It is one year after the death of the tormented Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. Armand Roulin, son of the postman Joseph, receives Vincent’s last letter from his father, which he must deliver to his brother Theo. And so begins a unique journey through Van Gogh’s life and work. Unique, because this is the first completely painted feature film. In which all the scenes are set in familiar places in Van Gogh’s paintings. When you’re a creative person yourself, you will be overwhelmed by the beauty of it and appreciate even more.
Frida Kahlo was a visual artist and political activist from Mexico. It was Salma Hayek’s personal project, herself Mexican, to get the biographical film about Frida off the ground. She co-produced the film and in the leading role she would finally be able to show all her acting talent. Frida starts out as a stubborn political student, suffers a serious traffic accident, becomes fascinated by the art of painting while rehabilitating and comes under the influence of the famous painter Diego Rivera. Later she finds her own way. Hayek shines in this film and it’s a powerful movie.
At the start of 1998, American writer Tracy Chevalier was staring at her seventeen-year-old poster of Ruben Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. Eight months later she published her view on the genesis of the famous painting. Director Peter Webber adapted this book to a wonderfully shot film in which servant Griet enraptured Ruben Vermeer that he had to immortalize her frail face, much to his wife’s dismay.
Gripping biopic about the British painter William Turner, who, according to this film, was a brilliant as he was disturbed by contact. Actor Timothy Spall plays the role of his life as the tormented painter, who sometimes feels so uncomfortable in company that he can only growl as with all of Mike Leigh’s films, he rehearsed for months before shooting began. The result is that all the characters are lifelike and “Mr. Turner” never feels like a stiff and boring costume drama.
During World War II, women in the US enjoyed unprecedented freedom. After the war they were constricted again in favor of family and children. “Mona Lisa Smile” is set in 1953 during the peak of the flattening emancipation. Julia Roberts plays a thirty-year-old, unmarried art history teacher who wants to wake up the exhausted girls at an elitist girls’ college in Massachusetts, to the annoyance of the school board. An eloquent sketch by Mike Newell, with powerful performance by women.
