Gauguin

Some good moments in this story of Paul Gauguin and his Tahitian period, emphasizing his relationship with Tehura, but mostly I found the film overly self-indulgent, and narcissistic on the part of the film creators. I am a bit critical on the subject since Gauguin is my favorite Impressionist, more brilliant in my mind than Vincent. If it had been tighter, with less stream of consciousness and more emphasis on the narrative it would have been more effective. Paul Gauguin has been played by George Sanders (as "Strickland" in Maugham's The Moon and Sixpence) Anthony Quinn, David Carradine, and now Vincent Cassel. All good in their way, each capturing elements of the artist's personality. Surprisingly, of all the actors to play Gauguin David Carradine gives the best performance. Find it if you can in another so-so try at capturing this story, Gauguin the Savage.

This film fails in every possible way. Even the cinematography manages to flatten the lushness of Tahiti. But the story line is worse.

One has to wonder how and why it is near impossible for modern people to reconcile that Gauguin can be both a despicable pedophile and a great artist? I guess this is the fruit of ever decreasing interest in the classics, where literature for 3,000 years did not have the difficulty we have today in portraying real or archetypical legendary persons as both great personages and contemptible.

Consider that the entire film fails to mention, even once, this "wife" was 13 years old. That his relationship with her, and the natives, is a refection of his own selfish and predatory individual colonialism. Even his abandonment of his wife and children in France, attested to as abandonment in the sourced biographies, is inverted into them not wanting to come with him.

I thought this film, directed by Edouard Deluc, had its moments but with its very methodical pacing and depressive tone can be a difficult watch. Vincent Cassel gives a fine performance as the acclaimed artist Paul Gauguin, who unable to sell his paintings in France, leaves his family in Paris to find inspiration for his work on the island of Tahiti.

There he meets the Tahitian beauty Tehura (Tuhei Adams), who, while living together, begins to pose for Gauguin's paintings and sketches. However, despite the lush atmospherics of it all, Gauguin finds himself still impoverished, in failing health, and becoming more and possessive and selfish when it comes to young Tehura. The envisioned idyllic life is slipping away.

Overall, despite the powerful performances from Cassel and the debut of Adams, the movie to me just became mostly a slog, although, at times, it seems to come together nicely, but those moments are too few and far between. Thus, just a fair rating for me.

"Gauguin: Voyage to Tahiti" is a Biography - Drama movie in which we watch Paul Gauguin leaving from Paris in 1891 to go to Tahiti leaving behind his wife and his five children. He finds happiness in a young native girl and he continues his life.

I liked this movie because it was simple but not boring and followed the life of Paul Gauguin and it is based on true events. The interpretation of Vincent Cassel who played as Paul Gauguin was very good and he did his best to adapt on this role. Another interpretation that has to be mentioned was Tuheï Adams who played as Tehura. In conclusion, I have to say that "Gauguin: Voyage to Tahiti" is not a masterpiece and many things could be better and be presented with a little bit more information such as Paul Gauguin's life in Paris and how he was known there. This could help us understand his choices and his personality even better.

Paul Gauguin has had enough of married life, of France and of misery. In the hope of a healthier and more authentic life, the painter moves to Polynesia. An opportunity for him to develop his style and become an artist with an inimitable touch. There, he also falls in love with the beautiful Tehura. The earthly paradise seems within reach...

On the plus side, a very decent reconstruction of the period, beautiful views of Tahiti and Vincent Cassel's rough but intense interpretation. On the other hand, the watering down of the subject is pretty hard to swallow. The girls (not the girl) with whom Gauguin slept were under the minimum age allowed by the law (which is not the case of the pretty actress Tuhei Adams, eighteen at the the time of filming); as for the disease that struck the artist, it was syphilis, not diabetes. It is not by embellishing things that one captures the truth of a human being.