Vincent: The Life and Death of Vincent Van Gogh

One of the most successful documentaries of the past 20 years, 1987's Vincent is writer-director Paul Cox's exquisite examination of the life and death of post-Impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh, who lived in obscurity and rose to posthumous acclaim as one of the greatest artists of the 19th century. Cox is a uniquely unconventional filmmaker, so it's only fitting that Vincent is not your typical documentary profile, combing autobiography, with actor John Hurt providing dramatically eloquent readings from Van Gogh's voluminous correspondence to his younger brother and beneficiary, Theo, over the years from 1872 until Vincent's suicide in 1890; a sumptuous visual survey of Van Gogh's art; and real-life recreations of the scenes (in Holland and France) that fired the artist's creative imagination, along with faithful recreations of settings and people featured in Van Gogh's greatest works. The cumulative effect of these elements is extraordinary: viewers get a complete sense of what Van Gogh was like, from his greatest joys to his deepest fears, as well as the psychological torment that would ultimately lead him to take his own life. Happily, Vincent is anything but dour or depressing, instead serving up an illuminating appreciation of life and art in all its tangled glory. Cox obviously felt a certain kindred spirit with his subject, and the 55-minute bonus feature documentary, A Journey with Paul Cox, bears this out. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (J. Shannon)