Vincent & Theo
With Tim Roth, Paul Rhys, Adrian Brine.
Netherlands/UK/France/Italy/Germany, 1990, 35mm, color, 138 min.
Print source: HFA
Known for scene-scanning telephoto shots that seek to dissolve the traditional limitations of the frame, Altman might have seemed a counterintuitive filmmaker to take on a film about painting, which must always work within a static canvas. But Van Gogh, of course, is no ordinary painter. As portrayed by Tim Roth in the placid historical snapshot Vincent & Theo, Van Gogh's fatal frustration is his inability, despite a career-long knack for pictorially implying movement and spatial vibration, to get beyond the tyranny of the frame. If there's a generous streak within Altman's mournful, fatalistic period piece, it is in granting Van Gogh the pictorial totality that he never discovered as an artist. This director-to-subject commiseration would seem a natural byproduct of the fact that Altman, like Van Gogh, struggled consistently with the business world throughout his career, crafting work the only way he knew how. Vincent & Theo reminds us that while communities, business trends, and tastes are evolving entities, genius is a rare beast that, if not nurtured, spoils the one who holds it.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson
Vincent & Theo
Fool for Love
Prêt-à-porter
California Split
Thieves Like Us
A Perfect Couple
A Prairie Home Companion
O.C. and Stiggs
That Cold Day in the Park
Corn's-A-Poppin'
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
The Gingerbread Man
Dr. T and the Women
Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
