By Kholofelo Matlou & Valencia Legodi
On the 16th of January 2019 the bioscope cinema held the screening of the feature film, Loving Vincent, the World’s first fully painted feature film, based on the life of Vincent Van Gogh, a famous painter from the Netherlands, who was influential in figures in the Western history of art. He created about 2100 artworks, including 860 oil paintings. Written by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman.
The animated film brings his paintings to life to take you through his journey of life. It was shot as a live action film with actors and then hand painted frame-over-frame in oils. The actors in the film played Vincent’s famous portraits, painting animators and character into medium of paint.
The Screening of the film was attended by artists as well, who enjoyed the screening as much as we did, Joburgtv. Rey Yates who is an artist herself said that “I think it’s a wonderful way to express who Vincent was, because I didn’t really know who he was since he was in the artwork business for a short period”. She also adds that Van Gogh was a deep thinker and a deep feeler. Another artist Tracy Goddard, mentioned that as an artist she feels inspired to do more. She wants people to also feel inspired to do what they want regardless of what people say, which is what Vincent did as well. In his famous words “art is to console those who are broken by life and there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people”.
Loving Vincent has won 18 film awards, including “Best Animated Film” for the Alliance of Women Film Journalists in 2018 and the “Original Vision Award” from the Indiana Film Journalists Association in 2017. Without his paintings, this film would have been as good as