DisinterestedWisdom

I've seen this film now twice and the first time, I was bowled over. The second viewing hasn't held up as well because I think it's emotionally manipulative. As the narrative progresses, we find ourselves having less and less sympathy with the character of Alice, played by Shelly Winters. Dowdy, depressive and gloomy, she doesn't stand a chance next to the vivacious and beautiful Angela, played by Elizabeth Taylor. Even after she dies, it's as if the arc continues to focus on the loss of the two lovers - knowing that his fate is sealed - pretty much to the complete exclusion of the girl who lost her life. It's as if youth and beauty assume such paramount adoration that frumpy old Alice was actually disposable in the cause of idealized love. I find that quite disturbing, and while I was sucked in the first time, the second time I found myself much more circumspect about it - not least because it struck me as harboring a concealed misogyny about what kind of women matter, and what kind do not.

The cinematography in this film was stunning, but in terms of plot and especially the ending, it left me quite flat. I didn't like that Bruno's wife is scapegoated as the shrill, shrewish woman that she becomes. It seemed to me to be very stereotypical - as was the angle about Pietro 'going east' to find himself. That trope is very threadbare. The so-called friendship between the two men also tends to lack depth or intimacy, not least because they have zero in common. Bruno is dutiful and industrious, and Piero is a directionless flim-flam. It seemed to me that this film is less about a friendship, and more about Pietro's reflections on his life and mistakes. That I didn't really warm up to him made it difficult to identify with the arc of the film overall. The film's denouement also struck me as very weak and improbable. Bruno's ultimate surrender, was wishy-washy in a way that was dubious coming from such a strong-willed character, and lacked dramatic import. If being of the mountains teaches you anything, it's about persistence and fortitude, not disappearing into the ether when things get tough. So yes, a pretty film and one that builds you up, but ultimately pretty disappointing.

This is a film about someone, but most decidedly not the painter Vincent Van Gogh. At the center of the story is the romance - which never happened - between Van Gogh, and Gachet's daughter Marguerite. There's no extant evidence that such an affair ever occurred, and if I can be frank, I was pretty horrified to think, as I watched this film, that it may have. She would have been around 15, and Van Gogh's callous disregard for her was, to put it lightly, alarming. In many other respects, a watchable film as it is quite handsomely produced, it unfortunately maligns the character of the man, and misleads with unnecessary prurience, calling all of the other 'facts' into question.