I see much of myself in Vincent van Gogh. Or, at the very least, in how he is portrayed in Vincente Minnelli's Lust for Life, a heartbreaking, rapturous celebration of life and love and art. Charting the Dutchman's days from his disastrous ministry in a poor mining town to his tumultuous co-habitation with Paul Gauguin in Arles to his eventual suicide in northern France, the film is a portrait of a tortured man driven by little more than his desire to express an undefinable something deep within his soul. Kirk Douglas has never been more raw and emotive than he was here as van Gogh. And, yes, I say that fully aware of the other performances contained within his illustrious career. Watch him cry alone in the background of a massive festival where everyone else is singing and dancing. Watch him knead his face like dough while experiencing a mental breakdown. Watch him become possessed by bright-eyed hopefulness when he thinks of Christ, his family, and above all, his work. Minnelli's experience with musicals must have helped him capture the larger-than-life emotions and outbursts that propel the film forward. Russell Harlan's cinematography has never been better. Look at the blue sky, the brown-yellow countryside, the green absinthe, the paints splashed across the canvases that line his rooms! The film features several passages wherein photos of van Gogh's works fill the entire screen, punctuating the brief moments in his life when he was allowed (and able) to devote himself entirely to his work. Though the film ends with his death, Lust for Life is an incredibly life-affirming experience. Van Gogh suffered, yes. But during his brief life he managed to achieve something that most people can only dream of; something transcendent and spiritual, holy and divine. His art gave him life. And he shared with the world nothing less than his very soul.
8/10
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