Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

At Eternity's Gate Blu-ray Movie Review

Intermittent hankering for life?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 13, 2019

The universe evidently really thinks I should know about Vincent Van Gogh. Just a little over a year ago, I reviewed the absolutely amazing Loving Vincent, a film “built” out of a series of actual paintings (every frame in the film is a painting), but in prior years, I’ve also had offerings like Vincent and Theo and Van Gogh: The Films of Maurice Pialat: Volume 3 cross my review queue. Like what I’m sure is the case with many and maybe even most of you, I’ve also seen Lust for Life, a somewhat glossy but nonetheless often sumptuously beautiful account of Van Gogh’s life. “This year”’s Van Gogh offering is At Eternity’s Gate, a Van Gogh biography which, rather like both Loving Vincent and Vincent and Theo, concentrates on the waning days of the legendary artist’s tortured existence. While few would probably argue that those making all those prior films about Van Gogh were artists (literally in the case of Loving Vincent), At Eternity's Gate was co-written and directed by Julian Schnabel, himself a painter of some renown (his "plate paintings" made him the darling of the avant garde, at least for a while). Schnabel brings an unabashedly "arty" ethos to the film, which may in fact be a stumbling block for some viewers who would have preferred "the facts, and just the facts".

One of the things Loving Vincent kind of perhaps subliminally conveyed was Van Gogh’s arguable mental imbalance courtesy of images that are almost constantly in flux, given the structural conceit of each individual frame being a separate painting. As I mentioned in the Loving Vincent Blu-ray review, the presentational aspect of that film offered a world where even seemingly inert objects were filled with a near psychedelic vibrancy, suggesting a kind of pantheism that may well have contributed to Van Gogh being deemed insane.

Schnabel attempts to do something at least somewhat similar here, offering skewed perspectives and almost hallucinatory “point of view” shots that ably document the roiling psyche of Vincent Van Gogh (Willem Dafoe, Academy Award nominated for this performance). In other ways, though, Schnabel and co-screenwriters Louise Kugelberg and Jean-Claude Carriere offer a surprisingly rational and long winded Van Gogh, one who regularly engages in almost Socratic levels of philosophical dialecticism in a number of interchanges with people varying from his brother Theo (Rupert Friend) to Paul Gaugin (Oscar Isaac) to a priest (Mads Mikkelson) who kind of comically tries to point out to Van Gogh how ugly Van Gogh’s paintings are.

But it’s that very talkiness that may undercut some of the passion Schnabel seems intent on relaying. One of the things that many other depictions of this iconic character have offered has been a Van Gogh of nearly feral qualities, barely able to contain his rage and frequently displaying behavior that could charitably be termed neurotic, but might be more serious. Here, Dafoe’s Van Gogh does erupt from time to time (there’s a disturbing scene where he seems to be taunted by a teacher and children for no discernable reason where he goes a little nuts), but on the whole, this is a curiously reserved “madman”. Even in scenes where Dafoe’s Van Gogh more or less directly addresses the viewer (due to Schnabel’s framings) about “little” things like divorcing his ear from his head, things are strangely tamped down and unemotional.

There are some other stylistic peculiarities to At Eternity’s Gate that may take some getting used to. While Schnabel and cinematographer Benoit Delhomme craft a remarkably beautiful looking film, there’s a self consciousness to some of the imagery which may strike some as pretentious. Also of debatable efficacy is a sound design that lapses in and out of both French and English, seemingly at random (I tried to discern whether the language bifurcation was supposed to delineate between Van Gogh’s inner and outer worlds, but that hypothesis doesn’t stand up to how the languages are utilized in the film, so I’m personally at a loss to “explain” it).

What may strike some as being kind of ironically self defeating is At Eternity’s Gate relentless modernism. One would think that a progressive approach would perfectly suit an artist of Van Gogh’s visionary status, but from both the hand held “jiggly cam” ethos to some of the very 21st century performance choices (I’m looking at you, Oscar Isaac), At Eternity’s Gate is often a disjunctive viewing experience. There’s no denying Dafoe’s grace and grit as Van Gogh, and the very fact that he is so almost depressively tamped down a lot of the time makes this take on the character inherently fascinating, and manifestly different from other, more hyperbolic, depictions. But there’s little “lust for life” in this version, and instead despite its often ravishing beauty, it may come off to some as more of a slow slog.

At Eternity's Gate Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

At Eternity's Gate is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Digitally captured with RED cameras (at a source resolution of 8K), and finished at a 4K DI (all datapoints courtesy of the IMDb), this is a stunning looking transfer that offers consistently excellent detail levels and a nicely suffused palette, within the context that Schnabel and Delhomme intentionally tweak the imagery throughout, adjustments that definitely affect detail levels and the "naturalness" of the palette at times. There are a lot of oddly framed close-ups in the film, but even with things like sunlight glaring right at the lens, fine detail is often exceptional, revealing the interwoven fibers of Van Gogh's straw hat, or even the crags in Dafoe's weathered face. The texture of some of the canvas that Van Gogh paints on is also often virtually palpable, and even the thick paint that is applied to the canvas assumes a tactile aspect a lot of the time. The palette is generally natural looking a lot of the time, but things have been graded weirdly in a number of "POV" shots, and there is even a brief moment of black and white that suddenly bursts into splendorous color. As has been the case lately with some Lionsgate releases, I noticed just a hint of banding in some of the production mastheads and later in some brief transitions with rapidly changing amounts of light, but these were minor and transitory issues.

At Eternity's Gate Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

At Eternity's Gate features a nicely immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that makes the most of many outdoor scenes, where things like almost nonstop birdsong or the rustling of breezes in the trees make for excellent surround activity. Crowd scenes like an early pub sequence where Van Gogh spies Gauguin also use the side and rear channels effectively. Another stylistic conceit of the film is the kind of repetitive, quasi-minimalist piano score by Tatiana Livoskaya, a choice that frankly didn't resonate that well with me personally, but which at least sounds fine and "wobble" free in this rendition. Dialogue, in both English and French, is always rendered cleanly and clearly and without any problems.

At Eternity's Gate Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director Julian Schnabel and Co-Writer and Editor Louise Kugelberg. It should be noted that Schnabel introduces himself as the co-writer and co-editor of the film as well. I personally found Kugelberg's pretty heavy accent a bit difficult to decipher at times.


• Featurettes include:

  Made by a Painter (1080p; 2:37)

  
  

  Channeling Van Gogh (1080p; 2:16)

  
  

  Vision of Van Gogh (1080p; 2:09)

• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:35)

At Eternity's Gate Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In some ways, At Eternity's Gate gets "inside" Van Gogh in a more realistic manner than some other cinematic depictions of this artistic titan (Titian? — sorry), but perhaps because I've had to review so many other film versions of Van Gogh's life, this particular film just didn't fully connect with me. I found some of the screenplay to be almost willfully self indulgent, and in fact the entire film kind of comes off as a Schnabel vanity project. That said, when dealing with a talent of Schnabel's undeniable power, even a vanity project can have a lot to offer. Dafoe's performance is probably the chief asset here, along with the often ravishing cinematography, but my hunch is those wanting a more visceral recreation of Van Gogh's waning days might do better with one of the many other films about him. Technical merits are first rate, and with caveats noted, At Eternity's Gate comes Recommended.