Loving Vincent is a unique and beautiful animated film about the Life and art of Vincent van Gogh. We had the opportunity to have a video interview with Co-director of the film Dorota Kobiela.
LOVING VINCENT is the world’s first fully painted feature film. Written & directed by Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman, produced by Poland’s BreakThru Films & UK’s Trademark Films.
The film brings the paintings of Vincent van Gogh to life to tell his remarkable story. Every one of the 65,000 frames of the film is an oil-painting hand-painted by 125 professional oil-painters who travelled from all across the world to the Loving Vincent studios in Poland and Greece to be a part of the production. As remarkable as Vincent’s brilliant paintings, is his passionate and ill-fated life, and mysterious death.
No other artist has attracted more legends than Vincent van Gogh. Variously labelled a martyr, a lustful satyr, a madman, a genius and a layabout, the real Vincent is at once revealed in his letters, and obscured by myth and time. Vincent himself said in his last letter: ‘We cannot speak other than by our paintings’. We take him at his word and let the paintings tell the real story of Vincent van Gogh.
Loving Vincent was first shot as a live action film with actors, and then hand-painted over frame-by-frame in oils. The final effect is an interaction of the performance of the actors playing Vincent’s famous portraits, and the performance of the painting animators, bringing these characters into the medium of paint. Loving Vincent stars famous faces to match the famous paintings they portray:
• Douglas Booth (Jupiter Ascending, Noah) stars as Armand Roulin;• Eleanor Tomlinson (Poldark, Jack the Giant Slayer) is Adeline Ravoux;• Jerome Flynn (Game of Thrones) plays Doctor Gachet (the painting of which held the record for the highest priced painting for fourteen years, the longest time ever);• Saoirse Ronan (Oscar nominee for Brooklyn & Atonement) plays his daughter Marguerite Gachet;• Chris O’Dowd ( Bridesmaids, The IT Crowd) is Postman Joseph Roulin; • John Sessions (Filth, Gangs of New York) is Vincent’s paint supplier, Pere Tanguy; • Aidan Turner (The Hobbit, Poldark) is the Boatman from Vincent’s Bank of the Oise at Auvers painting;• Helen McCrory (Harry Potter) plays Louise Chevalier, house-keeper to Doctor Gachet;• and introducing theatre actor Robert Gulaczyk in his first film role as Vincent van Gogh.
MAIN CREW
Directed by: Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman
Producers: Hugh Welchman, Sean Bobbitt & Ivan Mactaggart
Executive Producers:David Parfitt & Laurie Ubben & Charlotte Ubben
Screenplay by:Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman
Cinematographers: Tristan Oliver & Lukasz Zal
Costumes: Dorota Roqueplo
Editors:Justyna Wierszynska & Dorota Kobiela
Head of Painting: Piotr Dominak
VFX Supervisor:Lukasz Mackiewicz
Compose: Clint Mansell
Head of Production:Tomek Wochniak