Loving Vincent is an animated biopic film that describes the final days of Vincent Gogh’s life using hand paintings that depict his various circumstances. Numerous oil-painted frames are used to describe the themes of Gogh’s final days, and they fall out of living with mental illnesses, family, and the challenge of creativity in art. The film starts when a middle-aged man, Armand Roulin, is handed a letter by his father to deliver to Theo, a brother of Gogh, in Paris. Roulin is unwilling to undertake the mission since he does not like his father’s association with Vincent. He is informed of the deaths of Theo and Vincent by the painter Pere Tanguy. In the quest to understand Gogh’s death, Roulin explores the last places Gogh spent on earth, only to find more controversies than answers.
Armand is determined to find the truth about Vincent’s death for his father, and he investigates with the local police and a doctor. The more Armand inquired about Gogh’s death, the more he understood and appreciated the incredible life story of Gogh. After going to Vincent’s doctor, Roulin finds he is gone and decides to wait for him. During the time he awaits the doctor, the villagers feed him with theories of what made Vincent commit murder. Although he does not get a conclusive answer, the revelations he gets to change his perspective about Vincent.
It is important to note that the selected scene of interest takes place at 35:03 when Roulin finds a fisherman Aidan Tuner, and mise en scene is used in a multifaceted manner. Firstly, the scene is set when both are sitting in a boat in a river. Tuner is holding a fishing line as they are sitting in a boat (Kobiela & Welchman, 2017). Secondly, the image of water, boats, and a fishing line is used to connect the audience with the environment. Motion pictures are painted in a black and white run on and off the screen as Tuner narrates his encounters with Vincent. The pictures are used for flashbacks and create visual imagery in the audience’s minds. However, I find the varying timeframe formula consistently used in the film is too much, leading to a loss of momentum due to the stop and start of rhythm. Tuner is smoking using a bent smoking pipe in the scene as well as in the flashback pictures to indicate class. Smoking is also used to indicate shared attributes since Roulin is also smoking but a combustible cigarette.
Moreover, it would be useful to add that the coloration of the main scene is bright and calm at the same time, in accordance with the painting style of Van Gogh called impasto. The latter term refers to an oil paint with a core emphasis on thick consistency with a possibility to use acrylic with heavy gels added. These terms are vital to critically assess the scene since they are based on impasto style visual depiction. In the case of lighting, there is a sense of ambiguity or lack of direction of the sunlight since the characters are located outside. It is not evident where the source of light is, and shadows are either absent or imperceivable. The scenery itself uses nature and a boat as a background, but the characters are put at the center of the scene, and they usually occupy a significant portion of the overall frame.
The costumes are appropriate for the setting and time period, and they are simple in design. Both the boatman and the main character can be distinguished mostly by the coloration of their costumes rather than shapes or stylistic differences. I would argue that mise en scene is additionally designed to balance simplicity as well as complex diversity of colors. This is most evident in the selected river scene, where the characters look simpler than the background trees, bushes, and the beach. The intensity of the details of the background can sometimes supersede the complexity of the main characters.
Thirdly, the overall editing and sound are manipulated in the film to amplify the full effect of the narrative. First, the landscapes featured in the scene are rolling to create rich visuals. Soft guitar music plays in the background as Tuner narrates to Roulin to trigger emotions of grief. An efficient soundtrack enhances emotions that are embedded within the script. The soft tunes are combined with some birds and whirling water to connect the audience with the beauty of nature. As Turner tosses his line in the water, the sound effect can be heard to link the visual imagery with auditory information (Kobiela & Welchman, 2017). The film also maintains the camera focus on the speakers to match with audio information. Editing improves the relationship between the shots and the process used to combine them. Each frame of painting used in the scene is spatially edited to give the perfect size of characters displayed. Using cinematography, the painting animators could transform Gogh’s painting style into a live system.
Reference
Kobiela, D., & Welchman, H. (2017). Loving Vincent [Film]. Altitude Film Distribution. Web.