Money on reproductions of Van Gogh's masterpieces was saved by hiring art students to do them.
Originally designed to be a four-hour mini-series for the BBC. Robert Altman and writer Julian Mitchell were able to pare it down to two and a half hours by focusing on Van Gogh's last years.
The film was released in 1990, just as two other productions that had Vincent Van Gogh as a character: Akira Kurosawas Träume (1990) and Vincent und ich (1990). Also in 1990, Van Gogh's famous painting "Portrait of Dr. Paul Gachet" was sold by $83 million, becoming his most expensive work of all time.