This cinematic tour de force, about a postman enlisting his son to find Theo Van Gogh in 1891 and deliver Vincent's last letter to his brother, is the first 100% painted animated feature film, based on famous works of Vincent Van Gogh and executed by a team of 100+ artists over the course of five years. In addition to the marvelous images, it's a pretty good detective story as well.
The voice actors are somewhat recognizable in their painted versions, including Chris O'Dowd (last blogged for St. Vincent) as the Postman, Douglas Booth (first in these pages for Noah) as his son, Helen McCrory (in, but not blogged for, Their Finest) as the church-going Mme. Chevalier, Eleanor Tomlinson (covered in Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging) as the perpetually smiling Adeline, Saoirse Ronan (just seen in Lady Bird) as Marguerite Gachet at the piano, and Robert Gulaczyk (it's his second feature and I didn't see the first) as the tortured Vincent, among others. The dialogue is (almost entirely, as I recall three weeks after seeing it) in English with strong British or Irish accents though most of it takes place in France.
It was directed and written by Dorota Kobiela (directing her second feature, writing her first) and former puppeteer Hugh Welchman (wrote one feature, directed nothing before this) and co-written by Jack Dehnel (his first anything). Kobiela and Dehnel are Polish and Welchman is English. You can learn more at the movie's website.
Clint Mansell (last scored Noah) brings suspenseful, dark, and light music which can be streamed from this playlist. Over the end credits we hear Liane La Havas' cover of Starry Night, which Don McLean wrote about Vincent Van Gogh.
Playing on one screen once or twice a day in these parts, its DVD and blu-ray release is set for January 16, 2018. I'd like to see it again, just to freeze frame some of the paintings. Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are averaging 80 and 89%.
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