"Van Gogh. At eternity’s gate"

It is January 3rd when "Van Gogh. At eternity’s gate" is released in Italian cinemas; it is a film that tells of both the painting and the life of Van Gogh. It is directed by Julian Schnabel and the main actor is Willem Dafoe, who plays the role of the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh, and in order to succeed in doing this part, Dafoe has to learn to paint, understand how to approach the canvas, experience every style used by Van Gogh and even abandon every strategy.

It is therefore a film that documents the various processes faced by painters: inspiration, the necessary impulse, technique, exercise and then the abandonment of the exercise, things that you can hardly understand and see "live"; moreover, it allows you to familiarize yourself with a large number of paintings created by Van Gogh, since the film reproduces some of the most famous works of the artist:

- "Plum tree in bloom", 1887, a painting kept at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam;

- "The Garden of Kameido";

- "At the cafe: Agostina Segatori at Le Tambourin" - painting kept at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, it shows the owner of the Café le Tambourin in Paris, or Agostina Segatori;

- "Snowy Landscape", created in Provence in 1888 and kept today in New York, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum;

- "Shoes", a painting made in Arles in 1888 and currently kept at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York;

- "Oleander", a painting kept at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York that depicts oleanders, flowers associated by the artist with positive feelings;

- "Sunflowers" (1889), definitely one of Van Gogh's most famous paintings, it is painted using various shades of yellow, now in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam;

- "The Postman Joseph Roulin", a painting depicting a postman in service in Arles, where the artist lives for a period of his life - a work kept in Boston, at the Museum of Fine Arts;

- "The Starry Night", another priceless masterpiece by the Dutch artist, it is kept at the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York;

- "Self-portrait as a painter", a famous work by Vincent Van Gogh created between 1887 and 1888, on display at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam;

- "Doctor Paul Gachet", a work that portrays the doctor who was treating the artist, kept in Paris, at the Musée d'Orsay.

Well made, the film "Van Gogh. At eternity’s gate" deals with every phase of Vincent Van Gogh's life, it tells of the painter's impatience with the greyness of Paris, his move to Arles, where he paints several works, his troubles due to the pressing neurosis, his admission to the psychiatric hospital, the letters he exchanges with Gauguin, his brother's visits and much more.

In essence, it is a film that, in addition to talking about painting, deals with the inner torments of the Dutch artist, a film that has won an award at the Venice Film Festival, has won a nomination for the Oscars, a Golden Globes and a nomination for the Critics’ Choice Award, while in Italy the film has grossed 4 million euros.

Article by: Aurora Caraman