Here's a great companion piece documentary by Paul Cox of Van Gogh's inner life, in the artist's own words, by way of letters to his brother Theo. Voiceover by John Hurt, who makes Van Gogh's words come to life.
From Roger Ebert's blog:
I have been corresponding with a dear friend, the wise and gentle Australian director Paul Cox. Our subject sometimes turns to death. In 1988 he made a luminous documentary named "Vincent: The Life and Death of Vincent van Gogh." Today Paul wrote me that in his Arles days, van Gogh called himself "a simple worshiper of the external Buddha." Paul told me that in those days, Vincent wrote:
Looking at the stars always makes me dream, as simply as I dream over the black dots representing towns and villages on a map. Why? I ask myself, shouldn't the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France? Just as we take a train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to reach a star. We cannot get to a star while we are alive any more than we can take the train when we are dead. So to me it seems possible that cholera, tuberculosis and cancer are the celestial means of locomotion. Just as steamboats, buses and railways are the terrestrial means. To die quietly of old age, would be to go there on foot.
Thank you, good Paul. I think that is a lovely thing to read, and a relief to find I will probably not have to go on foot. Or, as the little dog Milou says whenever Tintin proposes a journey, pas à pied, j'espère!
Technical Information:
Title: Vincent: The Life and Death of Vincent van Gogh
Year: 1987
Country: Australia
Director: Paul Cox
Source: DVD9 Retail
DVD Format: NTSC
Container: .iso + mds
Size: 7.07 GB
Length: 1:35:00
Programs used: DVD Decrypter, ImgBurn
Resolution: 720x480
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Video: MPEG2 @ ~4800 kb/s
Frame Rate: 29.97 fps
Audio: English- Dolby AC3 Stereo @ 224 kb/s
Subtitles: None
Menu: Yes
Video: Untouched
DVD Extras:
- Featurette: A Journey with Paul Cox
- Filmmaker biography
- Vincent van Gogh biography
Thanks to edgarb at Cinematik for the original upload!
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Vincent Megaupload Links