REVIEW: Loving Vincent – The World’s First Oil Painted Feature Film!

The critically acclaimed animated Vincent van Gogh biography is coming to the Philippines and was the opening film of QCinema 2017. A perfect choice as the opener for such a prestigious film festival!

Loving Vincent is the first fully oil painted feature film is made out of  56,000 oil paintings! It also features the artist’s most famous works and 800 letters written by van Gogh himself. Loving Vincent is written & directed by Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman, produced by Poland’s BreakThru Films & UK’s Trademark Films.

“We filmed with live actors on green screen, we composited into the background of those shots, Van Gogh paintings. We cut it together like a live-action film but then we projected each frame individually onto canvas,” said producer Ivan Mactaggart.

The film’s story revolves around the mysterious death of Vincent van Gogh, and how it shaped the people around him. We also get a glimpse of Vincent’s life story. One of the world’s most influential and famous art figures in history!

Vincent Van Gogh‘s art and life have captivated the world for more than 120 years. The film brings the paintings of Vincent van Gogh to life to tell his remarkable story. Every one of the 65,000 frames of the film is an oil-painting hand-painted by 100+ professional oil-painters who travelled from all across the world to the Loving Vincent studios to make their mark in this once-in-a-lifetime production. As astounding as Vincent’s brilliant paintings, colorful paintings and ill-fated life, and mysterious death still leaves the world with many burning questions.

This film is seven years in the making! A long and arduous labor of love for the sake of art. The outcome of this extremely tedious animation process is exceptionally fluid and beautiful. The film’s animation technique combines rotoscoping—painting on top of each film frame—with elements of form and style from van Gogh’s most famous paintings. The beloved painter’s aesthetics brings this film to life as if it were van Gogh himself who did the animation!

In the world of digital art, it’s very easy to create feature films with today’s technology. But there’s always that beauty in traditional mediums that make this film unforgettable.

This film has also won numerous awards already. The Annency Audience Award 2017 & The Shanghai Film Festival‘s “Best Animated film”.

Loving Vincent is truly a visual masterpiece. Every frame is breathtakingly beautiful and gives justice to Vincent Van Gogh’s works. Definitely a must-see! This film will be a classic.

Loving Vincent will be in cinemas on  November 1, 2017. This film is distributed by Solar Pictures PH.