The art of animated films does not cease to amaze. Certainly, much of the progress in the last quarter of century came from computer graphics and its derivatives, as the resolution and flexibility of the digital tools push the edge of innovation as far as the fantasy of the creators with it. Yet, there is room for novelty even by using more conventional means, and they can be up to the task of creating artistic emotion. ‘Loving Vincent‘ created by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman is the best proof .
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3262342
This is kind of post-biographical story and if you want also a possible crime investigation, as the story focuses on the last weeks of the life of Vincent van Gogh revealed through the eyes of the son of The Postman (one of the famous paintings of Vincent) who comes to the place of his death a couple of years later to deliver a last letter of the artist. By now almost everybody is familiar with the tragic destiny of the painter and there are no big news in the story, despite an apparent and not very convincing tentative of questioning the circumstances of van Gogh’s death. The interest of the film and its magnetic attraction lie someplace else.
The film in my opinion never intended to be a true detective story. It is actually the animation technique which transforms ‘Loving Vincent‘ into a memorable visual experience. The way the story is being told starts from the paintings, portraits and landscapes painted by van Gogh during his stays in Paris and Arles. We know many of them, but we have not seen them this way, as the paintings get life and turn into a manner of reflecting the world and the period the painter lived in through his eyes. The technique used is building each fragment frame by frame with the painters means, and the result is amazing. Each one of the frames is a work of art by itself, and the overall atmosphere is overwhelming. The film is about Vincent, about the people that surrounded him and the world he lived in. The magic lies not that much in the story but in the way it is being told. ‘Loving Vincent‘ is a true work of art and a declaration of love for the artist who signed Vincent.