among others, and won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the 75th Venice International Film Festival.
Vincent van Gogh seems to always be in artistic and emotional exhaustion. He is occasionally enraptured by his aesthetic responses to the landscapes around Arles; he renders them in oil on canvas or in a sketch pad using his own style of creating his work in a single, rapid sitting. When not in the countryside, he paints inside a yellow room in a yellow house. He begins to contemplate the fleeting nature of some subjects of still life. He also thinks about seasonal flowers and the artistic process which renders a permanent and eternal quality to the representation of flowers on canvas, which does not wilt and wither.
For a while, Vincent's preferred medium becomes a large sketchbook given to him by Madame Ginoux which he begins to fill with renderings of landscapes in pen and ink. He continues to ponder various philosophical and existential questions such as his desire "not to see a landscape but only the eternity behind it", and that "there cannot be such a thing as nature without there also being a meaning to nature". He wishes to devote increasing time to rendering the landscapes. A group of schoolchildren and their teacher mock Vincent and his work and he chases them away. The teacher and her students call him crazy as they run away in fear. On his walk home some boys throw rocks at him. When he chases the boys some townsmen subdue him and report him to the local psychiatric hospital. His brother Theo is called to Arles from Paris, who in turn convinces Paul Gauguin to agree to visit Vincent. Gauguin soon arrives in Arles.
Vincent is at first exhilarated by the presence of Gauguin, though things quickly sour. When Gauguin announces that he will soon depart, the news crushes Vincent. He then cuts off a piece of his ear to show Gauguin his artistic allegiance to his work, but Gauguin has already departed. Vincent then gives the piece of his cut ear to a Madame Ginoux's barkeeper, Gaby, who is horrified and reports him to the authorities. He is sent by Doctor Ray to a mental asylum in nearby Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. There, he has a conversation with a sympathetic, supervising priest about his art and the nature of God. The priest releases Vincent, who travels to Auvers-sur-Oise since the town authorities in Arles deny him permission to stay.
In his last months, Vincent returns to drawing and painting scenes and landscapes, now in Auvers. While painting in the courtyard of a deserted estate, two teenagers with their hunting weapons see him and begin playing at cowboys-and-Indians. During the horsing around disrupting Vincent's painting, a shot goes off. He is hit by the bullet, and the boys beg him not to tell anyone. The boys then bury Vincent's painting and throw their guns into a river while he returns to Auvers. Doctor Gachet is summoned and questions Vincent about the wound; Vincent states the wound is self-inflicted. Theo is called for from Paris, but finds his brother dead upon arrival. Theo organizes an open-casket funeral for Vincent surrounded by his paintings.
A closing onscreen text states that Vincent died in 1890 at the age of 37 from a bullet wound 30 hours after being shot. His completed sketchbook (a gift to Madame Ginoux) was not discovered until 126 years later in 2016. A mid-credits scene features a narration by Gauguin regarding Vincent's favorite color: yellow.
In May 2017, Schnabel announced that he would direct a film about the painter Vincent van Gogh, with Willem Dafoe cast in the role. For the film, Schnabel adapts Naifeh and Smith's theory that van Gogh died through the mischief of others rather than by suicide as the premise for the screenplay of the film. The film is dedicated to the Tunisian fashion designer Azzedine Alaïa. [3]
The film was written by Schnabel and French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière along with Schnabel's life partner Louise Kugelberg. [4] [5] In regards to the story, Schnabel said:
This is a film about painting and a painter and their relationship to infinity. It is told by a painter. It contains what I felt were essential moments in his life; this is not the official history – it's my version. One that I hope could make you closer to him. [6]
In 2011, authors Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith published a biography, Van Gogh: The Life, in which they challenged the conventional account of the artist's death. In the book, Naifeh and Smith argue that it was unlikely for van Gogh to have killed himself, noting the upbeat disposition of the paintings he created immediately preceding his death; furthermore, in private correspondence, van Gogh described suicide as sinful and immoral. The authors also question how van Gogh could have traveled the mile-long (about 2 km) distance between the wheat field and the inn after sustaining the fatal stomach wound, how van Gogh could have obtained a gun despite his well-known mental health problems, and why van Gogh's painting gear was never found by the police. [7]
Naifeh and Smith developed an alternative hypothesis in which van Gogh did not commit suicide, but rather was a possible victim of accidental manslaughter or foul play. [8] Naifeh and Smith point out that the bullet entered van Gogh's abdomen at an oblique angle, not straight as might be expected from a suicide. They claim that van Gogh was acquainted with the boys who may have shot him, one of whom was in the habit of wearing a cowboy suit, and had gone drinking with them. Naifeh said: "So you have a couple of teenagers who have a malfunctioning gun, you have a boy who likes to play cowboy, you have three people probably all of whom had too much to drink." Naifeh concluded that "accidental homicide" was "far more likely". [9] The authors contend that art historian John Rewald visited Auvers in the 1930s, and recorded the version of events that is widely believed. The authors postulate that after he was fatally wounded, van Gogh welcomed death and believed the boys had done him a favour, hence his widely quoted deathbed remark: "Do not accuse anyone... it is I who wanted to kill myself." [9] Schnabel adapts Naifeh and Smith's theory for the screenplay of the film. However most experts disagree with Naifeh and Smith's theory.
According to Éntertainment Weekly, "Dafoe immersed himself in the artist's life, learning to paint, reading his letters, and ultimately shooting on location in artistically recognizable landscapes". [10] Dafoe added, "You're not illustrating who you think van Gogh is; you're communing (with) his memory and what he's left behind... It all comes together in a swirl—a swirl of color, a swirl of light. It's not naturalistic representation. But it captures the spirit... [Van Gogh] thought art was a language; art was a way of seeing; art was a way of waking up." [10]
In an article for 'W' magazine, Dafoe further stated, "I painted in a movie called To Live and Die in L.A. , but it wasn't about painting—it was more about counterfeiting and killing people. In playing Vincent van Gogh, painting was the key to the character. I had to know what I was doing. The director, Julian Schnabel, would say, 'Hold the brush like a sword' and 'There's no such thing as a bad mark.' I began to think that painting is about making an accumulation of marks. Acting is the same: You create a character scene by scene. It's a series of marks that start a rhythm, and that rhythm sends you where you need to go." [11] It was noted that Dafoe was 62 at the time of filming, 25 years older than van Gogh when he died.
The film was shot over 38 days beginning in September 2017 on location in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône and Auvers-sur-Oise, France, all locations where van Gogh lived during his final years. [4]
The soundtrack for the film was composed by Tatiana Lisovskaya. The music is predominantly for solo piano in a minimalist classical tone with occasional accompaniment by solo instruments and string quartet. The soundtrack contains 16 tracks and was released in 2018. [12]
In May 2018, CBS Films acquired distribution rights to the film. [13] It had its world premiere at the 75th Venice International Film Festival on September 3, 2018. [14] [15] It was also screened at the New York Film Festival on October 12, 2018. [16] The film was released in the United States on November 16, 2018. [17] It was released for streaming on Netflix in France, beginning on February 15, 2019. [18] The film was released simultaneously in theaters and on-demand in the United Kingdom on March 29, 2019, by Curzon Artificial Eye. [19]
At Eternity's Gate was released on Digital HD on January 29, 2019, and on Blu-ray and DVD on February 12. [20] [21] Special features included an audio commentary with Julian Schnabel and Louise Kugelberg and three featurettes.
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 79% based on 192 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Led by mesmerizing work from Willem Dafoe in the central role, At Eternity's Gate intriguingly imagines Vincent Van Gogh's troubled final days." [22] Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [23]
Manohla Dargis writing for The New York Times gave the film a strong review stating that the film is, "a vivid, intensely affecting portrait of Vincent van Gogh toward the end of his life, the artist walks and walks. Head bowed, he looks like a man on a mission, though at other times he seems more like a man at prayer." [24] Adam Graham wrote, for the Detroit News : "Dafoe adds another masterful performance to his resume; his work here is as deep and as piercing as his performance in The Last Temptation of Christ more than 30 years ago." [25]
Year | Award | Category | Nominee | Result |
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2019 | Academy Awards | Best Actor | Willem Dafoe | Nominated |
Golden Globe Awards | Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama | Nominated | ||
Critics' Choice Awards | Best Actor | Nominated | ||
Satellite Awards | Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama | Won [26] | ||
2018 | Venice International Film Festival | Golden Lion | At Eternity's Gate | Nominated [27] [28] [29] |
Fondazione Mimmo Rotella Award | Willem Dafoe and Julian Schnabel | Won | ||
Green Drop Award | Won | |||
Volpi Cup for Best Actor | Willem Dafoe | Won |
Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life. His oeuvre includes landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and self-portraits, most of which are characterised by bold colours and dramatic brushwork that contributed to the rise of expressionism in modern art. Van Gogh's work was beginning to gain critical attention before he died from a self-inflicted gunshot at age 37. During his lifetime, only one of Van Gogh's paintings, The Red Vineyard, was sold.
Lust for Life is a 1956 American biographical film about the life of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, based on the 1934 novel of the same title by Irving Stone which was adapted for the screen by Norman Corwin.
Julian Schnabel is an American painter and filmmaker. In the 1980s, he received international attention for his "plate paintings"—with broken ceramic plates set onto large-scale paintings. Since the 1990s, he has been a proponent of independent arthouse cinema. Schnabel directed Before Night Falls, which became Javier Bardem's breakthrough Academy Award-nominated role, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which was nominated for four Academy Awards. For the latter, he won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Director and the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, as well as receiving nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director and the César Award for Best Director.
The Starry Night is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh, painted in June 1889. It depicts the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, just before sunrise, with the addition of an imaginary village. It has been in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1941, acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest. Widely regarded as Van Gogh's magnum opus, The Starry Night is one of the most recognizable paintings in Western art.
Theodorus van Gogh was a Dutch art dealer and the younger brother of Vincent van Gogh. Known as Theo, his support of his older brother's artistic ambitions and well-being allowed Vincent to devote himself entirely to painting. As an art dealer, Theo van Gogh played a crucial role in introducing contemporary French art to the public.
Fall of Leaves , or Falling Autumn Leaves is a pair of paintings by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. They were executed during the two months at the end of 1888 that his artist friend Paul Gauguin spent with him at The Yellow House in Arles, France.
L'Arlésienne, L'Arlésienne : Madame Ginoux, or Portrait of Madame Ginoux is the title given to a group of six similar paintings by Vincent van Gogh, painted in Arles, November 1888, and in Saint-Rémy, February 1890. L'Arlésienne means literally "the woman from Arles".
Paul-Ferdinand Gachet was a French physician most famous for treating the painter Vincent van Gogh during his last weeks in Auvers-sur-Oise. Gachet was a great supporter of artists and the Impressionist movement. He was an amateur painter, signing his works "Paul van Ryssel", referring to his birthplace: Rijsel is the Dutch name of Lille.
Vincent van Gogh lived during the Impressionist era. With the development of photography, painters and artists turned to conveying the feeling and ideas behind people, places, and things rather than trying to imitate their physical forms. Impressionist artists did this by emphasizing certain hues, using vigorous brushstrokes, and paying attention to highlighting. Vincent van Gogh implemented this ideology to pursue his goal of depicting his own feelings toward and involvement with his subjects. Van Gogh's portraiture focuses on color and brushstrokes to demonstrate their inner qualities and Van Gogh's own relationship with them.
This is a chronology of the artist Vincent van Gogh. It is based as far as possible on Van Gogh's correspondence. However, it has only been possible to construct the chronology by drawing on additional sources. Most of his letters are not dated and it was only in 1973 that a sufficient dating was established by Jan Hulsker, subsequently revised by Ronald Pickvance and marginally corrected by others. Many other relevant dates in the chronology derive from the biographies of his brother Theo, his uncle and godfather Cent, his friends Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, and others.
The fame of Vincent van Gogh began to spread in France and Belgium during the last year of his life, and in the years after his death in the Netherlands and Germany. His friendship with his younger brother Theo was documented in numerous letters they exchanged from August 1872 onwards. The letters were published in three volumes in 1914 by Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, Theo's widow, who also generously supported most of the early Van Gogh exhibitions with loans from the artist's estate. Publication of the letters helped spread the compelling mystique of Vincent van Gogh, the intense and dedicated painter who died young, throughout Europe and the rest of the world.
Les Arènes is a painting by Vincent van Gogh executed in Arles, in November or December 1888, during the period of time when Paul Gauguin was living with him in The Yellow House. The bullfight season in Arles that year started on Easter Sunday 1 April and ended on 21 October. Van Gogh's painting is therefore not a study of nature but done from memory. Gauguin encouraged van Gogh to work in the studio in this manner. The painting may not be finished as the paint is very thinly applied, and patches of bare jute show through in places.
This is a list that shows references made to the life and work of Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) in culture.
Hospital at Arles is the subject of two paintings that Vincent van Gogh made of the hospital in which he stayed in December 1888 and again in January 1889. The hospital is located in Arles in southern France. One of the paintings is of the central garden between four buildings titled Garden of the Hospital in Arles ; the other painting is of a ward within the hospital titled Ward of the Hospital in Arles. Van Gogh also painted Portrait of Dr. Félix Rey, a portrait of his physician while in the hospital.
Vincent van Gogh died in the early morning of 29 July, 1890 in his room at the Auberge Ravoux, in the French village of Auvers-sur-Oise, after presumably shooting himself two days earlier.
The Letters of Vincent van Gogh is a collection of 903 surviving letters written (820) or received (83) by Vincent van Gogh. More than 650 of these were from Vincent to his brother Theo. The collection also includes letters van Gogh wrote to his sister Wil and other relatives, as well as between artists such as Paul Gauguin, Anthon van Rappard, and Émile Bernard.
Road with Cypress and Star, also known as Country Road in Provence by Night, is an 1890 oil-on-canvas painting by Dutch post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. It is the last painting he made in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France. The painting is part of the large van Gogh collection of the Kröller-Müller Museum, located in the Hoge Veluwe National Park at Otterlo in the Netherlands.
Memory of the Garden at Etten (Ladies of Arles) is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh. It was executed in Arles around November 1888 and is in the collection of the Hermitage Museum. It was intended as decoration for his bedroom at the Yellow House.
Houses at Auvers is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh. It was created towards the end of May or beginning of June 1890, shortly after he had moved to Auvers-sur-Oise, a small town northwest of Paris, France.
The lost Arles sketchbook is a purported sketchbook of drawings by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh. The attribution of the drawings by the art historian Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov to Van Gogh has been disputed.