"Vincent and Theo" starts out with a modern day auction of paintings by Vincent van Gogh going for a fortune, then fades to Vincent(Tim Roth), a struggling painter in his native Holland talking to his brother, Theo(Paul Rhys), an art dealer living in Paris. Vincent is barely surviving on what allowance his brother can
give to him. Even through all of this, Vincent shacks up with a prostitute/model, Sien(JIp Wijngaarden)."Vincent and Theo" is a biopic that aims to focus on the relationship between Vincent and Theo van Gogh but there is too little of that in the film.(What there is, is similar to that of a banker to a customer.) This approach puts too much emphasis on the none-too-interesting personal life of Theo. However, Tim Roth does give a great performance as the troubled painter but it is unsettling having the leads played by two British actors while most of the supporting characters are played by Dutch and French actors.The movie also seeks to take a more authentic approach to the life of Vincent van Gogh than previous movies might have.(I saw "Lust for Life" but too long ago to really comment on it.) In this movie, van Gogh is a painter who goes against the fashion of the day and takes more interest in real life than in still life.(For example, he paints Sien squatting over a chamber pot.) But it does not go far enough and simply comes off as stodgy.
July 11, 2006
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