“At Eternity’s Gate” The Final Years of Vincent Van Gogh

By Wynter Aiken | Published by September 18, 2019

The troubled final years of Vincent Van Gogh, depicted in the emotional-driven film by actor Willem Dafoe, directed by Julian Schnabel, captivated viewers alike at Kean’s North Ave. Academic Building Auditorium on Sept. 15. 

The film opens with the scene of the immediate criticism from the spectator’s view of Van Gogh’s art. Van Gogh, an isolated man born with God’s gift of giving people a vision that many cannot understand in the form of paintings. Van Gogh is tested in not only his own faith in himself, but those around him. 

“His artistic vision is deep and profound and the many people Gogh surrounds himself with think he’s strange and makes him unwelcomed,” said 64-year-old moviegoer John Sanders, who is a huge fan of Dafoe and his films. “He is truly an artist with a passion for acceptance in normal society and just wants to share his being with those who he wishes would understand him.”

Van Gogh’s final years connect with artists who know what it’s like to have your art ridiculed and shamed for being different. Schnabel’s multiple scenes including the showing of how Gogh’s art is seen as out worldly with common usage of the words ugly and demented by the southern french villagers and surprisingly children was truly troubling to watch. 

“To see even school children mock Van Gogh was appalling, the teacher even encouraging them while Gogh was simply enjoying the scenic view while painting was sad and yet unsurprising because they can not understand nor see the beauty of one’s art,” said Renee Jones, a moviegoer who heard of the film showing via Kean’s twitter. 

Willem Dafoe’s portrayal of Vincent Van Gogh is gripping in a way that is emotional and raw. Gogh’s slow downfall to a psychological war with inner demons and life’s failures is a story that Schnabel brings to life just like Van Gogh brings life to his paintings. Dafoe’s Van Gogh connects with the natural world around him from taking a ragged old pair of boots to painting a colorful and bright reimage to painting a portrait of flowers that will never wilt and die. 

As Dafoe’s Van Gogh falls into an abyss of despair at his perceived failures in all areas of life to the point of voluntary asylum admission, his talent is shown in the creation of his greatest works in self-portraits and expressive images of sunflowers, night skies, and green nature-filled landscapes. Viewers are even able to see the complicated relationships that make Van Gogh who he is, including fellow artist Paul Gauguin, café owner and portrait subject Marie Ginoux, a judgemental doctor, and the local village priest. 

While an artist’s vision isn’t for everyone, that vision can hold beauty, passion, fear, anger, and most importantly, a love for art. 

“I put my heart and my soul into my work and have lost my mind in the process…I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.”-Vincent Van Gogh 

 

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