Given the mythology that surrounds Van Gogh (or ‘Van Gog’ as he’s known here), Pialat’s decision to set the film in the last two months of his life, when he stayed at Auvers-sur-Oise, 20 km from Paris, is a bold one. Van Gogh is removed from one of his great sources of nourishment – the southern sun of Arles, and dramatic events such as his relationship with Gauguin, his fits and his stay at the St. Rémy asylum are behind him. Also, to all intents and purposes, Van Gogh appeared healthy in his last days, all of which allows Pialat to concentrate on the man. By turns timid, restless, irascible, amused and resigned, Jacques Dutronc’s portrayal is convincing.
Although he painted 70 canvases in the two months in Auvers, the film pays as scant attention to these as the villagers did at the time, to whom he was an eccentric who painted, and whose canvases were piled up on the floor in a dingy corner of an inn, where they were for the most part ignored. But if we see little of his paintings, Pialat performs a clever trick of making the surroundings look as if they are ready to be the subject of a canvas – as distinct from making them stiflingly picturesque. For a while too it’s as if the southern sun has travelled northwards, gilding the village.
Pialat has thoroughly researched the details of his subject – Dr. Gachet’s peacock, the praise of the critic Aurier, even the look of the people that we are familiar with through paintings or photographs – Gachet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Vincent and Theo, Theo’s wife Johanna. Sometimes the details he presents are subtle: the only canvas Van Gogh sold in his lifetime – ‘The Red Vineyard’ – makes an appearance, but only in the lines of a song sung at Vincent’s request in a brothel.
Director Maurice Pialat was himself a painter of renown. This is his compassionate tribute from a painter to a man.
A beautiful portrait of Vincent Van Gogh's last days that concentrates on the man instead of the myth and that has been widely acclaimed as the best film ever made about the artist. Dutronc won a Cesar Award for his portrayal of the painter, and with vivid scenes in brothels and cafes, village dances and pastoral panoramas, this unforgettable film confirmed Pialat as one of the great French directors.
Breathless (Godard, 1959)
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Van Gogh 
