At Eternity's Gate

Audience Reviews

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Finn R Apr 27, 2019 Intense. captivating and thorough analysis of the artist's personality and art; Willem Dafoe's extraordinary performance makes it even more convincing. See more

Harry M Apr 24, 2019 I watched this film primarily because Willem Dafoe is one of my favorite actors of all time, up there with Henry Fonda and James Caan. He received an Academy Award nomination for his work in this film and so I expected one of those soulful but restrained Dafoe performances complete with those weird little idiosyncrasies he brings to each role that make them his own. Fortunately I wasn't disappointed by his performance, he was as flawless and exciting to watch as always but the film itself was also a really interesting piece of work considering Julian Schnabel's other biopic of an artist, Basquiat (1996), was not to my taste. This is a gorgeous portrait of a tortured artist that is not as slow-moving and ponderous as Vincent and Theo (1995) but isn't as abruptly succinct as Loving Vincent (2017). We see Vincent van Gogh, Willem Dafoe, living in the small French town of Arles in the years leading up to his mysterious death and he tackles his various mental problems and paints the legendary works he is now revered for. During this time he is consoled by his endlessly supportive brother Theo, Rupert Friend, and attempts to artistically collaborate with Paul Gauguin, Oscar Isaac, before isolating him with his different artistic sensibilities. His mental state eventually deteriorates to the point where he is unable to continuing painting and is taken to a mental hospital but not before â~Starry Night' and â~The Sunflowers' are completed. The sole reason to see this film is really Dafoe's performance as the picture is otherwise decent but unremarkable as an exploration of mental health issues and an artist's process, both themes explored better in many other films. Dafoe is significantly older than the character he plays but you leave that all behind as you watch him fully embody the figure he is playing without ever feeling like an impersonator. The hysteria and fear that existed in van Gogh is present in Dafoe's every movement but the unwavering brilliance and conviction is also there in the strong set of his jaw and his luminous eyes. When considering the fact that this fantastic performance lost to Rami Malek's dead in the eyes impersonation of Freddie Mercury in the abominable Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) the entire Academy voting body of actors should be ashamed. The film looks quite beautiful as the countryside is photographed the way van Gogh might have seen it, full of texture and bright colors. Warm candlelight makes the features of every actor from Emmanuelle Seigner to Oscar Isaac glow with a seemingly angelic beauty. There is the sense that van Gogh's attraction to Gauguin, whether romantically or artistically, supersedes his attraction to Seigner's character. When Gauguin leaves him he is depressed to the point that he chops off his ear and mails it to him, just one of the many theories surrounding the ear removal. This is one of the more emotionally dramatic moments in a film that's main character has a hissy fit in every second scene but it is made clear that this was a relationship that van Gogh treasured and Gauguin was one of the few people he ever felt close to even as they had disagreements or were rivals. I would say go buy this film to support independent cinema and to see one of the many incomparable Dafoe performances. It is important that films like this and not Darkest Hour (2017) and La La Land (2016) are produced as awards bait because this is actually of substance and contains some interesting relationship dynamics instead of being a box-ticking exercise in what voters are most likely to gravitate towards. Schnabel is not my favorite director but he has a large and passionate following and I can see why his visual style and attachment to flawed main characters would appeal to those looking for heavy independent cinema that satisfies the need for character study in this era of superhero flicks and gender-flipped reboots. I'm sure it's not as cheap as a Diane Keaton box set featuring Shoot the Moon (1982), And So It Goes (2014) and Book Club (2018) because that's available at my local bookshop but it's of a higher quality than your average biopic. See more

Theodore R Apr 18, 2019 Schnabel tries to translate tensions, anxieties, difficulties of van Gogh through the use of the camera, which should make us see reality with the eyes of the painter, as he saw it. The shots in subjective and backlight, shaky, crooked, blurred want to project us inside the life of man and the artist. But is this the real van Gogh? The person who emerges from his writings (diaries and letters) or from his works (paintings, sketches, portraits)? There is no trace of the furious, obsessive, delirious pictorial and existential whirling that has consigned him to history. Here it is replaced by a propensity for a (Christological) estaticity that may be present in his reflections but not in his art. To aggravate the result, the film relies too much on words, often resorting to long, pedantic explanatory dialogues. (Mauro Lanari) See more

Draco W Apr 11, 2019 So I passed up a couple opportunities to see this in theaters. Once because I knew that it was going to be streaming before the Oscars anyway. I honestly can't say I'm upset that I missed the theater going experience on this one! I'm okay with a slow paced film but this was more elike watching paint dry... (get it?) I think they easily could've cut an hour off and it would've improved the overall watchability. The casting was a good grouping but the subject matter made it more of a crawl. When the story was progressing, I was actually interested! I think I definitely appreciated Loving Vincent Las year a lot more! It probably helped because of the stylized aspect of it. See more

Theodore W Apr 10, 2019 Madman: "Are all painters crazy?" Vincent Van Gogh: "Only the great ones." I hate kids, but I love Dafoe and Gogh. 'At Eternity's Gate' is a flawed movie with questionable editing choices and a disjointed narrative, but I wish more biopics was presented as poetic as this, because this connected with me on a personal level. No words can explain that mysterious feeling. Willem Dafoe is so good it's jaw dropping. Dafoe lives and breathes as the melancholic painter Vincent Van Gogh. The intensity and humanity is felt, sometimes without words. The cinematography is impeccable with the use colors stripped from Vincent's paintings. Beautiful, still and often peaceful. The close ups and POV shots mix with hand-held camera would occasionally make me feel unease with a sense of claustrophobia, which I imagine an unstable person would experience. Not for everyone as I've already seen both sides, yet there's a lot to appreciate and admire. This is pure art, rather than a movie. See more

Han L Mar 31, 2019 I expected this to be a fairly straightforward docudrama on the life of van Gogh, but to my surprise it was a far more artistic and ethereal experience. For better and for worse. For the most part, this really works, and I really liked this approach to getting inside the mind of the troubled artist. Van Gogh in the film often talks about how he thinks the world is broken and he might be the only one who sees it right, so we see a very specific vision of the world from him and it creates a unique vision in the film that gives a unique style. However, there's times where this style goes a bit too far and gets a bit pretentious. Extended periods of weird audio loops of dialogue, or excessive shaky cam during quieter moments. I got what the intended effect was, but it was overkill and obnoxious. In general though, the vision works, and gives something more unique than a standard docudrama. I liked this unique look at a troubled artist. I also really liked seeing him have conversations with his peers about other artists and about his place in the art world as a new voice that seemed to mirror what modern artists of different forms say, but in a way that felt genuine and not hoky. It's a moody and unique film with a distinct vision. Not to mention Willem Dafoe gives it his all, when he puts on the overalls and the hat and walks through a field of flowers, he IS van Gogh. Sometimes the film is a bit much, but at least it's something. I liked it, more than I expected actually. See more

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At Eternity's Gate

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