Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

Loving Vincent Blu-ray Movie Review

Lust for death?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 19, 2018

There have been a number of films through the years (ostensibly) about tortured genius Vincent Van Gogh, including such at least partially fictionalized (or perhaps more appropriately dramatized) productions like Vincente Minnelli’s glossy but undeniably gorgeous Lust for Life, Robert Altman’s somewhat grittier Vincent and Theo, the interesting Maurice Pialat offering Van Gogh: The Films of Maurice Pialat: Volume 3 (one which has certain similarities to the film currently under review, which will be discussed below), and Painted With Words, a British made for television film with some guy with the unusual name of Benedict Cumberbatch as Vincent. There have of course been documentaries as well, including the Australian Vincent: The Life and Death of Vincent van Gogh (another offering with a similar focus to Loving Vincent). I can state with some certainty, however, that there has never been a film about Van Gogh quite like Loving Vincent, and indeed there has never been a film about anything quite like Loving Vincent, one of the most ravishingly beautiful viewing experiences I’ve had lately (or maybe longer than lately), due to the incredible fact that each and every frame in this sumptuously beautiful piece was hand painted by a coterie of over one hundred artists. I had seen Loving Vincent pop up on my review queue, but hadn't yet really researched it, so I was kind of gobsmacked when a little snippet of it was played on the recent Golden Globes broadcast (Loving Vincent was nominated for, but didn't win, Best Animated Feature), and was frankly kind of stunned at the visual virtuosity on display. There have been a lot of analysts through the years attempting to figure out "what was wrong" with Vincent Van Gogh, but the perhaps pathological pantheism that Van Gogh seemed to experience has never been as (sorry for this pun) artfully presented as it is in Loving Vincent. Every frame of this film virtually scintillates with an almost atomic energy — stars don’t just twinkle, they vibrate, flowers and grass seem to have inborn intelligence (again, sorry for the pun) animating their existence, and there’s nary a corner of the frame that doesn’t bristle with some kind of activity. It’s a startling visual depiction of a mind perhaps shorn of those blinders Aldous Huxley discussed long ago in The Doors of Perception.

The commonality alluded to above with regard to this film and both the Pialat outing and The Life and Death of Vincent Van Gogh is what might be termed a kind of post mortem approach toward the artist, attempting to examine facets not just of Van Gogh’s troubled life but in fact focusing more resolutely on his death. In fact, Loving Vincent exists as a kind of exercise in hindsight, picking up a story seemingly only tangentially related to Van Gogh a year after his demise.

While perhaps not immediately obvious to those without a thorough knowledge of Van Gogh’s artistic output, the film’s “real story” actually begins with a family the artist repeatedly painted, the Roulins. In this perhaps fanciful formulation, one of the Roulins has been harboring the last letter Vincent wrote to his brother Theo, and attempts are being made to get it to the sibling. Armand Roulin, not exactly excited to have been tasked with this quest, ultimately discovers that Theo, too, has died. Perhaps against his will, Armand finds himself sucked into a kind of mystery as to why Van Gogh, who had reported himself to be calm and under control, had shot himself, something that led to his death a couple of days later.

What ensues is something of a murder (and/or suicide) mystery, with hints of Rashomon as Armand encounters various characters who interacted with Van Gogh before his death and who offer various perspectives on why he may have committed suicide (if indeed he did). But really the film attains its emotional power through interstitial flashbacks documenting various incidents in Vincent’s life and how his eccentric (and perhaps “certifiable”) behavior led to his ostracism, something which only further increased his despair.

While the narrative content is never less than compelling, it’s the sheer technical virtuosity of this hand painted achievement that simply overwhelms. This is one ravishingly beautiful film, and I have to say if I were voting for the Academy Awards this year, not only would Loving Vincent easily earn a nomination, I’d have it triumph over the expected winner Coco in the Best Animated Feature category.

Loving Vincent Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Loving Vincent is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cinedigm with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. I'm frankly kind of splitting the difference with my 3.0 score, since the only real issue with this transfer is some transitory if recurrent macroblocking that tends to show up in darker moments (see screenshots 18 and 19 for two examples). You can see splotches like that at several junctures, including as early as the opening credits, which are placed against a black (and now mottled) background (keep your eyed pointed toward the lower left side of the frame). However, long swaths of this transfer do not exhibit these anomalies, and so those with more tolerance for passing issues may well think this deserves at least a half point more, while those who think any modern day Blu-ray transfer should not have any such issues may well feel that my score is too generous and should be shorn of at least half a point. The palette is incredibly vivid throughout the presentation, and there's a palpable feeling to the "thick" texture of the paintings. The bitrates here are decidedly on the anemic side, but it should also be remembered that this is in Academy ratio, meaning that static black bars (no "bit hogs", as it were) accompany the frame where "the action" is. From my personal not all that humble perspective, the sheer audacity of this technical achievement deserves to be seen despite the less than optimal presentation.

Loving Vincent Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Loving Vincent features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that attains occasional immersion with elements like underscore or ambient environmental sounds, but which on the whole tends to be more narrowly focused, often featuring just one character speaking (quite frequently in voiceover). Fidelity is fine throughout, and there are no issues with distortion or dropouts.

Loving Vincent Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Making of Loving Vincent (1080p; 22:24) is a fascinating featurette which documents some of the techniques utilized to achieve this film's stunningly distinctive look.


• Walking Through Vincent's Neighborhood (1080p; 1:03) is a brief but (again) fascinating featurette showing how parts of Vincent's real life neighborhood made it into his paintings and, then, this film.


• Beginning the Animation (1080p; 4:43) shows some of the live action underpinnings that became the paintings.


• Creating the Props (1080p; 2:24) features Production Designer Matthew Button (no relation to Benjamin, and, yes, that's a joke).


• Interview with Douglas Booth (1080p; 13:42)


• Interview with Eleanor Tomlinson (1080p; 1:47)


• 3 Paintings in 1 (1080p; 1:12) shows how one brief scene in the film combines three different Van Gogh paintings.


• Trailer (1080p; 1:36)

Loving Vincent Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Cinedigm has had a kind of spotty history with its Blu-ray releases, and unfortunately Loving Vincent has some issues with its video presentation that may sway those on the fence about picking up this release. My personal advice is that the film is absolutely ravishing to watch despite its occasional lapses in this particular presentation. This disc also offers some really appealing supplements. With caveats duly noted, Loving Vincent comes Recommended.