Loving Vincent: This Vincent van Gogh biopic is made using 12 oil paintings a second

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Eric Garcia

Washington Bureau Chief

Vincent van Gogh’s broad, oil brushstrokes convey a sense of movement - especially in paintings like A Starry Night - so much so that a team of artists and filmmakers are trying to actually bring them to life in a feature film.

Billed as ‘the first fully painted feature film in the world’, the truly staggering feat involves over 100 painters, all trained in van Gogh’s style.

The first trailer went online this week, and it’s really quite astonishing:

Directed by Polish painter and director Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman (Oscar winner for producing Peter and the Wolf), the experimental film has landed a stellar cast that includes Saoirse Ronan, Aidan Turner, Douglas Booth, Helen McCrory, Chris O'Dowd and Jerome Flynn.

Here's the synopsis from the creators:

'Loving Vincent is an investigation delving into the life and controversial death of Vincent Van Gogh, one of the world's most beloved painters, as told through his paintings and by the characters that inhabit them. The intrigue unfolds through interviews with the characters closest to Vincent and through dramatic reconstructions of the events leading up to his death.

'It features over 120 of Vincent Van Gogh's greatest paintings. The plot is drawn from the 800 letters written by the painter himself...Vincent wrote in his last letter: “Well, the truth is, we cannot speak other than by our paintings”, and that is what we are doing - letting his paintings tell the story of what the painter had inside his heart, and ultimately, what happened to him.'

It will be interesting to see whether the film can make its groundbreaking method and style work over a feature length, as - at least in the trailer - it’s a lot for the eyes to take in.

The film is currently looking for ‘high-level oil painters available for training and employment between January and August of 2016’ to work on the movie. You can apply here and support the project on Kickstarter.