Lust for Life!

I am watching the film Lust for Life from 1956 with Kirk Douglas as Vincent van Gogh.
I had never bothered with it before because most films from before 1970 seem very fake to me. To my delight, this is not the case with this one. It is almost like being there. And all the locations and all the actors look just like we know them from Vincent's paintings.

Kirk is great as Vincent, the passion and excitability is so well caught.

And the film has many subtle touches. An example is when Vincent and Gauguin go and sit in a sidewalk cafe, they walk into the exact equivalent of one of Vincent's paintings, the angle and coposition and colors are exactly the same. And they don't show the painting to show off how clever they are, they leave it as a tidbit for those who know the paintings. Delightful.

When you get the DVD, do listen to the commentary, there are many interesting insights.
It is amazing how good the film looks on this DVD. You could imagine it was a new film. I know how much trouble they had restoring Star Wars, the film negatives had deteriorated so much! And this film is twenty years older, I wonder how they did it. And the budget must have been smaller than for Star Wars, a van Gogh bio film can't be a bestseller, I guess.

Also worth mention is the Iggy Pop album Lust for Life, perhaps his best. Iggy has admitted to me that he likes van Gogh. (Also hinted at by his song Starry Night.)

Now, I am thinking of a trip to Arles to photograph a little. If the light (softened by the clouds spread thin over the sky by the mistral winds) is so great for painting, it must be great for photos too.

I'm sure the summer heat would all but kill me, so it would have to be in the winter or early spring. But what month would have some color in the landscape and the best weather? If you are familiar with Arles/Province, please write to me.