At Eternity’s Gate-2018

Director Julian Schnabel

Starring Willem Dafoe

Scott’s Review #944

Reviewed October 9, 2019

Grade: B+

At Eternity’s Gate (2018) is a journey into the mind of one of the most tortured painters- Vincent van Gogh.

The film focuses only on the final years of the artist’s life and the events leading up to his death. Inventive direction by visionary Julian Schnabel creates an isolated and majestic world amid a feeling of being inside Van Gogh’s mind.

Though slow-moving, Willem Dafoe performs brilliantly, eliciting pathos from its viewers.

It is 1888, and Van Gogh is traveling to Paris to meet his good friend and fellow painter, Paul Gauguin (Oscar Isaac), an equally tortured individual. They share ideas and qualms about Paris life, and Gauguin convinces Van Gogh to travel to the south of France, while his brother Theo (Rupert Friend) resides in Paris.

Fluctuating scenes occur of Van Gogh’s relationship with a prostitute, a woman he meets on a country road and obsesses over, and his complex relationships with both Theo and Gauguin.

Dafoe, a legendary actor recognized for this role with an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, is one of the best components of At Eternity’s Gate.

He engulfs Van Gogh with a constant state of emotional exhaustion and dissatisfaction. As he becomes attached to Gauguin, who leaves him, Dafoe so eloquently emits his quiet depression, seeming to have nobody left. As he violently chops off his ear as a show of loyalty to Gauguin, the mental hospital awaits him.

Dafoe carries all these complex emotions with calm grace and dignity.

Schnabel, known chiefly for his groundbreaking Oscar-nominated work on The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007), has a beautiful technique. He provides even the darkest scenes with a lovely and sometimes dizzying camera effect and frequently adds scenes of blurred focus with close-ups of his characters.

As a painter himself, the result is a magical interpretation of colors and framed scenes. Many of his films focus on real-life studies, and the director made a great choice in Van Gogh.

The French landscape is lovely and culturally significant to the experience. The busy and robust Parisian lifestyle juxtaposes nicely against scenes of the lavish countryside, presumably north and south of the City of Light.

When Van Gogh quietly sits and paints numerous canvases of still objects—a bush or a tree—the flavorful colors stand out against the landscape and are bursting with natural beauty.

The cinematography is excellent.

The main detraction to At Eternity’s Gate is its slow or snail-paced pace. Although the film is only one hour and fifty-three minutes, it feels much longer.

Viewing the film on an international flight may or may not have influenced this note, but the story seems to drag on endlessly, though the beautiful aspects outweigh the boring scenes.

The mental health aspect and the encouragement Van Gogh receives to get better and heal seem a bit too modern a method for the late nineteenth century.

This may have been incorporated as an add-on to current and relevant issues to be exposed, but while inspiring, it does not seem to fit the film. This is a slight criticism I noticed.

Bordering on the art film genre, At Eternity’s Gate (2018) is a sad depiction of a disturbed man’s lonely existence creating art that would not be recognized as a genius until after his death.

It is a slow film that uses gorgeous camera shots and lovely snippets of Vincent van Gogh’s works to seem poetic.

The film is not for everyone and is not a mainstream Hollywood experience, but it is a quiet biography of one of the greats.

Oscar Nominations: Best Actor- Willem Dafoe